Gardening on a budget?

Hello. I've just moved into a rented house that I'll be living in for two years. The garden is sp**** to put it lightly. I want to put some plants in because I love gardening and because I want it to look nice. However, I'm quite new to gardening (only been doing it a few years) and don't really know the best way to fill it on a budget (I don't want to spend too much money on a garden I'm only going to be in for two years).

I have brought some plants with me from my old garden that I am going to split but I'm not sure how suitable they are going to be because although the rear garden is south facing it gets a lot of shade from very tall trees. The front garden is north facing so I was thinking about putting lots of juicy hostas in, does anyone know if you can get these in plugs or seeds?

Does anyone know of other ways to get cheap/free plants?

 

Hiya, for cheap and easy you can go for anual seeds, some can be sown direct, just thin them out there's always the wild flower route which can be bought in packets, ask family and friends and as JKW said freecycle is good for that sort of thing good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

Sweetpea is right I would go for the annuals and plant Hostas in pots so after two years when you move you can take your pot plants with you.

 

Merroney I would agree with the others about seeds. You can do it very cheaply. You can use youghurt pots with an added drain hole instead of buying pots. And food trays instead of seed trays. You just need seeds and compost.

But why not go for first year flowering perennials. This is what I did in a totally empty garden, and I was delighted by the results. You will get the flowers and the advantage of perennials is that they will come back next year and will automatically grow with time. You can also take cuttings and divide them to get more.

If you get a seed catalog from Mr Fothergill or Thompson and Morgan they identify all the first year flowering perennials. So you can just flip through the pages.

 

Excellent idea. I'd also agree with planting things in pots, they don't have to be the expensive sort, even plastic ones will do fine. Once the plants in them get established, they'll hide the plastic!

 

Yeah I agree about the pots and take a look at the seed bank in exchanges as well cause u can get some seeds for the price of 2 stamps. Cuttings is a good way to free gardening and J Parker have offers on hostas, 3 for the price of 2 I think. They have a website. I ordered some hostas and they come barerooted

 

Oh and the plastic drinks cups make good pots too. My hubby brings me them from work as the machine insists he has a new cup each time lol

 

Hi Merroney, I agree with what has been said on here already - I'm a novice like you, only been doing it for 2 years and I love it.

I too am saving my cappuchino plastic cups for next year although I do have lots of seed trays etc already. If you have a B & Q near you (I'm assuming all the stores are the same) they have a bin by the door in which people put their unwanted trays ect. That's a great way of getting started.

Also, another way of recycling is 'freecycle' on the web. It has local groups and they often have pots etc that people want rid of and it's all free! Mind you, think some of them get stuff and sell it or whatever, but you get that everywhere unfortunately.

Seeds are a great way of starting cheaply especially buying out of season. Best of all, become a 'proper' member on here! It's a great site, with friendly people and invaluable advice!

Hope you get sorted.

cheers