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Cut the Cost!   Watching certain TV programs, you'd think there's no point even thinking about gardening if you don't have £750 to spare and several expert friends with a free weekend. You could spend a fortune on Petunias, trailing Fuchsias and Million Bells which will need constant watering and feeding, then keel over as soon as it's frosty. They do look lovely, but who's got all that time & money to spare? But it doesn't have to be like that! Apply a bit of ingenuity and forward planning and you can grow things to be proud of by yourself! (I have to admit right here that bits of my garden usually look like WW3 has just broken out - but there's always something nice to look at somewhere!)   Grow things from seeds or cuttings, rather than buying plants. A packet of seeds will cost you from 50p to £3 and potentially contains hundreds of plants - usually at least enough to give some away. I get lots from the weekly gardening magazines - £1.20 buys you a packet of seeds alongside lots of advice and ideas. Some seeds can be saved from last year's plants, cuttings can be begged from your friends & neighbours if they have an attractive plant flourishing in similar conditions to yours. Potting compost isn't cheap, but you can make your own fairly easily, (see the HDRA website for advice) and a bag of compost will still set you back less than 6 3-inch plants! You don't need seed trays, pots and propagators; this is really good re-use for supermarket meat trays, yoghurt pots, & clear plastic bags, or you can make pots out of newspaper which biodegrades quickly & easily and minimises root disturbance to the young plants - you just plant them out pot & all. Click here for printable instructions.     Penstemons grow away in newspaper pots... You don't even need to buy growbags - they are quite easy to make. Take a sturdy binliner and cut the sealed end off. Wrap one end around a copious quantity of home-made compost mixed with garden soil and rabbit bedding, or something similar to add nutrition, tuck the ends under then roll & wrap firmly & stick with tape. Cut a couple of holes in one side (now the top), add plants and grow!     Young tomato plants nestle in a homemade growbag inside an old laundry basket... Young plants can be bought far cheaper at events like school sales than at garden centres or supermarkets. That said, supermarkets are a good source of some growable things, like ginger roots or lychee stones for houseplants! Markets are a good place to catch the local nurseries' overstocks, but look carefully at the plants to check they're healthy; don't buy problems! Grow plants which want to live where you do. There isn't much point spending vast sums on exotic plants which are going to need special compost, expensive feeding & lots of mollycoddling unless it's your livelihood or your treasured hobby. Local plants may not be as spectacular but will be easier on your pocket and time management and far better for wildlife. Use your imagination - plants don't care what they're growing in or up as long as it's big enough and properly drained. Cast-iron obelisks are lovely but a bamboo wigwam works just as well and when it's smothered in foliage, looks good too. James's nasturtiums potter up a bamboo wigwam... Rocket in front of a half-demolished wall - but the plants took over...... Many plants which don't survive the British winter will do fine in a frost-free porch or even on a windowsill, though they may die back & return in the spring. I must admit to hunting round skips each autumn to rescue geraniums, busy lizzies & fuschias from an early grave as people fling out the contents of their hanging baskets and summer beds. Think about deliberately growing "weeds". The year teasels (so architectural!) & honesty first appeared in our garden was a delight. Periwinkle can be a nuisance, but it makes wonderful, easy ground cover, and people go miles to see bluebells, which are rampant in my garden and pop up faster than dandelions. Dandelions too are bright & cheerful, and good for attracting hoverflies and bees, as long as you don't let them go to seed. You can add the young leaves to spring salads, but pet rabbits will eat them young or old. Rabbits & guinea pigs also make fine lawnmowers… and who wants to see a lawn without daisies? I could even get quite fond of bindweed, if it would just stay put for a while. I got this idea from one of the Stateside "Frugal" sites - try feeding your roses bananas! Chop up banana skins and put them under your rose bushes - I tried this for the first time this year and they all look alarmingly healthy.     Roses go bananas round a window - they've never done this well before... I wouldn't encourage this in any great quantity, but I have to admit that the odd fossil or piece of driftwood sometimes makes its way back from the beach with us. I trust Her Majesty won't mind - I believe they're hers. It's similar to collecting berries from wild plants, or seeds - only take from where there are plenty and never take them all from one place. Make sure they are not protected first, too; many are in the wild, and rightly so. What seems common locally may be a "threatened species" nationally. Try Masterly Inaction... It's astonishing just how many plants don't need constant attention! Here are some examples of plants that have been totally ignored... May your garden grow & grow!   Back to "Grow Your Own". © Copyright: Angela Corbet, 2001.