Garden Centre Prices

[Olorin2001]

If your growing plants from seed for the retail trade you have so many expenses to take into account, and where you only want one or two plants then GC's have their place, but six sprouted but barely growing potato tubers for six pounds is taking the Michael big time.

[redser]

I could save a small fortune by learning how to service my car and make small repairs on it. But I don't. I pay a mechanic to do it. Lads I know who are into cars would probably say much the same things some people here are saying about people who shop in garden centres. I'm a gardener, not a mechanic.

[snakeshack]

most seeds,especially tomatoes keep for many years,i'm still getting 70-80 per cent germination from 10 year old tomato seeds so it's cheaper to buy seeds long term even if you only require a few plants,garden centres may encourage new gardeners but give a distorted impression of the cost of growing which may put people off.they do provide a handy source of plants in emergencies to fill gaps in rows or when your seeds don't show,but as a main source of plants they arean unfeasible option costwise.

[Kinkdom]

So the conclusion is they have their place?

[growerkari]

I have a little local nursery that I just love, I popped over last weekend, very big, healthy tomato plants, £1 each, which I figure is pretty good considering the time it took them to get it there, the food, the water, the compost, the pot etc, three times the size of mine and lots of different varieties. They also had cucs, peppers, chillies, aubergine, melon, courgettes, pumpkins, etc all nice, big plants £1 each.

Trays of brassica's, different lettuce and salad leaves are £1 for 6 plants.

It's not always convenient to grow everything from seed, I don't have the room for many trays this year, so my little nursery is a very happy medium.

I agree though, that the big garden centres or hardwear stores are ridiculously overpriced