Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Afternoon Sunbeams,
I have had a really productive gardening day today. I prioritised food growing & I feel I've made progress. I expect all the thinking I've been doing about grocery budgets & food prices provided additional motivation. So I have:
*Fetched all the outdoor tomato plants onto the lawn to speed up hardening off.
*Raked a bed & planted out this year's chard - still harvesting last year's which has been the crop that keeps on giving, but it will bolt soon. Netted new plants against bad beaks.
*Weeded out about a million self-sown violets & dug over next bed along & sowed beetroot. Covered with fleece/hoops. Bad beaks again!
*Got remaining growbags into position in greenhouse & planted up peppers & cukes. Planted remaining peppers in large pots.
*Sowed more coriander as pathetic germination from first sowing. Also sowed lemon coriander - never tried it but got a trial packet of seed for 99p.
*Watered new beds, sowings & greenhouse.
Friday is my usual cleaning day but I'm going to swap it to Monday. We are planning to fill our new front beds on Sat & plant them on Sun, plus have a BBQ to celebrate all the renovations finally being finished. I don't intend spending my time getting the house shipshape tomorrow only for it to be covered in topsoil & BBQ smuts a day later. 
Very little culinary effort required tonight as I'm heating up leftover slow cooker recipe I tried yesterday (which was lovely btw.....Mr F has already requested it again & even he reckoned it would easily do an extra portion as it was filling) & only need to cook some new potatoes to with it.
As for now, I think I need to get moving before I seize up - my hands are feeling stiff already - & I'm looking forward to an evening on the sofa.
Take care m'dears,
F xx

foxgloves

Oh.....quick P.S - Thanks for nice comments about iris. I love it. It was the last gift I received from a very elderly relative before she went into a nursing home with dementia, Parkinson's & covid. She's too far away to visit & no longer knows who I am, but I do write & send cards & next time I do, I intend to send a picture of the iris (she was a very keen gardener) & tell her how well it's doing. 
The sweet rocket & aquilegias in the iris picture are all self-sown freebies, like much of my garden. I don't know why I used to spend a fortune at garden centres during the Spendy Era because our garden defo looks better without it!
F x

DawnW

My chard has already bolted Foxgloves, and I won't resow until about the end of June, as I find that earlier sowings (here in the South) bolt almost straight away as opposed to lasting through the winter and into the spring. I agree, it is brilliant to grow, you can cut leaves over and over again, and it even looks pretty - I grow the ruby chard.

I have to take out self sown violets every year too, along with poppies, calendula, foxgloves, bluebells, nigella, and even gladioli. I didn't even realise that gladioli could do that. Unfortunately they are a lurid bright red, originally a present chosen by a small grand daughter several years ago. Obviously a colour that appeals to small children (their grandmas not so much ). They keep springing up all over the place, I have given loads away and they survive everything, even being chucked into the compost. Wherever you spread the compost, more lurid red gladioli appear! I haven't noticed seedlings before, but I have this year, and that probably explains why a bag of about 10 corms originally from W*lko have colonised so many local gardens!

foxgloves

Lol, @, DawnW....I love planty freebies but I wouldn't want gladioli springing up everywhere, as I'm.not keen on them at all either! I also get stray lily of the valley coming up every year despite my best efforts to get rid of them. I think they might look quite pretty planted in a bulb bowl on an outdoor table but when they just pop up as a couple of stringy leaves throughout a bed, they're just annoying.
I've had a few self-sown cosmos & larkspur pop up this year, so I was pleased to see those. Larkspur is one of my favourites because my gardening style is very relaxed & cottagey.
F x

Sun_Addict

When we first moved into our house 30 years ago the garden was a mass of anemones that are still going strong to this day. I’d love to have poppies, they grow everywhere locally, even in cracks in pavements, but sadly not my garden, I’ve tried without success. 

