How on earth do people afford gardening?!

[Hallo12345]

We have recently (May) moved into our first house so our first time having a proper garden. Garden needs a lot of work but I have no idea how people afford this! I went to the garden centre last week and bought a few bags of soil and some bulbs and it cost me nearly £80 🤯
So my question is, how can I make the garden reasonably nice on an extremely small/non existent budget ?!

Agree that garden centres are the worst place to buy if you're trying to do it cheaply. Joining local gardening facebook groups will soon highlight the best places to go, locally.

Apart from bulbs, there isn't much gardening to do for a month or so, so why don't you concentrate on tidying etc and maybe ask for some bulbs/seeds for Xmas? You could make yourself a plan for next year, maybe think about some veg?

In the meantime, keep an eye on any massive reductions in supermarkets (you can always keep the pot if the plant isn't saveable) and remember that places like Aldi have compost from April time onwards. Also scout some second hand bookshops for gardening books.

When I lived in Durham our local council gardeners would replace bulbs every season (Tulips, daffs etc) and the old ones would be left outside their depot and you could help yourself. I collect seeds from plants in public parks etc. I get stuff cheap from the allotment shed and we have gardens here where the owners let you collect seeds for a voluntary donation to charity (they have an honesty box). I also swap with neighbours. Ask on local FB pages

Thank you everyone, these are really helpful tips! I have a 16 month old so it hasn’t been easy getting much done in the garden as she’s at the awkward stage where she has no sense of self-survival and will just throw herself over the garden wall if I bring her out to the garden with me 😂 but hopefully next spring it will be a bit easier! Looks like asking for cuttings is the way forward and I’ve already found my local gardening Facebook

B&q garden centres usually have what I call the table of death. They don't take good care of their plants and you can pick up 'dying' ones very cheaply. Plenty of water and they soon perk up.

The best thing in our small garden this year has been a bed made with compost from B&M, a gifted packet of sunflower seeds and a 99p packet of wildlife friendly seeds which are still flowering now just.

After a few years it's very cheap / almost free because you can split plants and grow from seeds. By far the most expensive thing is the bloody lawn. Also keep your hedges ivy and bramble free because those can kill a mature hedge if not kept in check.

Also bulbs come back each year if you leave the foliage to wilt after flowering.

recycle unwanted/broken items into plant pots. Old shoes/boots/wellies make great planters. Egg trays can be used as seed trays. Old jeans can be cut and sewn into hanging baskets etc.

I have ended up running a charity plant stall at my house for a few years. Started with digging a few things and splitting them - I now sell about a thousand a year for £1 each. A few people have said that they couldn't afford to buy from elsewhere.

Aldi and Lidl do plants every now and then, and I find them really good. And cheap.

Eg I'm off tomorrow tomorrow pick up some hellebore from lidl - I think they're 4 or 6 for £9. Small ish and I won't get a choice of variety but a good filler and great over winter.

Also, Morrisons have small 'garden centres' at some stores, and these have very cheap but again quite small perennials. Really cheap! Iirc, £1.85 this year for a range of 9cm clematis and things like photinia.

Join your local community garden; you will google them on Facebook. They usually have gardening/crafty etc. session for youngsters. The will also have cheap plants and produce for sale, and sometimes, plant swaps. I went to about 4 this spring/summer in my city and found lots of plants/seeds and other garden paraphernalia (even if you don't have anything to swap, you can make a donation). Also, just local community groups advertised on FB, you can sometimes see members giving stuff away.

Facebook marketplace usually has some cheap plants, and big garden centres that are set up to have you buying things in flower usually sell very good stock that has finished flowering for half price before they go on the search and rescue table. You just have to be patient and wait till next year for it to flower.

And bankrupt yourself 😀

Don’t forget birthdays and Christmas - ask for gardening gift vouchers!