Pound / cheap shops gardening kit

Del_Astra

Well Aldi's have some more gardening stuff in this Thursday:

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/offers_week08Thursday13.htm

I notice a few of the pound / B&M type stores are gradually getting stuff in, and Wilko's was moving shelfing for what looks like more gardening kit.

So where are people heading to this year? What deals have you spotted? Anyone got any good seed compost? (I got a bucket full of mole hill soil at the weekend :-) Very MSE.

I have plenty of pots / propogator sets that I cleaned after use last year, so will be trying to avoid buying more this year. I shall be keeping away from seed displays, but will no doubt purchase more. I think I may need to start using the propogator sets this week, but trying to hold off as I always seem to start things too soon. I do have a bigger garden this year, and always give plants away, so might as well get cracking.

I do need a new fork so if anyone see's a good deal or can recommend one please let me know.

ALIBOBSY

Must admit to likely Aldi and Lidl as the prices are so good, the seeds are great have found. I like the Aldi gardening gloves and will be getting some more as kids seem to loose mine over winter-this year will be hiding them in the shed lol.

Still using the green plastic propagators from Aldi, but they can be a bit flimsy, but fine if looked after-tbh looked at some in other stores that were twice the price and seemed little stronger so unless you go crazy for a more solid v. pricy version plump for the cheapy.

Been cleaning out the greenhouse today and having a tidy around the garden and have alot of pots and buckets left over. I save old pop bottles/cream tubs/toilet roll inards and my son loves his pot noddles-yack, so reuse them for various stages of planting and morrisons cheapo flower buckets-usually get around 10-12 for £1 and on occasion some free. So probably ok for them.

Picked up a couple of bags of cheap compost from Makro in Jan, and the rest will come from the compost bins in the garden-one from garden/house waste one full of rotted chicken waste from the coop.

Have used both A and L grow bags in the past and they were ok, but seemed to get lots of lumps of wood/stones and plastic in them lol.

Ali x

wellused

I bought some marigold and a couple of other packs of seeds which I can't off hand remember what they were from lidl last year around this time, and as the previous April had been very summer like, if you remember the Royal Wedding year, I gambled on summer 2012 being early too so I sowed the seeds in trays in February and put them indoors in a sunny position. The problem was that obviously last year April May and much of June was far from summer like so the seedlings grew into plants and as there was no prospect of planting them out I was struggling to house them, they were in and out like a fiddlers elbow. This year I am going by the fact that you gain little by sowing early if the weather's not warm enough because by sowing when the weather warms up the seeds grow faster anyway and soon catch up. So I will be holding off sowing for a few weeks yet no matter how tempting it is to get underway.
The seeds from lidl were great by the way and I ended up with more plants than I knew what to do with.
I bought some seed compost from Aldi last week for around £1.50 a bag and when I opened it up it looked great not at all course like the usual cheap compost. This week I see that both lidl and Aldi are selling compost at about the same price and as I bought and had good results with lidl compost last year I will be getting a few bags this year too.
A chap up at the allotment was praising his purchase of a garden work tray which he said was invaluable for when he sowed his seed trays, it holds the compost without it spilling onto the floor and has sections for holding tools and labels. I see that they have an almost identical item in Aldi this week priced at £6.99, I'm tempted to get one but I may well stick to using the old washing up bowl which does a similar job and cost nothing. Loads of good value gardening stuff in the shops at the moment from fruit bushes and trees, to seeds, and composts, bark chippings, and tools. The bark chippings that I have bought from Aldi in the past have been better quality than some that I have bought from well known stores too.:T

Del_Astra

Thanks for the replies, I like to start some tomato plants off about now, if hardened off ok it increases the time you can eat your own crop. Assuming we get a summer this year. I think the trick is to stagger if you lose some its not the end of the world. Normally start Peppers and Cucumbers now as well. Will get some letuces and spring onion on the go too.

The Council here gave us 3 bags of compost from the brown bin recycling last year (free of charge you just had to collect it), pretty impressed tbh. They actually gave you more if you asked so I didn't need to purchase any, I'm hoping they do the same again this year. Had a look in the compost heap at the weekend, its looking good, some lovely big worms, that I can wait to try when the fishing season gets under way :-)

Used some very cheap trays last year £1 for 4 (20 per tray) from UK discount store, pretty flimsy and a few ripped when getting the plants out, but they done the job well. I have the propogators that Aldi's are selling and I also have plenty of seeds, some harvested from last year. Will get the kids onto the sweet peas at the weekend, they seem to like that last year, i think because the seeds are larger its easier for them.

Pixiechic

I have bought some of the fleeces from the pound shop, they were great for my tomato plants last year and anything else that I needed to cover from the cold mornings! Also good for keeping pests at bay.