My Garden

canny tips to save ££££'s

Last post 28-08-2009 11:23 PM by richardpeeej. 44 replies.

• 20/04/2009 08:09 PM	In reply to
  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,977	Reply | Contact There's a good deal on multi-purpose compost at Focus just now - 100l bags for £5.99 or two for £10. Seems like reasonable quality, too. And they're doing plastic buckets for 99p - about the right size for a few potatoes.

• 28/05/2009 02:44 PM

  In reply to

  Fogmatic Location: Co. Donegal, Ireland Joined on: 27 May 2009 Posts: 7

  Reply | Contact Does anyone else sow sweet peas in toilet-roll tubes (or is that just the long shadow of an Austerity childhood)? I pack them in a container to stop them falling over/apart and, when planting out, the tube will just peel off in a spiral.  It also saves wasting compost with unneccessarily wide pots. It was inspired by an item on Gardeners World or similar, about sowing sweet peas in a tailor-made new product 'the shape of a toilet-roll tube'.....

• 28/05/2009 03:02 PM	In reply to
  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200	Reply | Contact I've used loo roll tubes in the past for sweet peas and planted the whole lot out, the tubes do rot down so no need to peel them off first.  This last couple of years I've made pots out of newspaper and used them for the sweet peas with the same success. sue1002

• 28/05/2009 06:14 PM	In reply to
  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743	Reply | Contact Yes I remember sue1002, inventing this idea a lot of years ago, and probably that's where gardener's world have stolen the idea from and then pretended they thought of it. digger

• 28/05/2009 07:03 PM	In reply to
  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200	Reply | Contact  I can't take the credit for the newspaper pots digger, it was someone else's instructions I found on the web to use. sue1002

• 05/06/2009 04:20 PM

  In reply to

  ericg Location: Hampshire Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 3

  Reply | Contact  3 things i've done to help me to save cash. 1 - bought a beehive wormery for easy home composting and to produce my own fertilizer 2 - bought a paper briquette maker, this enables me to make bricks to burn on my fire from old newspapers 3 - also got a paper potter to help me turn newspapers in de-gradeable plant pots!  the best thing is, i don't even buy the newspapers! i use the free ones that come through the letterbox each week.  i got my stuff from earth-essentials, have a look

• 05/06/2009 04:41 PM	In reply to
  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743	Reply | Contact Ah yes but how much did each item cost you?? the newspaper pots that sue1002, sent me instructions for don't need any mechanics at all just manual dexterity digger

• 05/06/2009 05:15 PM	In reply to
  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200	Reply | Contact digger:  the newspaper pots that sue1002, sent me instructions for don't need any mechanics at all just manual dexterity   And a bit of soap to wash the dirty mitts afterwards sue1002

• 17/06/2009 08:13 AM

  In reply to

  Kesira Location: Elkesley, Nottinghamshire Joined on: 15 Jun 2009 Posts: 33

  Reply | Contact  Hehe gave me a good laugh reading all of these tips (candle is in the freezer as we speak!) Great way to start the day.  Coffee and forums. On a side note though.  I have to admit that oen of my favourite things is shopping (not food shopping that is just dreadful) and since losing my job it is something I greatly miss being able to do.  So, on a mission to try and save enough money to be able to go off to my local nursey and indulge myself in the 'pretties' I decided to try and find some better deals for all of my monthly payments.  You know, the usual, charities, bills, insurences and so on.  Wow!  What fun I had!  It turns out that a day spent 'anti shopping' is as much fun as shopping.  Well who knew?  I had so much fun trying to find good deals on everything and before I knew it I had turned it into some sort of competition for myself to try and save hehe.  I must admit that there was a scary part to it too.  I managed to save £200 a month, yes, MONTH with little to no effort...  Now that really bothered me...  all those plants!  Heck, it's a large chunk of the new arbour I have my eyes on.  As soon as hubby got home from work I started on some of his payments too.  Now, there are a couple of ones I have to finalise, but the savings from changing his insurences,the mortgage and bigger things like that was frankly terrifying.  The monthly savings are now over £500... Now, don't get me wrong with this.  I'm not stupid with money.  For a long time i've shopped around for best offers etc, but i've never had the time to dedicate to that task like now and oh what a difference that makes!  I did things that i ahve never dreamed of doing before, such as changing car insurence companies before renewal dates.  For example, my own car insurance went from £358 a to £173...  even paying the fee for cancellation that is a large saving.  EVen the dog got cutbacks!  I was paying £35 a month for his insurance and found a better policy for £19 with a charity.  So not only do I have better cover and am saving money, i'm also helping an animal charity to boot.  Ahh feel good vibes from all directions.  It is amazing what you can achieve with plenty of coffee, a day free, internet searches and a few phone calls. I still think washing the dishes with you in the bath like in the TV advert is a good one but I draw the line at the cheese grater! Gardening Tip When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it was a valuable plant.

• 18/06/2009 02:23 AM

  In reply to

  philip99a Location: Leicester (city centre) Joined on: 10 Jun 2009 Posts: 36

  Reply | Contact miranda: Like Sue, we also make our own plant food from nettles and comfrey and, yes, it reeks to high heaven, but it does the trick. For the garden, we've got to know some thatchers and they let us have their old straw. It's useful stuff for mulching the beds with and for the brown layer on the compost heap. Er... what's this "brown layer" method of compost?? All my compost is brown, once it's composted! A garden is the Islamic vision of Paradise.

• 18/06/2009 09:11 AM	In reply to
  Anemone Location: County Down, Northern Ireland Joined on: 08 Feb 2008 Posts: 575	Reply | Contact For good compost you need a mix of brown and green.  For example, grass cuttings are green but need something brown - paper (any colour shredded), garden shreddings, straw etc. - mixed with them so they don't just turn into smelly slime.    Anemone

• 18/06/2009 11:11 AM	In reply to
  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,977	Reply | Contact Anemone's right, the brown layer is made up of dry stuff like paper, autumn leaves, shreddings or straw.  The brown layer is carbon-rich while the green layer (not dried, like grass clippings) is nitrogen-rich. The RHS recommends using 25% to 50% green with the rest being brown.

• 28/08/2009 08:17 PM	In reply to
  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 809	Reply | Contact   I made an indoor watering can today from an old plastic milk bottle, and some odds and ends and put a picture on 'thrifty fun' .(My post and pic is about half way down the page.) The link to it  is below:- http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf10555569.tip.html Richard

• 28/08/2009 11:00 PM	In reply to
  Phot's-Moll Location: The sunny South coast. Joined on: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 3,347	Reply | Contact  Very good, Richard. Glad we've got another inventor on the forum to keep Digger company (although I dread to think what the pair of you could come up with if you joined forces!) Whether you think you can do a thing, or think you cannot, you are right.

• 28/08/2009 11:23 PM

  In reply to

  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 809

  Reply | Contact Ha ha -I like it Phot's!  Digger was posting a few days ago but I've not seen his posts lately. (I've just found loads  of courgette recipes some of them look OK guess I had better post it in the right place that's why I have put it in brackets here - although it could be said the recipes are canny tips to making instead of buying! http://www.nancys-kitchen.com/zucchini_recipes.htm ) Richard