Grow your own permalink
The Thrify Thread
This discussion has been closed.
-
Message 1.Â
Posted by Sam (U13967940) on Saturday, 3rd April 2010
We all like to save money, so post here all of your tips to save money and tell everyone where there are some good sales on!
- I use toilet rolls for plant holders for beans/peas... they make long root runner, rot away, and are free
- I save plastic drink bottles, and put over bamboo canes around my brassicas. These keep my nets from falling around
- Use ice cream/butter boxes cut up for plant labels... free and an unlimited supply
- If your thinking of throwing away sets of draws, keep tem. They make great shelfs when on bricks if your short of room in the greenhouse/shed at spring, and then can be used to stack on top of each other for storing veg in Autumn. Great way to save space and money. -
Message 2
Posted by wendy park (U14317814) on Saturday, 3rd April 2010
Old lace curtains instead of fleece to prevent things laying eggs.
Bricks to make trough my sister just remove part of wall and i used the bricks with some cement will be using to plant strawberries and some veg like onions-beetroot.
Mushroom plastic cartons put holes in add soil use to start seeds off.
wendy -
Message 3
Posted by Ian (U13936372) on Sunday, 4th April 2010
i have bought several cat litter trays from pound shops which make good gravel trays.Flower buckets make good pots for peppers and tomatoes and can normally be got for free.
-
Message 4
Posted by the2 jays (U14383723) on Sunday, 4th April 2010
Make holes in a cat litter tray & sow leeks individually. Use grow bag compost. Sorry can't do links but google sowing leeks in a cat litter tray for full details.
-
Message 5
Posted by freckledfrog66 (U6016353) on Sunday, 4th April 2010
I cut strong squash bottles into spiked collars for bean, sweetcorn and lots of other transplants and it seems to keep the slugs away.
polystyrene pizza bottoms are kept to put under cuttings in seed trays etc through winter.
cds tied together with old boot laces to scare birds off my veggie patch
old tights/etc cut up for cordon ties, tree ties
old tangerine nets to keep shallot bulbs in sheds etc hung from nails/hooks
Yoghurt and plastic tubs/mushroom boxes used for sowing seeds etc.............
toilet and kitchen rolls for leeks, sweetcorn, beans stood in large pots to stop falling over. -
Message 6
Posted by Oldends (U13875463) on Sunday, 4th April 2010
The 'leeks in cat litter trays' are here:
Cut the bottom half off large pop bottles and use the bottom as a propogator cover for individual plants. The top half can also be used. Made a number this afternoon to protect tomato seedlings that no longer need the heated propogator. -
Message 7
Posted by annaw1 (U14287763) on Sunday, 4th April 2010
I googled "free horse manure" and found some locally.
Plastic bottles can be used as watering cans or put over small lengths of bamboo canes to suspend fleece over plants without damaging it. Water-filled bottles can be laid on the ends of fleece to keep it from blowing away.
Newspaper used as frost protection and to line bottom of potato and bean trenches to help keep in moisture.
Old polysterene from packaging used as lightweight "crocks" at the bottom of pots.
Yoghurt pot lids used as saucers for seed pots.
I made a "line" to make veg rows straight by tying 2 small pieces of bamboo cane to either end of a long piece of twine. -
Message 8
Posted by lynne (U14310196) on Sunday, 4th April 2010
check in entrances/exits garden shops at Homebase etc as often giving away FREE potting trays !!
-
Message 9
Posted by nanpickle (U14258493) on Monday, 5th April 2010
Check your local Freecycle site for "preloved" gardening equipment, pots, seeds, etc.
-
Message 10
Posted by Oldends (U13875463) on Monday, 5th April 2010
In some areas, Freecycle has been replaced with Freegle. Both do the same thing and in broadly the same way.
Many catering establishments buy stuff like mayonaisse and ketchup in 5 litre tubs that often have both a snap-on lid and a convenient handle. Washed out, they're ideal for storing blood, fish and bone and other dry goodies.
-
Message 11
Posted by cellarina (U3441540) on Monday, 5th April 2010
If the staff in the local pub are friendly they may let you have waste beer (ullage)for your slug traps if you take your own container with a wide enough mouth to make it easy to fill.
