Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Morning Sunday Sunbeams, 
Chilly again here - have just popped down to greenhouse to uncover plant babies - but it is bright, so will be able to tackle the garden jobs I postponed yesterday. I'm intending to skype my sister this morning at coffee time, but otherwise I have a free day. I'm wondering whether I'm feeling sufficiently brave to tackle some sewing. Anyway, I'll hopefully be able to pop back on later & report a bit of progress.
F x

stitching_witch

Good luck with the sewing, Foxgloves. You will have a new top to wear so use that as your incentive. 

I’m planning on spending the majority of the day and evening in the sewing studio. I cut out the pieces for a new lap quilt yesterday so I’m eager to get stitching. It’s fabric I bought on my Danube cruise 18 months ago so I’m very excited about seeing it finished! 

foxgloves

Hi Stitchy, 
I bet your quilt will look lovely. I have bottled it re sewing today. My sis (excellent dressmaker & can cut her own patterns) gave me some advice on how to make the lower section of my top pattern a bit more A-line if I want it to skim my womanly curves (!)..... it sounded like the sort of thing I could easily eff up, so I wimped out of sewing today. Lots done in the garden though.
F x

foxgloves

Well m'dears, I've just sunk my ample bottom into the sofa & thought I'd get a quick post on.
Still no sewing, but a useful day in the garden. Am a bit achey now from my endeavours. My intended job was to tip out 3 tubs of spent daffodil bulbs to replant in identified gaps in my flower borders. Unfortunately (& all of us who live with a pesky whiskered feline will also add 'typically'....) ALL three identified replanting areas had been carefully mined with stealth poo. Thankfully, I spotted the disturbed soil & did not fall into the trap! But I did decide I'd rather do something else first, so I re-cut the edges of a very neglected strip of border up the side of my greenhouse, cut back some more of the hedge there for better light, raked out about a millenium of ancient twiggy prunings, planted some of my rescued self-sown foxgloves, aquilegia & centaurea and divided & replanted a purple geranium. I also made enough space to start a new log pile as we like to encourage wildlife.
Then I felt up to jettisoning the cat poo so got on with planting the bulbs out. I had 7 bulbs in each big pot, so I divvied them up into 6 clumps & replanted them exactly where I could have done with a bit of bright spring colour this year.
Mr F had the shredder out nearly all morning. It's noisy, so I was expecting Victor Meldrew to stick his head over the fence (again) at any minute to complain, but he didn't. The shredder doesn't eat thicker branches, but that's fine, as he has put several of those aside ready for constructing our climbing bean frame & wigwam. I also nabbed a few twiggy bits for supporting a promising-looking group of delphiniums, which I sowed last year from the very out of date seed stash found when we were clearing Mum's house.
Waved the rake around for a bit then retired to my sunny pondside bench with a magazine. It's felt like a very productive gardening day today, but nothing has involved spending any money. My new plantings were all grown from free seed or were self-sown or divisions from plants I already own. We won't need to buy any new 8 foot canes to replace our rotten ones because we have sufficient re-purposed branches from the strip of scrubby wasteland we cleared behind the shed to use as poles. And the bulbs we enjoyed in patio pots this Spring are now planted out to provide their lovely cheery colour again next year.
Back in the day I used to spend so much money (well, technically the bank's money, of course) at garden centres. It is genuinely rewarding now to see how much can be achieved on minimum spend.
Well that's my day. I'm hoping for more productivity tomorrow.
F x

Baileys_Babe

I always in enjoy your garden reports. I have no idea how to do anything in the garden except cut the grass and pick the apples. I find it inspiring and one day I would like my garden to be a thing of beauty and produce. Every time you tell us about your garden exploits I'm in awe. I wish you were nearby and could take me under your wing and guide me.

foxgloves

Awww, glad you enjoy my garden updates, BaileysBabe, as I sometimes post my diary entry thinking 'well, all I have really done is talk about my garden'. The truth of it, however, from which I haven't shyed away, is that I used to spend huge amounts at garden centres - from all the various departments, but mostly garden/plants - & have realised how unnecesssary most of this was. I think there were a lot of garden makeover programmes in which most of the stuff was simply 'bought in' rather than grown or homemade sustainably & I think a lot of people (particularly us spendy types) fell into the money pit of believing you can buy a garden. Of course you can buy things which add to it - I'm getting a huge amount of pleasure from the two wooden seats we bought last year - but the best gardens are grown, not bought, & that allows us to develop skills as we go along, to recycle & repurpose things, to take cuttings & divisions and swap with friends for free plants.
Like everything, the way to get started is with a manageable project such as some runner beans or courgettes, a herb bed or small flower border. I promise you that taking a basket down to the veggie plot early on a summer morning to see what's ready for picking makes the physical work worthwhile.
F x

Dottles1

I totally agree Foxgloves.  I have succumbed to buying a few plants this year as there was nothing in the back garden when I moved here and I have moved things that had self seeded in the front garden, including a rose bush that the first owner of the house had panted but which had grown leggy and wasn't flowering (it has some hopeful buds on it at present) and an unwanted dwarf apple tree from my son's house which is now covered with blossom.  As well as that, I have several plants from local people giving their extra away or charging a few pence.  You do have to be a little patient but I get great pleasure from knowing where each plant has come from, a little garden of memories really

HairyHandofDartmoor

I love  your gardening tales too Foxgloves and find them very soothing and therapeutic. I think having a garden is a luxury that I'm very grateful for, even if mine is tiny. My grandfather was a gardener by profession and spent all his free time creating a paradise in his own garden. I'm ashamed to say that I've picked up very little of his knowledge, but I do have his love of gardens . Did you inherit your love of gardening from your parents do you think?

Baileys_Babe

I agree @HairyHandofDartmoor having a  garden is a luxury and one we have always prized very highly. Both the houses we have owned have come with good-sized gardens which were definitely a major plus point in our decisions to buy them.

Currently, it has been such a blessing having enough outside space that my children can run around and climb trees whilst still abiding by the lockdown.

loopylupin

Hello Foxgloves

Wow! I have read your diary from the very start...took me a while but so lovely. What an inspirational space you have created here. You had me hooked with your debt advice, your gardening stories and tips, ways to cook and eat from stores...and also your stories for your spendy days. You have shared your highs and lows with the sad times of loosing your parents. 
I am on my journey to break my bad spending habits, increase my NSD’s and become more frugal. With a view to be debt free in 3 years (sadly no mortgage but rent for me so won’t have the joy of having paid off a mortgage)
 I have taken inspiration from your diary with veg growing and have a good supply of baby veg and seeds growing. I have even refrained from garden centre spending. 

I haven't posted before I’ve just been a long time lurker here taking ideas and inspiration quietly. I wanted to thank you for the changes you have helped me to put into place and more Importantly stick to them. 🌸