ways to do gardening on the cheap

[mamacoffee]

ive recently started to attempt to do something with our garden but when i look into it it all seems very expensive especially if i buy annuals in pots from the garden centre!

so what is the cheapest way to do gardening?and if the answer is in something to do with growing from seed/cuttings- do i need to have lots of space to store said seedlings in pots before they're ready to go out?

also i read something about capturing seeds from plants before they die so that you can plant them again the following year, how easy is this to do? dh said it also depends on whether they've been pollonated by bees, how can i tell?

don't worry about the nasturtiums, they sometimes take ages but they grow fast once they are up. Mine have only just started coming up from the ones that self seeded from last year, I haven't actually planted any for years

oh i wont give up on them then! thank you!

i planted sweet peas directly into a pot outside as well, very confused as to what's happening with them. because lots of seedlings have come up- more than i planted. so i'm thinking they might be weeds, or at least i can't tell which are weeds and which arent...

put a photo up on your profile of the seedlings and someone might be able to advise...

Wilkinsons and even Aldi sometimes have very good deals on plants. I got lots of raspberries and some other soft fruit for £4 I think a couple of years ago.

thats a good idea, will take a pic later on when i go out to water the plants

Poundland have blood, fish & bone. I got really excited when I saw our city farm had manure for sale - but it turned out to be more expensive than the garden centre.

One of my favourite austerity gatdening things to do is save any broken crockery to use as drainage in containers. It means I don't get so upset when I break things I love and it's nice to find my hidden reassure when I repot things. I found a smashed up Buffy mug and a hand painted plate I bought on holiday today, really made me smile.

oh i love the idea of keeping broken crockery, i can be a little clumsy in the kitchen sometimes lol...

is it possible to make your own bonemeal? i'm guessing the blood bit might be difficult and the fish bit might be more expensive- but i guess i'm just recalling when my sister once left her slow cooker on for too long and the bones in her meat soup ended up like mush...

does anyone have a good idea of what can be used for a 3inch container/pot? i have 4 from plants ive bought and planted, but i need a few more and don't want to buy any

ive taken a picture of the sweetpea seedlings and whatever else is in there, just need to get round to uploading it.

cairoprankster the nasturtiums have come up

You can cut up old jumpers for drainage or package peanuts if you get anything delivered with them.

Poundland had Plant pot trolleys on wheels. Maybe no good for really heavy pots but fine for most and a lot cheaper than buying pot feet.

Also if you like to feed the birds then they do a small hanging basket which is ideal to use as a bird feeder. I quarter fill it with bird seed and hang it from the wisteria. The birds love it. i have a larger one for nuts for the squirrels and they sit in it and swing whilst they nibble on a monkey nut.

Loads of good ideas here, thanks all.

I grow a fair amount of veg and got fed up with the high price of the seeds for my favourite tomatoes - £2.99 or something for a measly 12 seeds, iirc.

So last year I just saved some from the fruit, cleaned them, dried them off and stored them (incidental top tip: those little sachets of silicone crystals that come randomly with various purchases are great for keeping seeds from getting damp).

I sowed them this year and the plants are doing brilliantly.

I'd also second haunting the garden centre for plant bargains; I've had some amazing things for stupid money. Also, the same garden centre has a bin full of surplus plastic pots people don't need any more - a great resource if you don't want to buy them. I'd guess quite a few places do this sort of thing.

And definitely try Freegle/Freecycle. I regularly get rid of surplus seedlings etc that way.

I have just sprayed the nasty looking bugs off my roses with some diluted washing up liquid I put in an old bathroom cleaner spray bottle. My mum told me to do this clean off aphids and green fly years ago, no idea if it actually works or not.

For things that you will use year after year, do have a look on packets of seed to see how many seeds they contain. It can vary tremendously, between companies and even between different seeds from suppliers. For example Sarah Raven Leek Musselborough, £1.95 for 450 seeds: st Victor 100 seeds for the same price. I bought St Victor without noticing. They'd better be good!

With things like perennials it may not matter. I have grown penstemons from seed this year and have 24 baby plants plus loads of seed left, which I am not likely to need!

I now use Waitrose mini tomato square trays with holes made with a hot skewer as my initial seed trays. They are a good size and don't waste too much compost.

I asked for a large paper potter for Christmas, and pot on into pots made from old Telegraphs (the best size of paper for the gadget IME). Here's the one I have ( I also have the smaller size pot maker, but the pots are too small):

www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Big_Paper_Potter.html

I get free manure from the local stables. Must make another trip soon so it can rot down over summer ready for autumn.

Some garden centres do offers like 4 perennials for £10: they are small but grow and establish quickly, and after a year or so it doesn't matter, as they've caught up with the £8.00 big plants.

I keep my eyes peeled for 'free' plant offers, where you just pay the postage and have had some great bargains. I vote we all keep our eyes peeled and do links for such offers as we spot them. And of course Morrisons is quite wonderful, especially for climbers.

mamacoffee, for extra small pots, I wash and cut down fruit juice cartons and/or larger yoghurt pots, (and egg cartons are ideal for seedlings.)

3 camellia plants for a pound at Thompson and Morgan atm. They won't flower this year, but if you plant them deeply with plenty of compost and keep watered they will establish roots and flower next year.

Funny person can you post a link to the camellia offer please? T&M website seems to have funny little alleyways and I find you can't always get at individual offers if you don't know the code.

A warning to OP about Thompson & Morgan is that their prices can be sky high. They lure you in with a cheap offer and overprice other things. It's worth buying most of the offers IME (if the plants are what you want obv.) but little else!

I can see 3 clematis or a pound but not camilla:

www.thompson-morgan.com/flowers/all-other-seeds-and-plants/climbing-seeds-and-plants/clematis-lucky-dip/t46275TM

Woop on the Nasutusums I have hundreds coming up atm and will have to weed them out mostly.

The shrubs have now gone and I got loads of scaffolding planks for raised beds from free cycle today.

I also, finally, got the free spuds that Thompson and Morgan were offering ages ago (I think they forgot me) they should have been planted mid May so I shoved them in today and might have some for christmas.

Interesting article about getting more seeds per packet:

www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/9945466/Where-to-buy-the-best-value-vegetable-seeds.html?WT.mc_id=605572&source=MiddleColumnPuff

oh dear I meant clematis, sorry
www.thompson-morgan.com/flowers/all-other-seeds-and-plants/climbing-seeds-and-plants/clematis-lucky-dip/t46275TM

I can't believe I am jealous of m'ners with a free horse poo supply

Today I have been mostly making slug traps by cutting the bottom inch off squash bottles and filling them with left over Guinness. It's working, I've found plenty of boozy dead slugs and even my hostas are thriving.

I've also made slug deterrents, by sprinkling egg shell around sensitive plants (apparently they hate slithering over sharp things). My mum has crushed up sea shells around her hostas which is much prettier. If you eat a lot of mussels or cockles you could perhaps recycle the shells ths way?

I know this is a zombie thread but I've had a lovely time re-reading it!

and there's this www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2340112-Cheap-by-nature-gardening-offers-thread of course