-
Message 12
Posted by dahlia (U7885624) on Monday, 5th April 2010
Use yougurt, soup tubs pos to grow sweetpeas as they are tall. and also good for growing on other seedlings.
lids of the same pots can be used as saucers. -
Message 13
Posted by Calendula (U2331338) on Monday, 5th April 2010
I make individual cloches from large water/cola bottles cut in half. I make a small hole in the end of the bottoms; the bottle opening does the trick for the top half. Just planted my first lettuce out under them
Another vote for loo roll inners for peas and beans, and I use supermarket meat trays (the deep ones with holes in) for seed trays. -
Message 14
Posted by thevodkarose (U13048111) on Monday, 5th April 2010
As well as the usual stuff like loo rolls, cutting up butter tubs for labels etc, I've recently had a new kitchen fitted.
The old wall unit, lay down on it's back and with the doors removed will make a free raised planter. I think I'll paint it black too, to make full use of the suns heat for crops that like it warm. -
Message 15
Posted by jonwen (U14345720) on Monday, 5th April 2010
The ideal ties for all plants are cut up ladies tights ,soft, strong and rarely come off!!
-
Message 16
Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Monday, 5th April 2010
I have an old plastic bin (pre recycle days) with the lid upturned and holes in which I use to catch rain water. Wilkinsons are also selling the slim line water butts for £13.
Ikea bags, the large one's are only 40p for garden rubbish. I don't know whether they sell them in this country but in France they have smaller bags which look an ideal size for growing things like peppers and toms in your GH. They look to be made from the same material as the rather more expensive grow bags from GC. Only problem is the colour
Old book cases screwed to shed walls for shelving. I recycled two kitchen utencil wall brackets which screwed to the inside of the shed door is now home to a hand spade, fork and secatars and on the other door with round clips screwed to the centre of the door to keep tools from swinging are a rake, hoe and edger. -
Message 17
Posted by doncat (U11203674) on Monday, 5th April 2010
Through Freecycle I have stacks of gardening books and magazines, bamboos in pots, young passion flower plants, daylilies, crocosmia, marsh marigold, type of succulent, load of plastic pots, large planters, source of free rotted manure. I've given away an electric lawnmower that I no longer need.
There is often people giving away excess seedlings, plants, seeds and soil. -
Message 18
Posted by thevodkarose (U13048111) on Monday, 5th April 2010
I've also made old shelves into a trough planter, and leftover wood from a fench into a square planter.
I have a disused rabbit hutch in the outhouse since my bunny died (I don't want another - having so many need put down in the space of a few years is horrible), so I have my eye on that to make a planter from. -
Message 19
Posted by thevodkarose (U13048111) on Monday, 5th April 2010
fench? I mean fence.
-
Message 20
Posted by butterflyblue (U14402996) on Monday, 5th April 2010
From Freegle and Freecycle i have had wooden edging, bricks, stones, seeds, seed sower, pots, stands, seed trays, someones old air raid shelter was made into my rockery on easter sunday..looks great! (I have given away stuff too
)..also had some free trays from homebase!.
Poundland(the national one) i have had fleece, netting, roses(grown well with lots of flowers), fruit bushes(do produce fruit), solar lights, bulbs and seeds. Other cheap national shops 99p shop, wilkinsons, poundstretcher.
Reduced section at garden centres i got a huge zinc planter reduced from 14.99 to 1.25!!!
Ebay i got my toddler a play house, old sleepers, stepping stones and bargain seeds!.
make my own compost, use crushed egg shells round flowers instead of slug pellets. As most others do bottles for cloches, loo rolls for planting, food trays for seeds. -
Message 21
Posted by carriefie (U5414327) on Monday, 5th April 2010
Freecycle exists in ALL areas. In a very small number of areas only malcontent group owners/moderators declared UDI from the parent Freecycle organisation and formed a break away Freegle rather than keep their group within the International Freecycle organisation. The original Freecycle may not be perfect but you won't change anything by running away and forming splinter groups, you can only effect change from within.
