The dollar store is one of the places that really kicked my gardening efforts into high gear. I was getting started gardening (3-4 years ago) and my Mom mentioned the dollar store (stores names and type might be different from yours) she went to had seeds for .10 cents a packet. I went over and there were so many different types of seeds I was wow’ed. I wish I could remember all the plants where the dollar store seeds were my first exposure (Globe Amaranth, Balsam, and Cupid’s Darts are just a few). I must have bought 100 packets that first visit. Over the course of the next year or so I planted most of them too, germination rate was pretty good overall. I went on line and looked up the company (I think it was American Seed Company) and some complaints about this and that, but for the overall experience I was quite happy. I think on occasion Walmart’s sells the brand too for .25 cents.
A couple of things to consider, while the price is low the volume of seeds you get is somewhat proportional (low price – lower seed count). This can be ok as not always can you plant all the seeds in a regular packet. A couple of times I even got a packet with no seeds in it. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy and plant dollar store seeds as experimental seeds, planting something just for fun to see how it would turn out, but I would probably use more reputable seed brand – retailer for mission critical stuff, stuff where you want a high degree of confidence things will turn out as desired. The last couple of years the variety of seeds offered here has diminished unfortunately. So just for fun and experimentation, go for them. Mission critical, focused growing, go with name brand.
The pots they have here are a good value. Here you get various size of plastic and a couple of sizes of clay. I still have some from a couple years ago and I’m surprised how well the plastic hold up in general. Be sure to check the bottoms as they can come with holes for drainage or not. If not I just drill some in the bottom.
While I wouldn’t buy my tools there they also have good deals on that green plastic gardeners tape and twist tie material, stakes and other little gardening accessories that come in handy.