Cheapest place to buy plant pots?

Furny

Hi
Yep getting free/cheap pots seems to work better at garden centres or florists as they have a high turnover of them through re-potting & disposing of plants & are happy to see more things grown on in them than them been disposed of.
I had no joy with my local CO-OP & Lidl for the same reason you mentioned they get sent back,don't have many to start with or the plants etc get sold in the pots.
Good Luck!

Pixiechic

Fingers crossed for tomorrow! I hope they have some, I love a bargain I need one too as I need so many! We have a couple of florists too, if they are open I shall enquire, I get a bit shy asking for freebies but I will do it! Thank for the help and advice

Furny

Pixiechic wrote: »

Fingers crossed for tomorrow! I hope they have some, I love a bargain I need one too as I need so many! We have a couple of florists too, if they are open I shall enquire, I get a bit shy asking for freebies but I will do it! Thank for the help and advice

Hi
I never make out like i am asking for them free though, i always say
" Hi i was wondering if you have any surplus plastic plant pots that i could buy from you as i've just started gardening & need them for potting on etc ".
This way i don't feel bad about asking & they don't think i'm been cheeky. If they have them they are normally happy to get rid of them & want to encourage a new gardener. Even offering i haven't paid for any yet but would still be willing too, it would be cheaper for me than going to a D.I.Y plus i'd be putting a contribution to a local buisness.
You'll find if you do it once & they have them like my local florists they may have ask you to drop in each week mine have so i should be able to build up a stock.
Good Luck

kippers

Escal wrote: »

If you just want something temporary, for potting on herbs and veggies, make your own out of newspaper. Use a yoghurt tub as a mould and don't be too fussy, wedge them together on a seedtray, then when you plant them out just leave the newspaper in place. One or two layers thick is plenty.

I use a baked bean tin (or a soya sauce bottle for root trainer type pots) to make newspaper pots for my veg so i can transplant the whole pot straight into my allotment when required. There is no root disturbance this way and it's free all except the small amount of masking tape i use to hold the pot at the top and bottem. I grow all my seeds this way now. You can also make the pot whatever size you require for your seed

Furny

kippers wrote: »

I use a baked bean tin (or a soya sauce bottle for root trainer type pots) to make newspaper pots for my veg so i can transplant the whole pot straight into my allotment when required. There is no root disturbance this way and it's free all except the small amount of masking tape i use to hold the pot at the top and bottem. I grow all my seeds this way now. You can also make the pot whatever size you require for your seed

Sounds like a great activity to get the kids to do on a rainy day too!
Child Labour? never!.

SteveV2

On the site I work on, whatever the landscape gardeners come in to finish off they always, without fail put all the empty pots in the skip. Needless to say I have about 50 sitting by my shed.

If anyone is in the PE31 area and wants some freebees from me, just pm me

balloo_2

Pixiechic wrote: »

:T Thanks, that's great, I shall be getting some of those, I might get two lots for the price!!
I went to Tesco's this morning and nicely asked the lady about the flower buckets being given away for free and she went to find out and came back and said 'no, they send them back and they get re-used' ?. So, no joy there. I toddled off to Lidl and they don't give them away either. I was a bit miffed but nevermind. Anywhere else to try?
Many thanks for all the replies

Pixiechic sorry about that trip you had to Tesco's and Lidl's but sounds to me like they were to tired to find out properly. I have had the buckets free from Lidl's and Asda and even bought some from Morrisons in the begining. many other gardeners on here have also had some. Coop give them away to but some ask that you put something in the charity box. :T

dogstarheaven

like balloo, i too got my my cheap 10p ones from the local florists (Andersons of Queen St, Nott'm have them from spring and throughout summer in lots of 10 for a £1) and then i got the courage to ask the supermarkets (Asda namely) if they had any spare. I did notice on 2 occasions that they were chucking them out when i notice another customer had about 10 of them (some tall and some normal size - 9" x 12" and 12" x 14") so i had also asked and so i got the same too (tho' not as many). this yr, tho' i have decided it wasn't that practical to use container pots anymore for my veggies so i made the decision to make my own raised beds. this way, it would be better for my plants with more root run for them, better moisture retention and also it looks better as well. before i had about 30 black plastic pots everywhere, and now i can take pleasure in viewing the garden more as a whole with structure and better alignment.

Pixiechic

I didn't manage to get to the garden centre at the weekend, or the florist . I shall go to this weekend so fingers crossed! Thanks for giving me an idea of what to say I shall definately offer something and I hope that they have enough for me to get cracking with other things. I made do with some plastic drinking cups from Tesco, they will do for some of the tings for a while.
Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it! How do I do it with newspaper? Do I make the paper cup first and then put the seed and compost in, or do I grow them as I have, !!!!! them out and wrap the paper round it then? Hope I don't seem stupid asking ,
Many thanks again! I have put a 'wanted' on freecycle too!