Share and Share Alike

I love browsing the aisles of the local garden centres.  We are lucky enough to have a few really good ones near us which not only have a huge selection of plants and gardening equipment but also really good gifts and cafes too.  I could quite happily spend hundreds of pounds on all sorts of fabulous pots and plants.  Needless to say sense and the budget manage to keep a tight rein on me though!

It is surprising how much a few plants add up to.  I needed to restock a few items in my garden following the long winter and heavy snow.  Sadly a few plants in pots didn't make it, neither did the pots for that matter, suffering frost damage.  I was quite restrained and bought 6 geraniums, 3 Moneymaker tomato plants, 12 lobelia, a yellow flowering plant (I need to go and look at label!), a small tray of bedding plants and a bag of compost.  That little lot set me back £33!

I also wanted to get another half barrel as the metal band running around my current one has rusted and snapped causing the sides of the barrel to move outwards and apart.  A new on in the same size was £35 though, so I decided to leave that for now.

A cheap way to add variety to your garden is swapping cuttings with other gardeners.  A couple of the shrubs in my garden were cuttings from my mother-in-law and sister.  This year, I gave some of my surplus red onion sets to my mother-in-law and got a courgette plant, some runner bean seed, some basil seedlings and teasel seedlings in return.

Even if you don't get around to swapping cuttings or seeds, you can share your produce.  It is a great way to deal with gluts of fruit and vegetables, or if you have a small garden, a good way to increase your variety of home grown produce.  Let's not forget either that sharing just makes you feel good!