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Some good gardening advice
honeyandeggs
Posts: 22
Saw this article in the Guardian today, found it really helpful as it contains a lot of practical advice on saving money when gardening.
As a newbie gardener who has just moved into a new house, this is invaluable!
So, does anyone on here have some good gardening money-saving tips they would like to share? 
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As a newbie gardener, I've just invested in a pot of rooting powder and plan to experiment with lots of cuttings (I'd never heard of rooting powder until recently).
Our general plan is to start with "common" varieties of plants - they're usually cheaper, and I assume they're common because they're easy to grow.
We've started small (and cheap) while we're learning, so we're patient for plants to grow rather than looking for an instant effect. It's also more rewarding IMHO. We'll invest more as our confidence grows. Gardening is more fun when you don't feel you have anything to lose - everything is a bonus.
We are thankful for donations of plants from my MIL that are cuttings or grown from seed.
Garden centres generally seem expensive. Nurseries or online stores tend to offer better value.
number one tip Stay out of garden centres. They are addictive and unless you stick to the reduced bin plants expensive. Poundland and wilko are good for your garden basics. Wilco bulbs and tubers are very good if you want basic easy to grow plants. They also have some good bargain plants as well but you need to get them when they are fresh in as they tend to not look after them well. I bought a small hydranger laneth white in theire for £3. In 10 days it has already doubled in size.
pounland for nettin, plant foods, canes and other sundries. my local one has vermiculite at 90p a bag not quite the grade as garden centre but perfectly acceptable for pots and doing seeds. Wilkis do a better grade at £5 a bag and garden centres charge even more.
Go to the summer fetes which abound in the summer. The plant sales tables are good value, often selling divided perennials for £1. Car boot sales are also a good source of plants but may be a little more expensive.
Tell all your friends that you have started gardening and ask them for any divided plants, cuttings and also collect seed from their plants in the autumn. Very often these bits are thrown away.
If you find you cannot stay away from the garden centres and plants just leap onto your trolley, make sure that you select ones which can be divided to make more plants.
Have fun!
I always go to the big DIY shops for plants when they do the 3 for £10 trays.Every year we have had a good show of colour from the plants we buy.Also if you can wait there are bargains to be had when they are selling off the slower selling plants to make way for the newer plants of the season.
You can grow from seed as well but the above is great if you ant to get ahead in the growing stakes and usually they have been hardened off prior to planting out
Happy Gardening
Jolly G
9cm perennials are also good & a much cheaper investment. My local GC sells them for £1.49 each & brought at this time of the year, they will fill a 2L pot by the end of June and ready to plant out
Last edited: 10 April 2017 16:02:58
I have to say that I find her last paragraph quite funny. - here's a long article about how to save money, but if you want a feature tree buy this one for £250 and not say, a crab apple tree for £20.
This time of year keep an eye out for cheap plug plant deals on websites like Thomson and Morgan and subscribe to their mailing list, and watch the GW adverts for any deals. I got my 72 perennials for £1.98 and two free blueberry plants (+delivery) this week. Of course it's cheaper to grow from seed but easier if you don't have a greenhouse.
I always save the empty toilet rolls to plant seedlings in and fruit punnets to pot on into. I use trays that fresh fish has been in. Plastic sausage trays.
Labels from plastic milk containers. Temporary pots from same containers with holes in the bottom.
Thanks all for your replies, there's some corkers there! I've tried some of them, namely the toilet rolls and milk jugs for seedlings (my grandmother used to do that) but I found with the toilet rolls they dry out very quickly.
I love the tip from Grannybee about dividing plants from garden centres. I once bought a 3L pot of lavender reduced to £2 and it had 5 lavender plants in it!
And yes Learnincurve I saw that as well, bit odd, but I suppose if you're wanting to make a statement in the garden, and you're not spending anything else, it's somewhat reasonable. (Saying that, I'd still rather only spend around £20 on a tree and watch it grow).
One thing I always do when I go to DIY stores and garden centres is look out for the nearly dead stuff. If it's a perennial it's usually fine really - a lot of the plants haven't been watered sufficiently most of the time. There's also the double bonus if you can divide the plants further.
I'll definitely be on the lookout for summer fetes and plant sales in church halls!