Wednesday 22 April 2015

Gardening On A Budget

How on earth can you garden on a budget  ?

Gardening even before you have got started the costs mount up with composts,weedkillers, insecticides, twine plant labels , gardening gloves , pots special shoes to garden in - it all adds up and that is before you have even got going with the plants.

It can be done with a few tips to avoid your wallet being walloped and having to eats beans for the next 3 months. It pays to be inventive and savvy , make do and mend and especially keep an eye out for those bargains.

1. Look on your free sites such as free ad s, free angle and so on , I managed to get a bit of railway sleeper for free and place it again my fence and the cat loves sitting on it. The piece of sleep is just right and looks lovely next to the old sink I got off eBay for 99 p , a good tip when you are looking on eBay for gardening items on the left hand side there is a box where you can put in your postcode and pick the distance you are willing to travel.


The sleeper was off freecycle.

See that balustrade I found that under a hedge it was abandoned( blooming fly tippers)


2. Grow from seeds , this can be done even if you don't have a green house and will quite literally save you a packet and you'll see no end of seeds on gardening magazines ( great advice and seeds all in one package )


3. Save your old your old yogurt and cream pots for growing seedlings in , use old wellingtons for plant containers these are especially quirky and add a sense of fun to your garden.




4 Compost bin/heap When my council introduced a £40 a year bin charge I declined to take them up on this unsurprisingly so I brought a compost bin you'll local authority will have links where you can buy one cheaply. Though since my council have offered a baby bin for £15 a year which I am using for all those items that can't be composed and saving on going down to the tip.

5. Finding stuff for example in a skip but please remember to ask permission as it's an offence to take something out of a tip without permission. I found this balustrade in a hedge and it has obviously been fly tipped but I asked the house next door just in case !

6. Swap seedling with a friend or even host a perhaps as PTA event example and sell tea and cake everyone loves tea and cake , cake loves me a little too much nowadays!

7. Get free advice the Internet is a wonderful resource for this with such sites as amateurgardeing.com or rhs.org.uk

8.  You go shopping in the sales for clothes and other essential items so why not plants , those plants you think might be half dead might not be as dead as you think they are !

9. Buy in bulk this is something I have been doing with the Cotswold stone in my garden I know I could have made an even bigger saving by ordering a huge bag but as I am on a tight budget this just wasn't feasible.

10. Look for making your own organic remedies this is something I am going to do as I have a bad case of woolly Aphid , my apple tree that is and not me !


PS that reminds me Aldi have some cracking gardening deals coming up on the 23 April and I need a mini water butt , I'll be sure to pick this up on the way to see Avengers Age of Ultron.


Disclosure All this is all my own work , I am going to Avengers willingly and am in no way swayed by Thor or any other superhero with a six pack but oh gosh wouldn't they be a dream in the garden ( only because they could do the work in half the time )

25 comments:

  1. Takeaway coffee cups can be used instead of plant pots, as can old toilet roll middles and kitchen roll middles.
    I also often buy reduced dead looking flowers/shrubs they will mostly come back to life with a bit of tlc
    Potatos - if they start to shoot because you left them too long - stick them in the ground
    Tomato seeds - may shoot, depends on the variety
    Apple pips - depends on how long you have got!
    If you see a plant you like in a garden - ask about it, and be cheeky, as for a cutting, you never know, I have done this before now, and swapped for something in mine.

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    1. Thank you for the absolutely splendid tips very useful, thank you x

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  2. oh how i wish we had a garden. You garden looks fantastic! I dont have any gardening tips sadly but I dont think you need any :) xx

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  3. Some great hints and tips here :-) Wish I could find some time to do the gardening!

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  4. I remember using an old Butler sink as a pot too :) Gardening can definitely be done relatively inexpensively! Good post.

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  5. Fab tips, do come and link up with #FabulouslyFrugal. I adore gardening and am trying to get the boys as enthused as I am!

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  6. Some really great tips here and I love the butler sink planter!!

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  7. I really miss a garden. My mother-in-law has a fantastic garden but living in a flat I only get to sit outdoors and admire a nice garden when I go there.

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  8. I wish I had a garden, instead I have a concrete terrace upon which I put plants in pots x

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  9. I am a massive gardening fan and love your tips, they will save me a packet

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  10. Brilliant tips! There is really no need to spend loads of money, and you've deffo proved that! x

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  11. we have a huge garden and it needs seperating into three sections, one for dogs and one for adults seating area and one for kids, three different flooring and i know its going to cost a fortune

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  12. I love sinks as planters, I used one at school for strawberries. Great tips, my husband will love them :)

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  13. Really fab tips here. We have a compost heap and it does wanders x

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  14. What fab ideas and it looks lovely. I am going to have a look on eBay. I never thought of it for gardening things I don't know why

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  15. Some great tips, love your garden and that sleeper is fab for sleeping cats!

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  16. We have a bin charge too, but we also have a community composting site, so I haul our garden rubbish along there, and they give me free compost! I especially like how your garden consists of things you've tidied up from public spaces. From now on I shall call you Uncle Bulgaria! :-)

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  17. I'm a huge fan of car boot sale plants - they are usually grown by local nurseries and a fraction of nursery prices! x

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  18. looking lovely :-) .. i love my garden too and often looks for ways to titivate it on a budget x

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  19. great tips need to sort my garden out!

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  20. some great tips Claire - you should add this to fabulously frugal

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  21. Great tips, thanks for sharing! Now I just need to get myself in the garden and get productive!

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  22. Great job.
    We just bought 5 giant bags of funky white stones from eBay for 99p - I just have to go and fetch them... I will replace the grey ones I have in front of the house ;-)

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  23. What a lovely garden. We turned an old car tyre into a fairy garden and use welly boots as planters

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