Low cost gardening tips please?

[stirling]

Hello,

OK I've been gardening for 4 years now. Complete novice, making it up as I went along! Now some of my Hardy perennials are definitely dead and dried up and not looking like they're coming back. Need to replace several plant (containers) and actually, some of the vile plastic containers too. Went to the local garden centre, picked up a few plants, a bag of compost and some fertiliser it came to a staggering £80.

Where is the cheapest place to buy plants and clay pots?
I have packs of seeds but no idea what I'm doing with those, so feel safer with potting plants and herbs for now.

Thank you

If you have family with gardens ask if you can pick their brains, have a mooch and dig a few bits of their established perennials up.
Make a compost pile.
Collect leaves for leaf mold.
Look for roadside plant stalls outside peoples houses/ signs for free manure.
Use old plastic bottles, cut off, and drainage holes added for seeds, or old loo rolls.
You can grow arundo donax if you have room and harvest your own canes.
One word of advice - if you accept others plants, be careful not to import nasty perennial weeds like ground elder.

Garden organically. Don't buy lots of chemical shitstorms.
Look for bird boxes etc in sales.
Grow stuff that will pay you back. The price of buying raspberries regularly greatly outweighs growing your own.
Don't fall in the trap of buying annuals each year - bulk out pots and window boxes with things like creeping jenny, ivy etc.

You can use cardboard toilet roll holders to start seeds off in. You plant them directly into the ground when ready, cardboard and all, it biodegrades.

I planted loads of edibles using seeds from our weekly food shop. I got dozens of tomato plants out of a few cherry tomatoes lying about our fruit bowl, planted some pepper seeds from our food scraps and some apple seeds too. You can plant quite a lot of edibles just from fruit and veg scraps.

Morrison’s and wilkos are a good source of cheap plants and bulbs.
Don’t buy brand name fertiliser like miracle grow buy own brand or Poundland tomato food, boxes of blood, fish and bone or cheap tubs of chicken pellets.
Start your own compost heap.
Don’t be tempted by the cheap bedding plants already in supermarkets and garden centres unless you have a greenhouse to grow them on. It is far to early for them to go outside and I think supermarkets and the like sell them early so that rookie gardens get caught out and have to rebuy as the frost gets the first lot.
Wilkos, b&m and Poundland are a good source for gardening essentials like gloves, twine, plant supports, watering cans etc.
Facebook market place is always worth a look for pots, secondhand lawn movers and even garden furniture.
Once you get going buy at the end of the season when the likes of Wilko sell off their seasonal stock at half price.

One word of advice - if you accept others plants, be careful not to import nasty perennial weeds like ground elder.
Good advice. I bought a garden-gate alchemilla mollis. Of course the first thing I did was divide it so I got two plants for the price of one. It was only then that I realised that there was something else in there. I don't know what it is so I have potted it up separately and am waiting for it to flower so I can decide if it is a weed or a bonus plant!

You can use all sorts of things as plant containers. Upcycle stuff. If you paint old containers dark green they look great. Also cheap round canvas sack containers are great for things like potatoes and tomatoes.

Wildflowers are really easy and you can get loads of flowers from a few seed packets. Good for environment & nature.

I use egg boxes for seed trays. Plant directly into garden.

I am so glad created this thread. Really useful tips, my notes are turning into a bit of an essay!
Wonderful ideas and thank you.
Yes, re perennials it's true that I'm being possibly impatient!!

I cut 2L plastic water bottles in half to make mini cloches for delicate plants in the spring.

Aside from what has all been said which is great advice, I think dahlia tubers are excellent value. I got some huge plants from tubers last year which flowered for months and then can be dug up and replanted the following year. I also tend to go for more shrubs when I do purchase and don’t spend much on annuals.

I bought a £1 raspberry cane in Morrisons and now, 6 years later, I have to dig the canes out and chuck or give them away! So I definitely recommend trying some bargain plants, don't overlook perennial plants being sold off cheap (often just past their flowering but still good to plant) - they might look rubbish this year but will be fab next year.

Also, join your community Facebook groups and Freecycle, people often give away spare seedlings in a month or so, if seeds germinate more successfully than expected.

@WellTidy

My local Homebase is also on the cheaper end, much cheaper than garden centres.

Our local Homebase closed sadly, but it was very good for plants past their best, they made decent reductions, and I realised that they always did their reductions on a Wednesday afternoon. :)

When they get going again then church and school fetes are good places for bargain plants, but get there early otherwise all that is left will be spider plants and leggy tomato seedlings. Best thing is to offer to help to organise the stall.......

Yellow book open days usually come with plants for sale, and home made cake.

If you know someone with an allotment ask if they do a plant sale, some allotments are a bit fussy and won’t sell outside the members, but others are flexible.

