getting started on the cheap

**BumbleB** · 01-05-2009, 07:38 PM

You could try your local freecycle website and put up an ad. Seems as many people dont want compost bins as those that do. I got lots of plastic pots for free when I needed to pot on seedlings.

You can make raised beds from wood pallets. Seeds are cheap at Netto (17p) and places like Aldi and Lidl.

**tootles** · 01-05-2009, 07:38 PM

If you don't want to spend - don't bother with raised beds. I grow my veg the traditional way, in rows. It works jolly well and I don't have to shell out for anything other than seed.
Anything will work as a pot; cut off milk cartons, yoghurt pots, tin cans, loo roll innards, meat trays. Morrisons sell off their flower buckets very cheaply (see other thread).
There is also another thread about the best places to get cheap seed.
So long as you have a spade and a fork you can get growing for less than a tenner.

**RedThorn** · 01-05-2009, 07:39 PM

well trial it without all the raised beds etc to start with. You don't neccesarily need raised beds etc There's loads of pots etc going on freecycle all the time in my area.

for the cost of some hard graft and a few seeds, you can have a trial run this year and see what you think.

grow a few things that you like and take it from there

**lavender lou** · 01-05-2009, 07:41 PM

Join your local freecycle and look out for things on there and you can also post a wanted ad too asking for things.

Ask around friends and family you never know what some chuck out that is no longer useful for them but might for you.

**janeyo** · 01-05-2009, 07:42 PM

Hi your local recycling centre may well sell or give compost away.
We got our wood for raised beds from a local scaffolder who almost gives used boards away and even helps to cut them up.
The pots I scrounged from family and friends and got cheaply from wilkos. Or re-used yoghurt pots, ready-meal trays (not mine lol) and stuff like that. Even tetra packs can be cut down to make a pot.

I also use old washing up bowlsa nad have used old cat litter trays as saucers. You need a little imagination!

**ckfe** · 01-05-2009, 07:56 PM

getting started on the cheap

anyone know where to get stuff like raised beds, composters, planters etc very cheaply? (free

) i'm a total newbie and don't want to get over excited and spend a fortune getting all the kit just in case the novelty wears off!!

**vicky** · 01-05-2009, 08:09 PM

Freecycle is useful but a bit hit and miss, poundshops and cheaper supermarkets like Lidl, skips, also talk to your neighbours as sometimes they have bits and pieces they are looking to donate to good homes!
Welcome to the vine, whereabouts are you?

**ckfe** · 01-05-2009, 08:15 PM

hi thanks for the welcome. i'm in eccles manchester.. i've not got a clue what i'm doing to be honest, i've just thrown some seeds in pots with compost and i'm hoping for the best!!

**blito** · 01-05-2009, 08:35 PM

Originally posted by ckfe View Post

to be honest, i've just thrown some seeds in pots with compost and i'm hoping for the best!!

works for me m8

i`m in my 2nd year of growing my own and getting on really well thanks to the advice offered round these parts.
i log on pretty much everyday and read others posts, learning as much as i can as quickly as i can and then try to put it into practice - so much so that my rear garden now nearly resembles an allotment! with added kids toys of course

**Snadger** · 01-05-2009, 08:47 PM

You need to become a 'skip rat'!

**ckfe** · 01-05-2009, 08:49 PM

the hardest bit is trying to wrench a bit of land away from other half.. i want to grow food, she wants to grow grass!!

**ckfe** · 01-05-2009, 08:53 PM

lol is that something you've done?

**taff** · 01-05-2009, 09:02 PM

you don't need raised beds unless you have hard-landscaping or crap soil. It's a bandwagon thing at the moment for advertisers/companies trying to cash in.
You don't need a composter either, you could just throw everything roughly into a pile in a corner somewhere, it will rot down, maybe not as quickly, but it will rot.Three pallets stood up and screwed or cable-tied or tied with string together will keep it looking a bit neater would be fine, but you don't need that even. Your local council will probably supply cheap ones, or ask on freecycle for free ones.
Planters, you can make them out of spare wood, or pallet wood. Buckets etc, you can find these on skips, builders usually throw away their plastering buckets if it's a big job, just knock out the plaster, and presto, a planter

As long as you don't want your garden to look like a showhome, you can use just about anything. Empty tins of beans/tomatoes etc make good starter pots for seedlings, plastic bottles cut in half, loo rolls, old shoes/wellies, egg-boxes etc etc.

**Alice** · 01-05-2009, 09:03 PM

Ckfe, you don't have to spend anything to start.
You can plant a few seeds in a pot on the wondowcill, a pot outside the back door, a square yard dug out of the grass, an inch strip up the side of the path- you have the picture, don't you. It's what I would do if I was you.
I started with 8 marigold seeds when I was 8 - and worked on from there.
See how it goes for you.

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