garden in need of yet more plants

The summer fete season is on the horizon, their plants stalls help stretch the budget and often hold surprising finds. Treat yourself to the fun of hunting down some bargains, hchristy.

I know exactly what you mean about trying to fill your garden with plants - it definately takes more than you think. I've had the same problem this year, but have been lucky enough to find some really cheap plants from our village plant lady who sells plants she has grow.

They are usually very small so I have to be patient (not easy) and I also have to allow them space for when they do grow bigger. Most of them have grown reasonably well though and for only 50-70p per plant I don't mind waiting.

Hi Hchristy the bigger supermarkets do plants very cheaply, look on your local 'Free cycle' free plants are asked for or offered. Also fund raisers such as school/church fairs and boot fairs often have cheaper plants to. Any garden takes time to fill and even more to get it right. I sowed straight into the soil things like Love in the mist and Forget-me-not to fill space till I got around to planting

Hello Hchristy, I second Drc726 for using direct sowing annuals for filling out spaces quickly.They are cheap to buy and pretty much take care of themselves. Love in a mist is beautiful.shirley poppies are also great for that. Even a small garden like mine took some time filling out. I think first rule of the garden is 'there are never enough plants!' ;-)
Oh, and don't give up trying growing from seeds, it's so much more fun than buying the plants! Good luck with your garden, I'll be looking forward seeing some more pictures :-)

I'm with Columbine... growing from seeds is definitely worth it! I grew a lot of annuals last year to fill the gaps while I waited for my sown perennials to grow big enough... corn poppies, cosmos and french marigolds were among the easiest, most successful ones, although unfortunately most of the seeds I put straight into the soil never appeared... I guess its partly about finding what works best for you :)

you seem very lucky meriek to have a 'flower lady' plants at that price. i know my gardens big but didnt realise how big. i bought just over 300 plug plants from bloomingdirect for appox £30 thinking that would fill most of gaps i was so wrong lol.
thanks drc i'll have a look on freecycle see what i can find.
and columbine and jennyfer i'll give it a go im going to pop out this weekend and get some seeds and see how it goes. i think watching these gardenng programme makes youbelieve it can be done cheaply and quickly lol. i'm learning and only a novice but still on the look out.

The one packet of Love in a mist I sowed 13 years ago still gives me flowers today they just come up every year and I pull them out where I dont want them and in to the compost. Good luck with your plugs - you may have to go on slug patrol every night!

i have put plenty of slug pellets down which my step-daughter not happy about as she has decided shes keeping snails as pets now damn things.. lol.
i'll go look for some love in a mist seeds and give it a go thanks for all your comments and advice

hehe, I used to keep snails as pets! Mum just throws them in the cannal and I used to save them and keep them under flowerpots.... now I just feed them to the chickens... it still feels a bit like murder to kill them myself :P
Also its important to try and find the most bio slug pellets if you can...they're still not ideal, but hopefully not quite as damaging to birds/wildlife :)

A garden takes years to establish. Don't rush - just enjoy the journey :)

Lol, We used to pick snails up as kids and keep them in shoe boxes until we got bored (I'm talking kids sogetting bored doesn't take long!).
Jennyfer you'll probably lose your guilt after they eat few more of your flowers, I know I did!!!! We are trying to avoid the slug pallets though, we mainly go on 'snail hunts' ;-)

hehe, I sowed a load of mixed dahlias last year, and planted them out before going to wales for a week... came back and there was no sign of them ever having been there. My first experience of the power of slugs lol, I'd always thought people were exaggerating when they complained about them... not any more! Now I'm just going for the attitude of 'If it doesn't survive our garden, its got no place in it', at least until I have the time to coddle things. I do use pellets in my greenhouse if I have an outbreak though, or in containers if I can hide them :)
I think I'm just too soft... I knelt on a snail a few weeks back and I could have cried lol

Few years ago I had a beautiful Lobelia cardinalis 'Queen Victoria' on the verge of flowering. Then the little baserds got to it. I still have the vivid horrow memory of going to check it in the morning and finding only some shreded remains. No being soft about snails and slugs after that!!!! I'm rather vindictive now ;-)

lol Jennyfer - you're as bad as me :o) I will throw them into the field over the back lane instead of killing them. People say they come back but I just keep throwing them !

hehe, Hywel, I've been known to carry them across to the other side of the cannal.... I'd like to see them try getting back after that! I bet they have homing devices in them really ;) and that sounds devastating Columbine! at least my dahlias were only boring ones... i just filled the patch with nasturtiums instead lol. I guess its war now? Columbine versus the molluscs... an epic battle. I will have to memorise the date for my british history exam on moday ;)

If you have a Focus near to you I'd suggest going and taking a look. I was tipped off that our Focus was beginning to sell of plants and I've been today and spent £3.09 and come home with about 10 plants. Some have need of TLC and I had to really water a few of them...one plant (a currant...not edible, only berries for the birds) needed a good soak in the bucket and when I put it into the bucket of water the whole plant, with soil, came out of the pot! That poor thing was really neglected but it still looks healthy and everything has perked up since being watered.

