money saving ideas

Hi, I am new to this forum but would love to share any money-saving tips and suggestions anyone has. I am a keen gardener with a small patio stuffed with plants in pots and anything else I can find. I find that most garden items are very expensive to buy and am always looking to find cheaper deals/substitutes. Does anyone have any alternatives to buying plastic containers/grow bags for peas and beans and potatoes?

 

Have you seen this thread, using Ikea bags?

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/ikea-bags-vegetable-plantersi-t24774.html

 

Here's a good one..

Stay out of garden centres!

Every time we go into Bents, "plants follow my wife home" and it costs me a hundred quid.

 

Apart from, as Doghouse has already pointed out, staying well clear of anywhere which sells anything remotely connected with horticulture, a friend of mine chooses to buy bottled water (those big ones which look as though they hold about 1 gallon) which, once empty, are put to any number of uses around his garden.

With the tops, or one side, cut off I've seen them used as 'pots', cut off the bottom and they become mini cloches (with a convenient handle!) and when I popped in at the weekend, he was attempting to make a 'watering device', the idea being that if he hung one up, filled it with water then dangled some string from the bottom of the water, over the top of the container and down to his plants, he could 'drip feed' them whenever he's away for a couple of days.

Sadly this last idea probably says more about me and the type of company I keep than a practical use for old water containers!

 

1. Look out for free seeds online offers (you could ask here)
2. You can grow potaoes in bins (my grandmar has done this for a few years now and always a susscess)
3. Ask for cuttings from neighbours, friends and family
4. If a plant goes bad try saving the seeds in them for next year

Not a bad list for my 3rd post

 

Where does one buy these very large water bottles please? Are these the ones that are used in water dispensers in offices etc? If so they are usually taken away when the new ones are delivered by the water machine rental companies. They sound great though !

 

If you buy plants at many garden centres they give you a "guarantee." Some can be for five years. It's a "selling feature" as few people return plants.
It's worth hanging on to these, but they are often thrown away. We took two dud David Austin Roses back to Bent's, (never did well) which we'd bought three years ago and got replacements. They weren't too chuffed about it.

 

At Monkton Elm Garden Centre just outside Taunton and at Cheddar garden Centre they have large wooden containers where customers can take plastic pots of all shapes and sizes that they do not want and other customers can take any of those pots for their use. I have used these facilities and am currently using 2 large pots for peas and 1 for a tomato. I have been using plastic seed trays too all free. Maybe garden centres in your area do this.

 

Tesco - 'Ashbeck still mountain spring water', 5 ltr - 92p. Asda - 'Eden Falls natural mineral water', 5 ltr. - 92p. Sainsbury's - 'Caledonian mineral water ', 5 ltr - 95p.

 

Asda do a mineral water for 7p a bottle, the bottles ok but the water is excellent for a sick or ill looking plant, l use it as a pick me up for anything ill :-)

 

I always grow my potatoes in inside out compost bags, turn it inside out roll the top down put 3"-4" compost in the bottom, take a pointed object and stab into the compost through the bottom of the bag, drainage holes ,I do about 10 a side, place your chitted potatoes on top cover with soil and thats it, as the growth appears roll up the bag a few inches and earth over your shoots, thats it. They are pretty stable as the bag stands quite solidly.

 

I cut old clear water bottles in half and use them as cloches and overnight cover to keep the slugs off my small sprout and cabbage plants.
I bought some plastic bins and drilled holes in them so I could grow potatoes , they worked out 3x cheaper than a proper potato barrel and I can get more in.
I am hoping as well to recycle the manure, compost, soil mixture once they are lifted for my tomatoes, which I am going to grow in some cheap soft plastic buckets .

 

Those plastic boxes that those laundry 'liquitab' things come in make great mini-greenhouses / windowsill incubators, if you put a few ventillation holes in them. They can even be stacked, if you are short of space.

Helen.

 

The bin idea is great (looks like I'm off to Homebase or similar this weekend now), but I really, really wouldn't recommend using spent spud compost to grow tomatoes. The dreaded blight (bane of damp summers like last year) attacks both crops and the spores can lurk in the soil/compost. If your spuds suffer any blight at all, then your tomatoes will be doomed.:flag: Also, spuds are greedy plants, so won't leave much goodness for your toms.

Helen.

 

I was hoping that the earlies would be out before the blight season started, but I'd rather be safe than sorry and will use the compost somewhere else. I put a lot of manure in ,maybe too much as the foliage / leaf size is much bigger than the spuds I planted in the ground , but it will be interesting to compare both lots when I pull them out.