Money saving gardening tips - Part 2

            
Gather Seeds or Seed Heads from Your Own Plants

You can use them yourself to grow you own plants, and also swop them with other gardeners for some of their seeds

Buy yourself a packet of small brown wage-slip envelopes from any stationers. They are an ideal size for storing seeds.

Keep a pen handy, so that you can label the envelopes as soon as you put the seeds in them, to avoid confusion when you can't remember what seeds went in which envelope.

Put the name of the plant, the date when you collected them, and possibly a bit about where they like to grow - sun or shade, front or back of border, colour, and when they flower. The date helps so that you know how long you have stored them, and whether you need to replace old seeds with new ones if they have not been used after a couple of years. The other details are partly for your own knowledge, but also to help other people to whom you might give spare seeds.

Gardeners love to swop seeds.

Recycle large pie tins, such as Fray Bentos Steak and Kidney Pie as Plant Saucers

You need to stand plant pots in saucers, because this helps them to drain without completely drying out.

Washed shallow tins make ideal saucers in which to stand your pots - if you have a lot of pot plants it can be quite expensive if you have to buy your saucers. Obviously the tins are not so elegant, and you might not want to use them indoors, but they are fine in the garden or potting shed.

If you are a bit fussy, you could always paint them.

Even in the garden, you may not want the pie tin saucers on show, but quite often flower pots can be judiciously placed in such a way that the tins in which they are standing are not actually visible, for instance if they are behind other pots, or hidden by grass or other plants in the garden.

Recycle an old vegetable rack, or a computer trolley as a plant rack. Or you could use an old television stand or shelving - just use your imagination and improvise.

If you need to protect the plants from predators, or If the weather is cold, you could even turn the vegetable rack into a mini greenhouse - by draping plastic sheeting over it to protect the plants, and then removing it, or opening part of it, when the weather gets warmer. You could even use a large polythene bag, such as a bag from the cleaners. Or if you have a spare piece of plastic or perspex sheeting, you can stand that up against the rack, and then you just need to cover with polythene whatever is left exposed.

If the rack has wheels, you could move it around easily to follow the sun .

You can get all sorts of things from Freecycle - a website where people can advertise their offers and wants. The idea is to save things being thrown away if they can be recycled, and keep them out of landfill as long as possible.

The important thing is that everything is free - It doesn't matter whether people are acquiring things for their own use or to re-sell - the moderators and other members are on to you like a shot if you offer something whilst asking for any kind of payment or swop. As they point out, the website is not a swop shop - Its purpose is to provide a forum where you can give away things that you don't want.

I've been a member for several years and really enjoy it. People love to accept my surplus plants, and I much prefer them to go to a good home than go on the rubbish heap.

This is what Freecycle: say about themselves:

"Welcome! The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,834 groups with 7,341,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. Have fun!"

There are quite a few clubs and websites for people who want to exchange seeds and plants. Some of them are purely web-based, and people actually send the things to each other, whereas some are more community-based, and people actually meet up to exchange things in person.

See what you can find in your own area, or you could even start up a group yourself, by advertising in a local newsagents, newspaper, or community building such as a library, college, friendly shop or even a health centre.

The one which I belong to is "Seed Swop UK":

(Click on logo to join seed_swap_uk)

and this is what Seed Swap UK say about themselves:
"Welcome to Seed_Swap_uk!
This Group is for people of the United Kingdom! This group is for those who enjoy growing plants from seeds, any kind of plants, tropical plants, succulent plants (and cacti), and house plants. In this group you can post your seed lists and your plants lists (for swap or donation).
Please don't post off-topic messages, (anything that isn't related to seeds, plants or gardening).
If you have plants or seeds to swap or donate please feel free to do here."


or there are cashless exchange and trading systems such as Community Exchange System: This organization started in South Africa, but there are now thriving groups all over the world. I am a member too.
This is what Community Exchange System say about themselves:
"With the impending implosion of the usury-based, global money system, now is the time to seek a new way of 'doing' money, one not based on debt and controlled by a global monetary elite that seems happy about destroying our planet in the pursuit of profit.

Conventional money is created as debt by private financial institutions for their own profit-making purposes, not as a public service. This is the root cause of the economic, social and environmental problems that beset us. The amount of debt determines the quantity of money, which has nothing to do with the amount of money we need to live decent lives.

CES money is 'created' by its users so it can never be in short supply. So long as you can offer something of value you can have from the community goods and services of like value.

Join the growing community who have discovered a new way of 'doing' money, a healthy money that will create a healthy society"

It's great to be able to go to a garden centre and buy all your plants, but growing your own plants and seedlings is very satisfying and rewarding. And it doesn't cost anything except for a small amount of rooting hormone (plants take better if you dip them in rooting hormone, which safeguards them against disease and fungus).

It's quite easy to grow slightly woody plants like lavender, grape vines and even roses from cuttings. Choose fairly short stems that have not borne flowers or fruit. Cut or tear them off the main plant, leaving a little heel if possible. Dip the stem in rooting hormone, then insert it into potting compost in a flower pot to a depth of about 2 inches, watering it well for a few days, and later watering it a couple of times a week. You can also grow softer stemmed plants like pentstemons in this way - mine were very successful this year.

You can also propagate plants by layering - to do this, bend a fairly flexible branch or stem untiulk it touches the earth. Then peg it down - you can use a hairgrip, forked stick, or anything that will anchor the plant to the ground without harming it. Then cover it with earth, water the plant from time to time, and if you just leave it for a few weeks or months and forget about it, the pegged-down shoot will gradually develop its own root system, and you can then cut it away from the parent plant. This works well for plants such as heather and periwinkle (those are the ones I have tried successfully).

Grow more plants than you actually need - then swop them for other people's plants.

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