I have a problem - I have no seeds. Thoughts please?:)

[annie8]

If you get salad leaf seeds they grow quickly and you get a lot of leaf for not a lot of cost. You can start that now - they don't actually like that much heat. I always think potatoes are good value too as they produce a lot from one plant and pretty easy to grow.

[veggiechicken]

The easest way to grow lots of kale and spinach is as cut and come again seedlings in lots of pots & seed trays. If you keep sowing another batch every couple of weeks you'll be able to keep cutting the leaves for salads and juicing.

[annie8]

Another thing is if you keep an eye on sites like gumtree people are sometimes giving away pots for free or very cheap. There are some clever and cheap ideas for things to grow plants in on this forum.

[Jungle Jane]

It looks like there’s a 10p seed sale at wickes & there’s a 30cm pot there for 10p good for mini tomatoes -
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Products/Ga...e=1&perPage=30

[Runtpuppy]

Hey gardening_gal! I swear by Freecycle. People around here put up offers for plastic pots, soil, horse manure, gardening equipment, and all sorts... Someone was even giving away seeds.

I myself got a few fruit bushes (gooseberry, raspberry canes, blackcurrant) and 3x butternut squash plants for nothing (I had to go pick them up, so maybe factor in the cost of petrol). This was in addition to the plant pots, topsoil, and horse manure that I have got for free.

You could look up on there, or even put up a wanted post for things you want. You never know what people might have and want to get rid of.

You may have to improvise if you can't find the exact thing you want. For example, if you can't find plant pots, people give away plastic storage boxes. You could use those as planters...just drill drainage holes.

Someone here used their compost dalek to grow courgettes in. Fill it up with compostable material and top up with manure, et voila! This is of course in addition to the various smaller planters you can get in form of fruit and veg boxes, yoghurt tubs, milk jars, etc.

My local M0le country store almost always has a 'buy 3 bags of compost for £10' sale going on. Is there one near you?


I would think of more optons, but I seem to have dried up for now. Hope this helps!

[rary]

You do not need compost for sowing seed, get some soil and put it through a fine sieve and use that for your seed sowing, I would assume there is not a great choice of shops above Inverness for cheap seeds so Lidles will be you best option and they also sell compost but it really is not necessary for growing plants, and as spring arrives collect some nettles for making a liquid feed there is no need to spend a lot of money for growing plants

[the big lebowski]

great find jane , thx for the link

[SarrissUK]

If you have slabs in both front and back garden, you can use IKEA bags to grow in, or get hold of free/cheap pallets and cut them in half length ways, then line them with plastic and screw together into bottomless containers.
Keep an eye out on Facebook too - if you go on a laptop/desktop, you get a tickbox for free stuff only, and you can get some right bargains in there!
Lidls near me has done five seed packets for £1 - those are the basic veg, but that's a great price for the amount of seeds you get too!
They also do the cheapest compost. Wickes do a great value 70litre bag for £4 too. They might even deliver actually.

It might be worth asking the local council's assets team to see if there's any land that they own near you that could be used by a social enterprise for a community garden. Then you and anyone else interested could apply for funding for all sorts of gear and stuff

[gardening_gal]

Thanks again all. My previous local Freecycle was brilliant, I got allsorts there before, everything from brand new Ikea Shelving to a dozen strawberry plants. My sister in law used to joke that she'd have to move because my local Freecycle was so much better than hers.

The local Freecycle here doesn't appear to be as good but maybe it's just early days, I'll keep an eye on it anyway. I did put up a post asking for unwanted breeze blocks but there's none to be had so far. They are only around £1.50 ish in B&Q but I need quite a few which makes it a much more expensive purchase.

I checked Inverness Wickes for the compost you mentioned, Sarriss, there's none unfortunately but maybe they will get some in, £4 is great.

No Mole stores in Scotland, runtpuppy.

Thanks for the link Jane but again, there's not much in stock in Inverness.

Right, that was just a very quick catchup, I have a bacon roll waiting for me.........

[Atta]

Lidl is good for seeds.I think they will bring compost soon.

[Runtpuppy]

Atta's comment reminds me... P0undland do 20ltr compost bags for a quid (if you can find one that does gardening supplies).

[Atta]

Home bargains 40 liters by £ 1,99 really decent cpmpost I bought it recently.There is many ways to cut expenses.You can ask neighbours for their veggie scaps,eggshells to have more compost etc.Nettle tea as fertilizer.

[Baldy]

Lidl - just picked up lettuce, cuke and courgette seeds. 5 packs for £1

[Chrissyteacup]

Been to B&Q today they have a clearence on and there was seeds for 50p but you have to rummage for them.

[Bex2012]

If you have a Range nearby, they do cheap seeds, im sure they were selling packets of seeds for 39p! Aldi have seeds in from tomorrow I think, multi packs of seeds for 99p (think theres 8 varieties in a pack).