Frugal gardening, what frugal gardening did you do today?

stardrops42

Feeling very pleased with myself today and very frugal:D We built a compost bin from some scaffolding planks we were given and went to collect a load of topsoil that someone was giving away on freecycle. They only lived around the corner from us so saved on petrol as well:D Also off to the local tip in the morning for some free compost:T

house_of_6

i run a gardening club the children bring in used washed yogurt pots,we reuse the plastic cups from the school disco, also do a seedling swap.

Rummer

I was tickled pink today because we had been looking for giant garden pots but they were going to cost scary amounts of money so today I went to the local garage and got a car full of old tyres and my courgette plants are now sitting quite happily in them! The equivalent of five giant pots for free! We have been told we can take as many as we like as often as we like so we are going to explore what else we can do with them!

soul619

i got 5 black tubs from my local florists for free 1 large 2 medium and 2 small that arnt really small.....

LJM

i have just been given some free pots from my neighbour as she was clearing out her shed and some bean canes, i love freebies

cooking-mama

Yesterday i bought 10, terracota plant pots from homebase for £1.80.(I love the "old fashioned" Bill n Ben type pottery pots).
.11cm pots were reduced to only 18pence each.

bertiebots

My sil gave me some crocosmia yesterday and it is now in the new flower bed I made in my front garden!

Orange_King

i can't really call it gardening as such but have been negotiating with a colleague who has horses - asking for free manure and she is local to me.

Just one thing, how old does manure need to be before you shove it in the veggie plot or round the raspberry canes?

Kay_Peel

Orange_King wrote: »

i can't really call it gardening as such but have been negotiating with a colleague who has horses - asking for free manure and she is local to me.

Just one thing, how old does manure need to be before you shove it in the veggie plot or round the raspberry canes?

It depends on whether the horse manure is mixed with a lot of straw, saw-dust and bits of wood. Really, it needs to be well rotted, with no seeds in - looking a bit like the compost that you get in bags.

I find the best way to rot it down is to add it to my compost heap in layers - it has enough woody material to count as a 'brown' layer between grass clippings. I water it well and turn the compost every two weeks in summer. If I start it now, it will be ready to go out in October.

Or you can stack it in a pile, exposed to the elements.

But fresh horse manure must be kept away from the stems of plants and some vegetables (like beetroot) will not grow on soil that has been freshly manured.

Having said that, I've put fresh horse manure into deep trenches, infilled with soil on top - and planted marrows and squashes in mounds on top of the trench. And they went beserk - in a good way! :rotfl:

Gina_of_course!

I bought a plastic shed a little while ago and have used the thick polythene as a cover in the night for the plants already out in the pots and used the polystyrene broken up in the bottom of the pots for drainage. As you can see it does not take a lot to make me chuffed to bits