Anyone know of an online gardening 'one stop shop'?

[Molesworth]

I really want to give my tiny balcony a makeover, but I live in the middle of London and don't have a car, so lugging compost from Homebase isn't an option - anyone know of a website where I can buy everything I need?

eg

• pots/troughs
• compost
• geraniums and herbs

TIA for any recommendations

PS lest you think I'm too lazy to google, I have googled and looked at a few, but none of them seem to do everything in one place: I can get plants but not compost, or compost but no pots etc etc and if I order from multiple sites the delivery charges mount up too much

(also an excuse to bump )

Try Greenfingers.com. Quality looks good and they stock compost, plants and pots. Delivery is free if you spend over £29, £4.95 otherwise.

However, the price for compost is quite high, and you would need to be reasonably sure that you will be in when they deliver - but they do offer order tracking.

The other one that is good is Crocus, but their website is down for maintenance at the moment. I suspect they would be rather more expensive, though.

I hope you have a lovely time with it all!

best place I have found to buy pots, is ebay

I brought 150 or so brand new 9cm plastic pots for about £3.50

ooh, thanks NSD! I will check that link out tonight

OWO, ebay is a great idea for pots - hadn't thought of that, thank you

well they were fab for planting all my seeds, I sat them in trays so they didnt dry out to quickly, fab really and much cheaper than garden centre

You don't actually need pots to germinate seeds in - takeaway trays and yoghurt pots work surprising well! In fact, the local Botanic Gardens has a standing request for takeaway trays for use germinating ferns.

I am a gardening dunce, so was planning to buy young plants rather than seeds

If you have never done any gardening before, I would stick to young plants for this year. You also need a fair bit of space if you are going to grow much from seed.

I agree that if you are going to sow seeds that you can use recycled containers of all sorts, though.

Suttons do nice colour themed collections of plants for baskets and pots like this one which can give you a good start. And there are some good offers at the moment, right at the end of the season.

Thanks for the tips NSD I'm going to keep it simple this year because I don't really know what I'm doing. I'd love to have a go at growing some fruit and veg out there next year (salad leaves, tomatoes, strawberries) but I've left it all a bit late now I think, and I'm scared of getting overambitious and then everything dying on me. Thought I'd start with some geraniums and some easy to grow herbs like rosemary thyme and mint for starters and hope to be confident enough to aim higher next year. Sound sensible?

Just seconding Greenfingers. I have used them and delivery was prompt and plants in good condition. They have some special offers on herbs, fruit and veg atm.

Sounds very sensible. I wish I had (ever had) your self control. I tend to be of the school of thought that there are so many plants, so little time!

Crocus.co.uk

I'd second crocus - very helpful website and prompt delivery. Worth checking out just for ideas if nothing else.