Sinevegas, It sounds as if you did really well. One thing I should mention; in my experience, once you have been bitten by the gardening slug you never have time to sit and look at the garden.
Sinevegas, It sounds as if you did really well. One thing I should mention; in my experience, once you have been bitten by the gardening slug you never have time to sit and look at the garden.
Yes beware of the bite of the gardening slug-there is no treatment,no cure,it is fatal and you will come to a slimy end
I just can't decide what is best - growing from seed, or buying plugs. I grew quite a lot of flowers from seed this year. The biggest problem being that you get masses of the same flower! I also bought quite a bit from T&M and other online suppliers. In general I found these to be good quality although I have to say that T&M were very late with several deliveries. Almost always delivered on the last day of their window and in the case of some begonias too late and too small to be of any use. I also bought some great value plants from poundland, so it pays to keep a lookout. (I bought some tulip bulbs last week from a local hardware store at £1 for 15. OK a little late but as I haven't got the dahlias out of the bed yet it doesn't matter!)
In general I find the Garden centres vastly overpriced. Best money I spent last year garden wise was on the electrics for a large heated propagator as described on one of the how to articles. Saved me a fortune!
I am always looking online for certain plants that I want. I dont mind shopping online (I hate myself for saying that). But often you cant find certain things in the local GC and I dont have transport.
I have to say though that I just found out that tescos vouchers can be exchanged for 3 times their amount with Thompson & Morgan. result...
I bought 18 verbascum form Parkers about 3 weeks ago, then had another 6 delivered on Friday, I have potted them up, and there is a concideralble difference between the last lot and this lot, they are easily twice the size, have grown on really well, these will all make good size plants by the spring, so at 2.79 for 6 these are very good value. As are the 30 ground cover plants they had on offer at 13.00.
I can understand though why the garden centres have to charge so much for plants, it takes a lot of work to pot up and on, they have lots of overheads, but if you have time, which I have, then I like the satisfaction of bringing a plant on, rather than a ready made one.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I have brought some plants off here and brought small plugs they maybe small but I grew them on and made them ready to plant out. I did use some cheap plastic drink cups but that works well and they are easy stackable at the end when plants are planted out in the garden.
I know growing plants on takes a lot more effort but some times you get more if you have the space to do that.
Looks good (but don't they all!!). To be fair to T&M when I complained (by phone) about the begonias they gave me a refund straight away and said just keep the plants. As they were too small to do anything with this didn't exactly help, but I appreciate the gesture. i just had the feeling that the seeds hadn't been sown when I ordered which is not acceptable.
The jerseyplants website has 160 4-8cm begonias for £15. No way could I grow them for that, but do I really need 160?
Posts
Sinevegas, It sounds as if you did really well. One thing I should mention; in my experience, once you have been bitten by the gardening slug you never have time to sit and look at the garden.
Yes beware of the bite of the gardening slug-there is no treatment,no cure,it is fatal and you will come to a slimy end
I just can't decide what is best - growing from seed, or buying plugs. I grew quite a lot of flowers from seed this year. The biggest problem being that you get masses of the same flower! I also bought quite a bit from T&M and other online suppliers. In general I found these to be good quality although I have to say that T&M were very late with several deliveries. Almost always delivered on the last day of their window and in the case of some begonias too late and too small to be of any use. I also bought some great value plants from poundland, so it pays to keep a lookout. (I bought some tulip bulbs last week from a local hardware store at £1 for 15. OK a little late but as I haven't got the dahlias out of the bed yet it doesn't matter!)
In general I find the Garden centres vastly overpriced. Best money I spent last year garden wise was on the electrics for a large heated propagator as described on one of the how to articles. Saved me a fortune!
I am always looking online for certain plants that I want. I dont mind shopping online (I hate myself for saying that). But often you cant find certain things in the local GC and I dont have transport.
I have to say though that I just found out that tescos vouchers can be exchanged for 3 times their amount with Thompson & Morgan. result...
Had some BAD experiences with T&M. You can buy GOOD quality plants with GOOD customer care, from CROCUS thru' Tescodirect.
.
That's who I had the truely terrible plants from as well, and the customer service was worse that their plants, never again!
I was caught out once, instead of learning from that, I went and ordered more plants from them again!
And they are reluctant to reply to e-mails!
.
I bought 18 verbascum form Parkers about 3 weeks ago, then had another 6 delivered on Friday, I have potted them up, and there is a concideralble difference between the last lot and this lot, they are easily twice the size, have grown on really well, these will all make good size plants by the spring, so at 2.79 for 6 these are very good value. As are the 30 ground cover plants they had on offer at 13.00.
I can understand though why the garden centres have to charge so much for plants, it takes a lot of work to pot up and on, they have lots of overheads, but if you have time, which I have, then I like the satisfaction of bringing a plant on, rather than a ready made one.
Anybody tried jersey plants website? Some good plants on offer here.
http://www.jerseyplantsdirect.com/
I have brought some plants off here and brought small plugs they maybe small but I grew them on and made them ready to plant out. I did use some cheap plastic drink cups but that works well and they are easy stackable at the end when plants are planted out in the garden.
I know growing plants on takes a lot more effort but some times you get more if you have the space to do that.
Looks good (but don't they all!!). To be fair to T&M when I complained (by phone) about the begonias they gave me a refund straight away and said just keep the plants. As they were too small to do anything with this didn't exactly help, but I appreciate the gesture. i just had the feeling that the seeds hadn't been sown when I ordered which is not acceptable.
The jerseyplants website has 160 4-8cm begonias for £15. No way could I grow them for that, but do I really need 160?