Money saving in your garden

cootambear

oh, I spoke in general terms

there are some crops that are minimum effort and give massive savings

to be honest they are the only things I grow,

things like herbs, strawbs and salad leaves.............

Fay

Some good ideas guys thanks. I like the one about the old venetian blinds, I have been using spare plant pots cut into strips for plant labels but obviously this sacrifices plant pots-so I shall get my mum to keep me her blind as she is changing it soon
I also agree with water butts, we now have 6 in our garden. We got two of the 100l ones from aldi recently, one for grey water and one by the greenhouse.

I'm just eating breakfast and watching QVC (guilty pleasure-watch but don't buy) and they have a set for making newspaper pots which is £10.25 + p&p...I'm sure you could make these pots wiht an old jam jar or anything round with a flat base!

gibson123

wallbash wrote: »

Sweeping but true . If you factor in the amount of time and effort to produce those crops we all grow , much cheaper to buy them .

quote........We could never afford to eat as much soft etc

But if you were NOT gardening and spending that time ,in gainful employment even on a fraction of the minimum wage you could afford them .

To sum , we garden for enjoyment and getting the freshest produce possible , but its hard to say we honestly save money.

But then if you add in the cost you would spend in the gym keeping fit, or the savings for not participating in other social activities it looks better. Also gardening for most is in the "play" category not work, and who want to work more. Therefore as this is your play time getting a return for your time is a bonus that you do not get with most other leisure activities. I sew for pleasure as well, I save money on this, but if I put my "wages" into the equation it would not make sense either. All work and no play makes Jack and Jill dull boys and girls

cootambear

Fay wrote: »

Hi everyone
I'm sure this has been done before and there must be 100's of MSE tips in different threads but I wondered if it would be a good idea to try and bring them all together in one thread? I try to be money saving by growing my own veg and this year annual bedding plants...but I still end up spending an awful lot of money on it

So what are your top free/MSE tips for gardening?

I will start us off with the obvious ones that I know of
-toilet rolls for pots
-pots made out of newspaper
-making my own compost (although make nowhere near enough-this is one of my main expenses)
-saving easy seed like french beans and runner beans
-I've reused old metal buckets I found when we moved, sprayed them and now grow peas and flowers in them
-I'm about to spray paint the inner of an old metal bin today as a tall planter

I would love to take cuttings and keep seed but struggle with how to do this...perhaps someone will come along with an easy to understand tip/guide for this?

So what do you do to save money in the garden?

cut up plastic bottles as individual clotches
scrounging plants or tools from neighbours, allotmenteers, freecycle
plant, seed swapping at work or neighbours etc
using any old container
horse manure from stables, leaves from leaf traps
perrenial plants, saves buying seeds every year

and quick q, why do you need to paint the inner of a bin?

Fay

cootambear wrote: »

and quick q, why do you need to paint the inner of a bin?

It is a tall metal inner from an old kitchen bin and I have spray painted it cream to go with two old metal buckets and an old wash tub I had sprayed last year. I then itend to plant a pot up and stand it in the top...I will take a pic later. It was sat in the corner of the garden waiting to go the tip and I suddenly thought mmmm :T

I bought a candy stripe phlox yesterday from the garden centre and I was wondering if I can get more than one plant from it...in the MSE tradition. I've just spent 30 minutes looking for how to propogate this-I can divide it (too small yet), take cuttings-yes! But no instructions and ideas?

Farway

Use urine for compost accelerator, and as a quick nitrogen fertiliser for your plants

Fay

Here is said picture of my sprayed bin-I've planted a pot up to go in the top with a geranium, lavender coloured million bells and lobelia. Hopefully it should look good.

I had also bought a perennial wallflower yesterday in the 50% off section so I have taken some babies off this as Carol suggested on friday's gardeners world

the-mango

amcluesent wrote: »

There was a thread on here which IIRC showed that grow your own wasn't money saving compared to buying in season produce at the market.

Would it be possible to have a link to that thread? Thanks!

floss2

amcluesent wrote: »

There was a thread on here which IIRC showed that grow your own wasn't money saving compared to buying in season produce at the market.

But if you don't have a sensibly priced market locally, or an Aldi or Lidl, then you are stuck with buying from the big supermarkets, and even my dodgy maths tells me that a packet of seed from which I can grow 50+ leeks which costs £2 is cheaper than buying 50+ leeks at Tesco or Asda, even when I have to pay for my allotment (£25 p.a.). Then when I add in cabbages, brocolli, cauliflowers, tomatoes, strawberries & raspberries (already planted in lotty), peas, peppers, courgettes, potatoes, carrots, beetroot, french beans, etc etc...all stuff I regularly buy for me & DH, but for which the seeds have cost less than I would pay for the produce.

All seeds have been sown in home-made compost mixed with soil so no cost there; I inherited lots of seeds when I took over my plot; I've been given lots of free seeds too; pots and greenhouse (unheated) were already on my plot so again, no cost incurred there, but most things I am growing are easily grown without a greenhouse.

cootambear

floss2 wrote: »

But if you don't have a sensibly priced market locally, or an Aldi or Lidl, then you are stuck with buying from the big supermarkets, and even my dodgy maths tells me that a packet of seed from which I can grow 50+ leeks which costs £2 is cheaper than buying 50+ leeks at Tesco or Asda, even when I have to pay for my allotment (£25 p.a.). Then when I add in cabbages, brocolli, cauliflowers, tomatoes, strawberries & raspberries (already planted in lotty), peas, peppers, courgettes, potatoes, carrots, beetroot, french beans, etc etc...all stuff I regularly buy for me & DH, but for which the seeds have cost less than I would pay for the produce.

All seeds have been sown in home-made compost mixed with soil so no cost there; I inherited lots of seeds when I took over my plot; I've been given lots of free seeds too; pots and greenhouse (unheated) were already on my plot so again, no cost incurred there, but most things I am growing are easily grown without a greenhouse.

yes, but you cant feed yourself off it for a year, can you?

the key is staple crops, in other words the carbs

can you in all honesty grow enough spuds or wheat or sorgum or maize or barley or rice to last a year?