Allotments on a budget

[Tadpole123]

Been there and done this myself many moons ago.

• Tupperware box/ice cream tub at home for all compostable stuff and start your heap at the lottie. I've started with an old rug/black bags/plastic sheeting on over it, you can improve on this in time.
• Learn to make paper pots http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ots_70682.html
• Ask on freecycle for fork/spade/watering can etc, you will get offered them eventually
• Grow some fruit, it's expensive in the shops. Freecycle will get you strawberries, there's bound to be others like me who have kept too many runners and need to get rid of them over the next 6 weeks. Also ask for raspberry canes.
• 99p and poundland sell raspberry canes should you be unlucky on freecycle. I got a wonderful thornless blackberry from 99p store a few years ago. Loads of tasty berries and a well behaved plant too.
• Herbs...again ask on freecycle for some mint and keep it in a pot
• If like me you don't drink anything that comes from a 2ltr bottle raid neighbours recycling bins as they make good covers for little plants and keep smaller bottles to sink in the ground next to water thirsty plants like beans and courgettes, you'll so many you'll be bored of them by the end of the season.
• Grow some sunflowers too, great for kids, seeds are tasty and attracts bees. I'd also get some poached egg plants in to.
• Consider a small area of square foot garden http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_44388.html
• Works very well for getting the most out of a small area.

Write down a list of what you like to eat (that can be grown, no cottage pies) and work out whats expensive to buy and grow that. I didn't bother with carrots as they're cheapish to buy and are in the ground for a while but a cucumber even in summer is going to set you back 70p-£1 each and in aldi/lidl you'll get a packet of seeds for less.

A good site with food preserving and storing info. See if your library can get his book in for you to borrow. http://www.allotment-garden.org/food/index.php

[Maddiesaur]

You are all so great and willing to share your knowledge, I love it and thank you

I've taken a few things on and researched Square Foot Gardening. I've decided that I'll give this a bash in one area. I've not planned to a Tee what I will do in it, but I am thinking more of the cut and come again types, lettuce and radish etc for salads, some herbs and edible flowers, strawberries, that sort of thing.

Then I'll use the rest of the space for the other things, which will likely be some spuds, sprouts, beets, etc.

There is a communal area for fruit trees, so if I can get a couple to add to this netted area, then I shall do that =D

[Tadpole123]

If you've got a £1 spare and want to get a head start on lettuce then do as I do and buy a living salad from sainsburys, I'm sure other places must sell it too.

When using it leave 2" at the bottom of each cut, when it's all used up I separate the lettuce plants and get between 20 and 30 plants depending on how closely they've sown the seed.
Some I keep on the kitchen window for quick use when they've regrown and the rest get planted outside. They grow to a good size this way as they're not squashed into the small trays.
So for £1 you get lettuce to eat and loads of plants that planted properly provide loads and loads of leaves. Useful if you're waiting for seeds to grow and a lot cheaper than buying a bag or head of it.

[Maddiesaur]

Amazing Tadpole, thank you! =D

[sparrow100]

If you have a garden centre near you, you could check whether they do pot recycling. All of the ones around here have a big crate in the car park for secondhand pots, and they are a great source of free pots for seedlings upwards. I've had big planters, long troughs and pot trays out of them as well as smaller pots for my mini-seedlings.

[Tadpole123]

Pea shoots are another great one to do and cheap.
Buy a 49p pkt 1 pkt lasts a year here Batchelors Bigga Dried Peas 250G - Groceries - Tesco Groceries and sow in shallow trays, meat trays, or make your own using cardboard and tape and line with grease proof paper. put near a window and they will pop up in a week or two. Harvest when 3" tallish. Very tasty, cheap and I use the same compost several times. I've even planted them in the soil from the living salads.
Pea Shoots Homepage

[RedThorn]

A pack of salad seeds, pick as cut and come again. Great way for getting healthy options into your diet.

[hamamelis]

I see you got offered some seeds already, but if there's anything specific you're after, I have a silly quantity of stuff, more than I can possibly grow. It also looks like I won't be able to make it to the swap I was planning this year, so PM me and I'll see if I have anything you're looking for!

If you want salad, I think I have enough packets to cover my entire allotment, and befriend every slug in the city

[Maddiesaur]

Thanks everyone.

I've started putting by margarine tubs, milk cartons etc for sowing some seeds on the windowsill in a few weeks.

To keep myself busy. I've crocheted myself a sort of gardening satchel. Something light and durable to hold some string, a small knife, some seed packets, a pen, some labels.. that sort of thing. Saved me the money buying one and kept me busy for a few hours

Two days until lotty day, wahoo!

[Mikey]

Speaking of pea shoots, you can grow peas for the shoots only in guttering, when the seedlings are about 8-12 inches tall cut them back to the ground and use as you would fresh salad leaves they'll come again aswell. The whole plant is edible leaves an stalks and when they are small they have a very distinctive pea flavour too.

You could grow these on a windowsill aslong as you cap either end of the trough. I hang mine from the roof in the greenhouse.

[Mikey]

I was in my local supermarket today and they had garlic and onions as sets ready for planting, 3 bulbs were £2.

They also had 2 sprouting bulbs in the veg section for 49p....., Divide and conquer.

[Maddiesaur]

Lol great stuff Mikey, thank you!

Tomorrow is PayDay, how wonderful!

We'll be taking a trip to the PoundLand shops close by and a stroll up to B+M to see about some cheapy gloves, string to mark out my sqft squares, that sort of thing.

I've put the word out for people to keep hold of their toilet roll tubes, old newspapers and the plasticy milk cartons, all to be turned into pots that can go straight to ground when needed and used as protection for younger plants.

I can't afford to spend a fortune on composts and all that jazz, so I'll be picking up the cheapest MPC I can find. PoundLand do a couple of soil improver's, worth picking one up? Which would you go for?

Anything else I haven't thought of?

[veggiechicken]

Without reading all the way back, has anyone mentioned the "free" flower buckets that you can pick up at some supermarkets and florists? Different shops have different policies, even within the same chain, so its worth asking around. They're great for growing tomatoes

[Mumbles]

Asd@ do three 70 litre bags for £10 that is good quality and will go a long way.
On the subject of flower buckets I phoned my local supermarket in the morning (when the flowers were being delivered) and asked for a few buckets saving, later that day came home with 51 bucket all for the cost of petrol to the shop and back


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[Maddiesaur]

That's really useful to know mumbles! I wondered if they deliver garden stuff with food stuff? I'll look into it. Not having a car, I buy the bigger, heavier food stuffs online and have it delivered, then get smaller and fresher stuff in the smaller local shops.

I'll look into that =D

Sadly no quick trips to the supermarket for tubs or anything, though I will ask around to see if anyone I know could do a stop in as they pass.

Thanks folks! I'll let you all know what I manage to get tomorrow.. and how much for!