I have received many plants from Freecycle and in the Freecycle spirit have gifted many more to others, meeting many keen gardeners along the way. This is what it is all about. To find your nearest Freecycle group go to www.freecycle.org/group/UK -
Message 22
Posted by ClaireWillis35 (U14367964) on Wednesday, 7th April 2010
Those large water cooler bottles you get in the office water machine make fantastic cloches for courgettes and squashes when you first plant them outside...you just have to sweet talk the person who comes to collect the empties...
... -
Message 23
Posted by greensward (U14347965) on Wednesday, 7th April 2010
Hi, Re; message 11, the beer is also good for plants as it is made from hops and yeast. I used to get a steady supply of ullage from the steward of one of the golf clubs I worked for. It has to be beer though, not lager. It acts as a liquid fertiliser if it is well diluted.
I'm not sure if you can still get ullage as a lot of breweries these days give pubs and clubs a rebate on ullage so publicans/stewards tend to empty drip trays back into an empty barrel.
I tried using beer to kill slugs but found even a large shallow dish only caught a few of the hundreds of slugs that are in a garden. -
Message 24
Posted by carriefie (U5414327) on Wednesday, 7th April 2010
Just wish you were right - having run many pubs over the years I've never come across one that gives you money for waste!
However, yes cask beer is great for plants especially hanging baskets but don't forget to water it down first. -
Message 25
Posted by cellarina (U3441540) on Wednesday, 7th April 2010
We have no problem getting ullage from our local pub, although obviously if the barman is busy we have to go back to collect it when he's had time to fill the container. Several small flattish containers are better than one large one - as long as we keep them freshly topped up, we get a lot of slugs in them and it is certainly worth doing.
-
Message 26
Posted by kate o (U14413738) on Wednesday, 7th April 2010
I used a plastic fizzy drink bottle today to re-pot my orchids! its was a cross between blue peter and constance spry- but they look GREAT!
-
Message 27
Posted by koala_girl (U12702629) on Wednesday, 7th April 2010
I had an indoor guinea pig hutch going spare after my elderly GP died. The top was a plastic frame that unclipped from the bottom. I covered it in fleece and it made a really good cloche to keep the cabbage whites off my cabbages last year. The base in currently full of seed trays in the conservatory.
I punch holes in the base of Carte Dor ice cream tubs, fill them with compost and sow salad leaf seeds in them. The lid is used as a drip tray and another lid can be put on top until the seeds germinate. The pots of salad are just the right size to grow on the kitchen windowsill. -
Message 28
Posted by bookertoo (U3655866) on Thursday, 8th April 2010
lots of folk at work having baked spud lunches, come in nice plastic boxes with lids, [erfect 1/4 sized seed trays, qute deep too.
Make 'stone' containers, cardboards box used for inside shape - try googling 'hypertufa', works very well, some here several years old.
Ask road workers for off cuts of plastic tubing, either cut up for pots or split to grow peas etc as in guttering. (serrated garden/kitchen scissors cut them well).
Cotton reels or old plasticine for cane tops, keep posties red elastic bands for all sorts of things.
Put out old mossy basket liners for the birds to pull apart for nesting material, but please avoid plastic shreddings.
Cut up cotton, linen or woolley clothes that are really well past wearing, even in the garden, and add to the compost heap.
Keep an eye on skips, amazing what people will throw away, and often quite happy to give you if you ask politely.
Keep an eye on any building sites near you, broken bricks and such like may often be taken away, again if you ask nicely. Sometimes however they are just now allowed to, so don't get cross with the poor chap doing the work!
Socks are often better than tights for ties, as tights/stockings can stretch and get very thin and cut bark etc., but if put over a strip of washing up liquid bottle that stops it happening.
I have an old kitchen fork which is my best tool for pot work, weeding etc, nice and fine and light - ony don't mix it up and eat your new spuds with it maybe!
The invaluable old tea strainer for catching lily beetles, they are about again folks. -
Message 29
Posted by BaraGwenith (U14257539) on Thursday, 8th April 2010
Those little yoghurt drink pots make good cane tops to stop you putting your eye out.
Beg some plastic electric wire from a friendly farmer, it makes an excellent garden line. Ask the same farmer for some binder twine from bales - many, many uses.
Old swede bags are good for storing vegetables or 'stuff'.