I went to the garden centre last week and spend £48 on a few plants, a lupin was £6.99 for a small basic one and £11.99 for a fancy one, a packet of lupin seeds (50 seeds) was £2.99 so I bought tue seeds and one plant, planted 20 lupin seeds as soon as I got home. Growing from.seed is pretty easy and some plants are pretty fast growing. I also bought some small plug plants and put them into bigger pots in the greenhouse, at just one £1 each they will double in size in a few weeks and be the size of a £5.99 plant from tue garden centre.

My grandads garden was planted with cuttings from various places they had visited over the 50 years they lived there, I remember my gran taking cuttings at national trust houses when I was a kid 🤣 I don't think they ever bought plants.

@Lovemusic33

I went to the garden centre last week and spend £48 on a few plants, a lupin was £6.99 for a small basic one and £11.99 for a fancy one, a packet of lupin seeds (50 seeds) was £2.99 so I bought tue seeds and one plant, planted 20 lupin seeds as soon as I got home. Growing from.seed is pretty easy and some plants are pretty fast growing. I also bought some small plug plants and put them into bigger pots in the greenhouse, at just one £1 each they will double in size in a few weeks and be the size of a £5.99 plant from tue garden centre.

My grandads garden was planted with cuttings from various places they had visited over the 50 years they lived there, I remember my gran taking cuttings at national trust houses when I was a kid 🤣 I don't think they ever bought plants.

I’m growing Lupin seeds in one of those eggbox type individually sectioned trays at the moment on the windowsill. They have two ‘normal’ leaves and the tiny start of the distinctive Lupin-shaped leaves coming. What do I do with them now though-do I plant them all out in the ground when they are bigger? How much bigger? Or do I put into bigger individual pots? Or all in one large pot? Will they flower this year or next?

Any tips would be great-I’ve only ever grown salad leaves and sunflowers from seed before!

Don't forget to look at the reduced plants in garden centres; known as 'search and rescue' plants here. They can look a bit sad and dejected but with a bit of TLC they'll be fine next year.

@Lovemusic33

I went to the garden centre last week and spend £48 on a few plants, a lupin was £6.99 for a small basic one and £11.99 for a fancy one, a packet of lupin seeds (50 seeds) was £2.99 so I bought tue seeds and one plant, planted 20 lupin seeds as soon as I got home. Growing from.seed is pretty easy and some plants are pretty fast growing. I also bought some small plug plants and put them into bigger pots in the greenhouse, at just one £1 each they will double in size in a few weeks and be the size of a £5.99 plant from tue garden centre.

My grandads garden was planted with cuttings from various places they had visited over the 50 years they lived there, I remember my gran taking cuttings at national trust houses when I was a kid 🤣 I don't think they ever bought plants.

That is hilarious that your grandparents did this 😂; I love it!

Yes, the lupins will need bigger pots; the egg tray is too small for them. You could plant them out now, but I would transfer to bigger pots and put in the ground once they are about 20 cm tall because they may get attacked by slugs especially while they are small and delicate. I think you should be able to get a few flowers late in the summer and loads more next year. Cut the old flowers off once they look like bean pods, because if they spring open by themselves they can selfseed all over your lawn. Also be aware that lupin seeds are toxic. The plants die back in winter, but they come back in spring and last about 5 years in total. They are quite happy in poor soil and full soon, don't over-fertilize.

My grandparents were pretty tight 🤣🤣, they literally had a garden full of very rare plants, they even took cuttings when abroad on holiday (Canada etc..) as well as all the local national trust places. I have to admit that it’s kind of rubbed off on me and last year i successfully grew some ferns which I got from the local woods.

The lupins will probably need to go into bigger pots for a bit before planting outside, I have planted 3 bigger ones in my garden and the ones I grow from seed will hopefully go out later in the year (I’m not expecting much from them this year).

Thank you for the Lupin seedlings advice! Can I put a couple in each one bigger pot or do they need their own pots? I only have a little windowsill

We had our garden landscaped in winter 2019/20 and two large raised borders put in. To fill them I bought a complete border collection for £50. Almost all of them have taken and I've supplemented with some daffodils, and a few other spring bulbs, some forget me not seeds I was bought when my daughter was born and some pansies stolen from my parents garden. One border is 9m long! They did quite well last year but I have even higher hopes for this year!

Wow @cazinge what a bargain! We have huge borders and no idea what to fill them with. Can I cask wheee you for the border pack please?

@Letseatgrandma

Thank you for the Lupin seedlings advice! Can I put a couple in each one bigger pot or do they need their own pots? I only have a little windowsill

I would put one in each pot. I’m running out of space indoors too and have loads of seedlings to pot on yet. Once this cold snap has gone they will probability be fine outside.

Thank you, @Lovemusic33 that is really helpful. I’ll repot them over the weekend :)

@aquamarine1 J Parker online. It was this one but is currently out of stock

www.jparkers.co.uk/72-border-collection-complete-2-x-8m-border-1000890c

Some great tips on here. Can I ask a dumb question? How do you grow things from cuttings?

Also what does it mean to divide a plant? It sounds like you just split it in half? Would that not kill it?