Garden Bargains

Maintaining an outdoor space that is the envy of all your neighbours may seem like an expensive prospect, but there are plenty of garden bargains out there to help you achieve impressive results on a budget.

As the recession has swept across the nation, the average green-fingered homeowner has become increasingly savvy when it comes to finding the best gardening bargains around, from grow-your-own fruit and veg to cheap furniture, free plants and flowers.

Many garden centres run special promotions as the summer draws to a close, but far from signalling the end of the gardening season, the run-up to winter can be a great time to plan for the coming year.

While flower and vegetable bulbs are going cheap, it is a good idea to stock up on plants so that come spring your garden comes to life as if by magic.

Another great source of plentiful garden bargains is the media – i.e. offers in magazines, newspapers and online.

A welcome by-product of the recession has been the increase in the number of discount vouchers and bargain codes offering great gardening bargains for homeowners wishing to stock up on equipment and plants.

For example, GardenBargains.com offers visitors to its website up to 50 per cent off nursery and catalogue prices as well as numerous special offers and gardening deals at any one time.

The site sends out millions of plants by mail order ranging from small seedlings to large fruit trees allowing customers to shop for their favourite products from the comfort of their own home.

Each set of plants also comes with a complete cultivation guide to help gardeners plant their new purchases and those needing extra guidance can even log onto the Garden Bargains website to watch an instructional video. What could be easier?

 

Cheap Gardening

When it comes to cultivating on a shoestring, there are plenty of cheap gardening cheats to be had in order to save you some hard-earned cash.

The most important thing every frugal gardener must do is plan ahead. Making a list of the plants you would really like to see in your garden can help you to budget and avoid duplicating costs down the line.

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is a great way to shave a little off household outgoings, but many budding horticulturalists believe getting started in the home-grown business is an expensive process.

Starting from seed is the cheapest way to go when it comes to grow-your-own as it is possible to achieve large yields from a few seeds that cost pence, not pounds.

Sites such as GardenBargains.com also offer collections of plants that will complement each other to get home-growers off the ground such as the garlic, shallot and onion collection that costs just £14.95.

Each pack contains enough planting materials to yield 20lbs of garlic, 20lbs of shallots and a whopping 100lbs of onions, which should keep thrifty gardeners in cooking staples for a substantial period of time.

Composting is another cheap gardening trick that will help homeowners save money. A whole host of household waste can be composted – from vegetable peelings and egg shells to coffee grounds and shredded newspaper.

The resulting compost will provide great free food for your plants and grass, helping to break up heavy clay soils and encouraging microbial life for a thriving green space.

 

Gardening Deals

Every frugal householder should learn how to make the most of the numerous gardening deals that crop up throughout the season at various retailers.

Late summer is the obvious time to pick up garden bargains as this is when many outdoor shops hold their end-of-season sales, but there are cheap deals to be had at other times of the year as well.

One great way to make gardening deals last all-year is to go with perennials such as roses, which cannot be planted in season after late summer. By buying them in autumn and storing them carefully in a garage or greenhouse, however, they will go dormant and be ready to plant again in spring.

Another way to make the garden bargains that you pick up in the late summer season last into the following spring is to invest in bulbs. By choosing bulbs that divide in the ground, like daffodils, freesias, grape hyacinths and snowdrops, you'll get more plants for your pound.

Buying online is another way to shop around for the best gardening deals as this allows you to compare hundreds of products from different retailers in minutes without leaving the comfort of your home.

Many online retailers now run promotions and offer bargain codes that consumers can enter at the 'virtual checkout' to save them even more money. And it's not just plants that these offers apply to, many retailers offer great deals on garden furniture and barbeques allowing individuals to makeover their entire outdoor space on a strict budget.

 

Free Plants

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but there are ways to pick up free plants if you know where to look.

As the recession has hit big-brand retailers hard in the pockets, more and more have been eager to entice customers with special gardening offers, even throwing in freebies to seal the deal. But there are other ways to pick up free plants without setting foot in a garden centre.

It may also be worth asking your local garden centre whether they have any old or unhealthy plants they are planning to throw away and they may let you take these off their hands free of charge. While these free plants may not look the prettiest, with a little TLC and some green-fingers, they are not always beyond salvation.

A good way to start is by joining an allotment or gardening club which will allow you to exchange ideas, tips and resources with other like-minded individuals. An added bonus of this kind of community is that when other members buy seeds or bulbs, they may be willing to share them with some of their allotment acquaintances and there you have it – free plants.

After all, most packets purchased from garden centres contain upwards of 100 seeds, which many people would struggle to use up on their own.

Having a green-fingered buddy also helps should you wish to buy in bulk over the internet or from a wholesaler, further increasing the scope for cheap gardening.

Garden Prizes

Another good old-fashioned way to pick up some garden bargains is to win them in a competition.

Gardening magazines, newspapers and the internet are all great sources of competitions that can lead to winning some top garden prizes.

Websites such as Active You offer people the chance to enter competitions with rewards as diverse as free cruises, laser eye surgery, champagne and garden equipment.

All users have to do is register with the website and choose the offers that are relevant to them and they could be in with a chance of winning an abundance of gardening prizes.

One competition currently running at Active You even gives members over 40 the chance to win a year's supply of free plants from GardenBargains.com, which has to be worth entering.

Councils and community groups around the UK also often run competitions for local people who can create the most impressive outdoor space and the rewards can be substantial.