foxgloves

What a shame, @Sun_Addict. Poppies are not difficult to grow in theory but they can be a bit peculiar. I usually start off all seeds in the greenhouse as I have a problem with sparrows destroying seedlings & young plants, but the annual varieties can be iffy grown this way as seem to hate being transplanted. I think I will just sprinkle them among other plants in my borders & hope for the best. I might do that today actually.
F

DawnW

Poppies sprinkle themselves everywhere in my garden! I have to pull lots out each year, but always leave some amongst the vegetables as I like them. Aquilegia seem to be disporting themselves all over the place too. I planted one blue one from the garden centre years ago, and now have them in blue, pink and purple with a white middle. These transplant well, and I have given loads away this year.

foxgloves

Yes, aquilegias are very promiscuous @DawnW. My garden is full of them & they are so pretty atm, all flowering simultaneously. Most are shades of pink, with or without white in the middle but I also have a deep purple one popped up this year & some burgundy red ones. I brought some white ones from Mum's garden before we sold our old family home, which she grew from seed & it was nice to find that a couple of those have returned this year. They cross-pollinate so frequently that I always think I might find a new colourway!
F

foxgloves

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
Glorious sunshine ☀️ here. Stripped the bed first thing, swapped to summer duvet & washed all the bed linen straight away to make use of the strong breeze & sunshine......just as well, as the spin cycle didn't work properly this morning - my fault, I think, for ramming a big quilted mattress cover in there too, which overfilled it tbh (tightwad!)
Garden jobs all day, prioritising being in a position to plant up the new front beds this weekend. Several shopping from home wins:
*Sufficient geraniums over-wintered successfully to fill all my ceramic planters.
*Daffodil bulbs salvaged from spring containers drying on the lawn. Intend to fill a few gaps with them. Only a couple of soggy ones.
*Planted up usual containers to go by the front door using salvaged ivy & silver things (can't remember name) for the foliage & an over-wintered geranium.
*Collected the best of the compost from the bulb pots to re-use when filling new front beds tomorrow to help the topsoil stretch further.
*Cut a huge sheaf of comfrey stripped the leaves & bagged them for digging into the new beds. They are very nutritious & break down quickly. I'd normally buy chicken poo pellets for this but it's more plastic (the tub) & the comfrey badly needed cutting as was triffidding all over the sage & mint.
*Crossed lettuce off shopping list. Lollo rosso are of edible size & they will need to be out of that bed by the end of the month when I'll need it for beans.
*Re-arranged back courtyard pots. No sign of evil weevil in my heucherella pots. Used natural predator solution last year & it does seem to have made a difference with no scoffed casualties to replace.
"Put a couple of primulae & a heather in a shady corner where they'll hopefully keep themselves alive until I need them for autumn containers.
*Gathered together all the plants I've got ready for the new front bed planting..I still need plenty more but I can divide up more of the plants I have in the back garden, therefore avoiding further expense. I have already bought lavenders, a witch hazel, 2 buddlejas & a ceanothus. Gardens grow, they're not 'bought in' so I can add other things throughout the month, They will all now be free though, as we need to consolidate our finances after a considerable outlay on our renovation project.
Well, I am going to read a couple of chapters of my book, then I must get moving before I seize up - so much bending. Mr F will go ape when he gets home & spots that I've moved some of our biggest heaviest pots. Had better not moan too much about my stiff hands tonight! As long as I can still.hold a gin glass 🙂
F x

marionmgcars

Wow, you have been very productive with your day, well done with all the plant splitting, a great saving.  I always think our grandparents never had access to places like garden centre and just shared plants with neighbours and friends.  I had a night out in town for a few people who retired at the same time as I left work, it was lovely to see everyone.  As a treat I booked a Premier Inn Hub room for the night, which we have been wanting to check out for a while.  Very modern and high tech, and the bed was huge - only there is not tea making facilities in room (only in reception/bar area) which I missed.  Still it was a lovely treat to stay over in town.  I feel that if I am thrifty with my income I can afford an occasional treat like that, so enjoyed every minute of the stay.