Oh WOW! My best suggestion would be to spend some time looking at all of the posts on this site. There are wonderful suggestions for all of those needs and much more. The best places to get supplies for things on here are either free places like freecycle or thrift stores. We make wonderful things out of other people's trash....good luck to you. I hope to see some pictures of what you do with your garden.

~Micki~

Buy a package or two of seeds and get them planted soon. Cheapest way to garden. Then just keep your eyes open, read ads in free papers and on bulletin boards, talk to like-minded people, use whatever you have stashed away, sell things you are not using and shop at yard sales for what you need.

Join your local garden club for gardening advice and often free plants.

Most importantly, compost your kitchen veggie waste - it's free fertilizer for your garden AND keeps stuff out of the landfill. If you don't know how, visit the Soil forum on GW. You can get free used coffee grounds from Starbucks or other coffee shops and they are good fertilizer for gardens and lawns.

To dress up the garden shed see if you can get free paint at a recycle center - you can paint a rainbow even if you are not talented. Or just one color will brighten it up.

Most of all, don't feel deprived, that's a mindset you can do without. You are as wealthy as you allow yourself to feel and you have a garden to work in and enjoy.

Many of the pricey perenials spread once they are planted, and lots REQUIRE division to stay healthy, so a small investment can be easily increased over the course of a few years. Don't hesitate to casually stop by a neighbor's (or stranger's) garden and compliment the owner on his or her beatiful flowers. When someone does that to me, my first inclination is to dig up a few babies for them to take home! Watch the curbs and recycling center in your neighborhood for items that can be used for planters or trellis's. Use your imagination! And Luckygal is right, SEEDS!!! Check out your local dollar store- my Dollar Tree has a wide variety of flower seeds for 10 for $1. (Black eyed Susan is a good one. It will reseed every year for you.) HAVE FUN!!

See if there is a garden club near you and consider joining. Lots of older gardeners have mature gardens and share plants (I do!) If hubby is laid off and is also a gardener they are usually thrilled to get men involved. Its fun to plant with a bunch of other people.
Freecycle, the dump and yard sales are good sources for non plant material. If you know what you want you can ask on freecycle.
To hide the metal shed, plant lovage and or hollyhocks! If you lived near me I'd give you some of each.
Here is a link to the inspiration album that Karen Purple moon made for us. There you will see lots of ideas to make garden art. Check out the Totems (see list on left) to see a way to use an old lamp.
Good luck and have fun.
kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenJunk Inspiration album

novice ... When you do have some computer access time, you could click on the link below...Inspiration Album...it's maintained by our "purplemoon" and she puts lots of fantastic ideas in there...by category...some cost money...but lots are recycles & great ideas by GJers on this forum.

Enjoy your gardening!!! Lots of free stuff on "curb shopping" ... and if you get to spend a bit, garage sales & Goodwill or thrift shops. Good luck to you & your husband...hope all will improve soon! Jeanne S.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Junk Inspiration Album

Thanks so much!! You are all so friendly and helpful!! My DH has picked up a few odd jobs here and there, but he doesn't share my passion for gardening. So, yes I'm starting from seed! I started composting last winter. Lots of coffee grounds for that! We have a bulky pick-up schedule in our town, and that's when people put large items (their trash) out on the curb to be picked up. Would it be okay for me to drive around on those days and get what they don't want if I can use it? As long as I can fit it in the car with my two little ones in back!!
I like the idea of planting to hide the shed. Do lovage and hollyhocks reseed well? I want something tall and spreading to hide it! Thanks for the link, you are all so great!!!!!
Gretchen

Novice it sounds like you have a good start. You are starting with the soil first, which is great.

In most areas if things are put out for the trash, then they are free to take. But some communities do have rules about that so you may want to check. Once you start finding things, just use your imagination to see how you can pretty it up and make it useful for you.

One way to get plants is like tasymo says, get them from friends, relatives and neighbors as they divide them. Another good way to do that is to find an older person who gardens. Tell them you are a novice and offer to help them with the bigger jobs in gardening. If you find someone to help, you accomplish several things. You can learn from their experience, you are handy to pick up their leftovers, and you get the satisfaction of helping someone. So you gain a lot. They get help with bigger jobs that maybe they wouldn't be able to tackle without assistance.

Best place I've found to get seeds is on the Seed Exchange Forum here on gardenweb. There are lots of generous people who send out packages to "Newbies". Here's the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Exchange

Freecycle, freecycle, freecycle! It is an online message board where people post items they are giving away or where people request items they want for free. I have seen free pots, plants, bricks, lawn furniture, tools, etc. for the garden on our local freecycle. The only problem might be that you would have to wait at the computer for a while to see if you get a quick reply to your response. People just want to get rid of items they no longer have any use for as long as someone comes to pick it up.

The url for Freecycle is http://www.freecycle.org/. Just copy and paste it into your browser's url box.

Craigslist is free online classified ads. Sometimes people give items away or you can find things at a great price. My local Craigslist has plants for $1, free peonies (if you dig them up and take them away), free gravel and a 6' arborvitae for $15 to name just a few. Most ads include a phone number you can call.

The url to find a Craigslist in your area is: http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.

Of course, rummage sales are a great source of garden furniture, birdbaths, and garden junk material. And check out dumpsters near apartment buildings. It is amazing what renters will throw away!

Once you have all your items, then go look at the inspiration photo album Purplemoon put together. You are bound to get lots of ideas for your own garden!

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress! And welcome to a wonderful and inspiring forum!

Thanks again!!! I looked at the album, and it truly was inspiring!!!! I LOVED the totems, but not sure how to go about assembling one to make it a sturdy fixture. I've got ideas, just not sure how to do them!
Thanks again everybody, you are all so wonderful.

Wintersowing very rewarding for starting perennial gardens, if you've patience and your goals are long-term. Checkout their website www.wintersown.org which gives information on how to do this, and also makes seeds available. I was a newbie to gardening till four years ago when I tried this method, and now have a flourishing perennial garden with shasta daisies, purple coneflower, snow in the summer, salvias, butterfly weed. I had a jungle of shasta daisies growing last summer; finally traded a lot of them this spring for some other perennials. I have also grown annuals such as cosmos, cleome, snapdragon, zinnias, petunias and marigold by wintersowing. The site provides a list of perennials, annuals and vegetable and herbs that can be wintersown. If you're not looking for instant gratification, wintersowing is great. Many local stores have buy one, get one free deals on seeds end of the season. Drug stores, dollar stores also have seed packets available for about 10 cents each. Not all may be viable, but hey, even a dozen plants for 10 cents are well worth it.

My township has a free compost heap, more like mountain - free to anyone who wants it. Check with your township and neighboring ones too. You never know.

As other have suggested, sign up with your local chapter of freecycle.org. Take a drive around the neighborhood the evening before trash day. I recently salvaged a discarded wine rack; lined the bottom hollow part with coconut liner, put some soil and planted some petunias. On the top shelf, I simply put a pot with violas for now, and plan to replace it with other pots as whim strikes. :-) Lot more creative people on this forum have great ideas.
Also, you can try propagation through cuttings - roses are good candidates, so are forsythias.
You can use vining plants and some chicken wire fence to disguise your metal shed. Moonflower, morning glory, vining black-eyed susan are fast growing annual vines - easy to grow from seed.
Hope this helps. Good luck.