Old sweaters, cut up, are good for lining the base of troughs or pots, then consign to the compost heap at the end of the season.
Wine corks for drainage in pots. -
Message 30
Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Friday, 9th April 2010
Check out the message on alloment thread for 'newspaper pots'. A great way to make square newspaper pots in different sizes using origarmi. I've just made some using A4 paper, great size for germinating seeds in
-
Message 31
Posted by janey (U14416496) on Friday, 9th April 2010
Old ikea bags, slotted into a wooden box i made from floor boards destined for the skip, to hid the colour, four potatoes in each bag, and the potatoes were seeded supermarket potatoes, and a bit later lots of potatoes
-
Message 32
Posted by nanpickle (U14258493) on Saturday, 10th April 2010
Just returned from shopping - poundstretcher shop was selling 3 tier plastic mini greenhouses for £9.99, so I just HAD to get one to go with my 4 tier which has been invaluable. They also had "Walk in" plastic gh's for £20, but I have no room so will have to make do with my "proper" gh. Nan x
-
Message 33
Posted by hicklingj (U13928931) on Sunday, 11th April 2010
The 99p shop are selling slug traps. 2 in a box and have a container for putting the beer in and a lid on top. I brought some from e-bay last year and they really worked.
Now we have stocked up - bye bye slugs -
Message 34
Posted by aj (U14390242) on Sunday, 11th April 2010
i got the £20 greenhouse from poundstetcher a few weeks back it's been fab really stood up to the winds we had last week and lots of space for pots and grow bags fab buy
-
Message 35
Posted by Oldends (U13875463) on Monday, 12th April 2010
Tried the origami pots mentioned above, but found it too much of a faff! Just made a dozen paper pots the same size as loo rolls using my latest tool, an empty plastic container that once held Sainsbury’s black peppercorns. Remove the top and throw it away then get hold of a tabloid newspaper and cut it in half at the fold.
Take one sheet, fold it in half and put the container on the paper so that the closed end is near the fold. Roll the paper around the container but not too tightly. Push the container up so that the closed end sticks out by half an inch or so. Fold the paper at the other end into the container starting with the overlapped end. Remove the container, reinsert it the other way up and press the bottom of the pot so it’s more or less flat.
Job done! -
Message 36
Posted by Oldends (U13875463) on Monday, 12th April 2010
Forgot to mention that I made the pots above as I'd run out of loo rolls before I ran out of runner beans to go in them. And the container works better if you remove its paper label.
-
Message 37
Posted by sparklepinksunflower (U10977805) on Tuesday, 13th April 2010
Just about all my thrifty tips have already been covered.
But no one yet has mentioned Seed Swaps yet.
i belong to 2 on line seed swap groups
www.gardenswapshop.co.uk and yahoo seed swap.
Great when you can get some very exciting seeds for the cost of a stamp! -
Message 38
Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Tuesday, 13th April 2010
Has anyone thought of car booting surplus sedlings/plants.
I have over 20 surplus strawberry plants, which I potted into troughs overwinter then put in individual pots once defrosted in March.
I've also sown far more seeds, veg wise than I could possibly plant out so was considering selling them on a car boot in May at rock bottom prices and putting the money aside in a tin for new seeds at the end of this year for next. -
Message 39
Posted by koala_girl (U12702629) on Tuesday, 13th April 2010
I hadn't thought of car booting. I have so many surplus plants at present that I could open a garden centre. I can never resist potting up all seedlings, dividing up all large plants and taking far too many cuttings. It would kill me to throw a strawberry runner on the compost heap! I even carefully dug up and potted several seedlings which the hawthorne tree had produced in a nearby flower bed.
-
Message 40
Posted by Mike (U14311251) on Tuesday, 13th April 2010
I am hoping to have an honesty box if I have too many veg.
-
Message 41
Posted by Vixxihibiscus (U13865184) on Wednesday, 14th April 2010
Further to the Ikea blue bag idea...I have planted my potato tubers in them. I lose them on the plot and always end up with infiltrators the following year from the ones I missed!