They still had lots of plants that haven't been reduced yet so I'm hoping for some evergreen plants, rosebushes etc. when they reduce those! lol

I hope you can find some bargains...it is a shock just how many plants it takes to fill the borders but it will be looking so good with your newly shaped lawn and borders....I'll watch out for piccies.

Hope my war stories get you a good grade Jennyfer ;-)
The plants from Focus sound like a great bargain Whistonlass! Don't have one near me unfortunately (or fortunately,lol). It is a shock how many plants it takes, I didn't even plant all my annual yet and already thinking I don't have enough....

hehe, I'm sure they will :P
One plant I can reccomend whistonlass is lungwort (pulmonaria), it flowers really early in spring, so the bees love it, then bulks out with lots of foliage afterwards and spreads about quite quickly and self-seeds if you let it... its the type of thing you may end up cursing, but it does the job, will take lots of abuse and if you get one of the pretty leaved ones like 'opal' then it has added bonuses :)

I think I have one of these amongst my potted plants that are waiting to be put in the ground....if I'm not mistaken I think a GoY member gave it to me. I have an awful time remembering the names of my plants and I really need to organize a list before I forget them all! Some have labels but a few don't...could be fun :) lol

Thanks for the suggestion, Jenny. I have evergreens to get now...I have built up quite a few annuals and perrenials although not until things are planted in the ground will I really know what I need. I think I may get a shock like you have, Columbine, and discover I am going to need many more!

Well,it's always fun to realise you have place for more! i'm already growing some more perennials for next year and planning some more :-)

hehe, me too :) I have some veronica seedlings, 'royal blue' I think they might be called, some 'royal violet' aubretia, some lovely foxgloves that i've fallen in love with 'elsie helsie' or something like that and single hollyhocks... also some erigeron karvincuwotsit (i'm not too good with my latin names), and plenty more waiting to be sown (its become a bit of an addiction lol). Only problem is I think I'll be sowing a tiny sprinkling, yet still end up with traysfull... suddenly not enough plants grows into running out of space!

I think we may have commandeered Hchristy's blog a little bit here... very sorry!

oops, sorry here too :-)

That running out of space always turns into not having enough plants again, at least for me.... Got quite a few things going on, Eryngiums (to many of them), Anchusa, Heliopsis, yellow Flax, Aquilegia (yeah, eye roll time, got more again....) ;->>

lol enjoyed the reading of it all, not been on in quite a few dayswork etc.
as fotr snails i have been out with salt, the slug pellets are animal friendly as i have cats and a dog. My step-daughter keeps bringing more in all her fish are now in our tank and hers is full of snails. doesnt matter how many i kill she still seems to find more.
This weekend im going out to a garden event in tavistick where hopefully i will find some bargains to fill some more spaces. I've managed to go over my budget and my hubby not too impressed, he likes the results just not the cost.

Oh well, I'm sure your step-daughter will get bored at some point ;-) Hope for you at least!
Just remind your hubby he likes the results.... The initial spending is probably the highest anyway when you build up your garden from scratch. Have fun at he garden event!

im looking forward to it, just need to take cash and no card so i will have to limit what i spend. or just not tell the hubby lol.

Lol, I he's not going with you then???
If Mark (the hubby) and I will ever calculate how much we spent on the garden over the years we'll probably get heart attack, both of us!!!

Hehe, I hope you managed to control yourself Hchristy :) And Columbine, just think that all the time you're spending out in the garden is giving you exercise.... hopefully enough to counter the shock :P My environmental studies teacher used to tell me about how spending time out of doors in the countryside is better than prozac... I imagine gardening has a similar sort of effect :) Niice and relaxing... for the most part :P

Guess your teacher had the prozac experience then???
I find buying flowers very relaxing and good for the heart, really..... ;-)

I don't think so, he was just generally expounding the delights of the countryside :P He was very handy for asking about how to do things eco-friendly when I first started gardening.
I think its just generally good for us :) :) I certainly feel more relaxed when I'm out there ;)