Just like potato sacks but at the teeny tiny price of 40p...it's much easier on the back too. Just tip them out and collect up the loot! -
Message 42
Posted by aj (U14390242) on Wednesday, 14th April 2010
on the subject of growhouses poundstretcher have reduced the large walk in plastic greenhouse down to £16.99 from £20 typical that is after i'd already got one plus had john inns multi purpose compost for just £1.99
-
Message 43
Posted by spottheweed (U4894744) on Saturday, 17th April 2010
I own horses, and would be DELIGHTED to have people take away my muck for free, as otherwise I have to pay the farmer to do it! I do use it on my own garden, but that doesn't really count as "thrifty" given how much it costs me to produce it in the first place. So take a drive around your local countryside and knock on the door of any place that has stables. However, I would ask what type of bedding they use. If it's shavings, they aren't the best for the garden as I'm sure you all know they take ages to break down, and lock up nitrogen. I use cardboard bedding which is brilliant, paper is also very quick to rot. Straw is ok too.
I've given away some via Freecycle too.
I use plastic takeaway tubs as mini propogators, and much of the information already shared like using marg tubs, yoghurt pots etc. On here someone else used old plastic milk bottles to grow carrots. They turned them upside down and threaded the carton handles on to a 3" plank of wood, which was nailed to a fence. Cut bottoms off the bottles (which are now the top!) and puncture a few holes in the lid for drainage. Means carrots can grow straight, and hopefully too high for carrot fly. -
Message 44
Posted by Vixxihibiscus (U13865184) on Saturday, 17th April 2010
Hi Spottheweed...
Why don't you put a sign up? I'd love free horse muck...I'd just think it was too cheeky to ask! -
Message 45
Posted by spottheweed (U4894744) on Saturday, 17th April 2010
Hi
I actually did put a sign up, but the issue was that it meant I either had to bag the manure up myself and leave it on the road-side, or risk people seeing the sign and climbing over the fence to help themselves when we aren't in.
I suppose I could hang the sign up just when we are at home
I don't think anyone would think it cheeky if you asked, as everyone is in the same boat of having to get rid of it! -
Message 46
Posted by 7magpies (U8108459) on Saturday, 17th April 2010
Another thing that works for drainage at the bottom of pots is expanded polystyrene (the moulded sort that's used for packaging), broken into chunks. It's very light, though, and some pots may end up top-heavy. Ideal for lower, flatter troughs etc.
I keep kitchen salt containers and use them to have a portable amount of bonemeal/Growmore to carry around and sprinkle on the soil as needed. If the bonemeal or whatever comes in a cardboard package, I store this in a platic carrier bag and seal the top with a clothes peg, to keep it dry. The stuff that's decanted into the salt containers stays nice and dry. -
Message 47
Posted by ladynovicegardener (U5368058) on Saturday, 17th April 2010
ping
-
Message 48
Posted by annaw1 (U14287763) on Saturday, 17th April 2010
Re: horse manure, I agree, I would not have the nerve to ask. Why don't you advertise on Trade-It? I think its free and that's where I noticed the stuff we got. The guy we got it from said they advertise it every year and the whole lot goes.
-
Message 49
Posted by koala_girl (U12702629) on Tuesday, 20th April 2010
I had horses during my teenage years and we were always trying to get rid of the muck heap. I remember the relief when a man with a truck turned up and offered to take it. I didn't care if he was going to sell it on, I just wanted it gone. It did have its uses in the winter though, as it was lovely and warm to stand on in the cold weather.
-
Message 50
Posted by welshcol (U2301689) on Wednesday, 21st April 2010
Plant shallot bulbs about two inches apart and pull as Spring onions for salads after six weeks. Spring onions in shops 50p>75p/bunch, shallot bulb bought for 5p>10p.
.
Keep planting lettuces from tom thumb>May Queen> Webb's Wonderful cost must be lettuces in shops 75p>1-20p for iceberg!!! <1p/seed if you have any spare soil.
About this Board
Welcome to the new Gardening Board. If this is your first time, then make sure you check out the
or  to take part in a discussion.
The message board is currently closed for posting.
Weekdays 09:00-00:00
Weekends 10:00-00:00
This messageboard is .
Find out more about this board's
Search this Board
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú navigation
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú links
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú © 2014 The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.