Want a garden like at Bloom but budget is €0

Sgt Pepper 64

any ideas?

looksee

Short answer is no.

However a pic of what you are working with would be a good start.

inocybe

friends with gardens? cuttings and seedlings. Go out and dig a patch, and do it gradually. You don't really want a bloom type garden anyway :cool:

Glenvw

You could be really bad and go and help yourself to some roundabout flowers

paddy147

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

any ideas?

We went back this afternoon,and lots of the traders sold off the plant stock at half price,once 5pm came around.

Monday afternoon is allways the best day to go for the bargains.:)

catastrophy

Show gardens tend to be planted with mature plants and use hard landscaping. Both of which cost money. The best advice I can give is to get a plan drawn up and work from that. Propagate the plants you need. It won't be a quick solution but it will be far more cost effective.

Sgt Pepper 64

paddy147 wrote: »

We went back this afternoon,and lots of the traders sold off the plant stock at half price,once 5pm came around.

Monday afternoon is allways the best day to go for the bargains.:)

Yep, but could only go on Sunday. Still not bad, I don't really have a garden to put plants in yet!

magicbastarder

yeah, there's a load of hard landscaping in the show gardens; and that's not cheap, for labour, or for materials, if you were to do the work yourself.

prospect

Well €0 budget is just not possible I'm afraid.

Even if you get free cuttings you will need pots & compost etc.

I suppose that the amount of money you spend is inversely proportional to the amount of time it takes.



First thing to do is measure out and draw your garden plan, decide what you want, style, features, etc.
Tackle the job in stages, don't try and do it all at once.

You can start growing shrubs and plants from seed (cheapest way of acquiring plants) well in advance of any work beginning. This way when it comes time to plant you could have your own stock of shrubs, grown from seed, ready to go.

As usual, one eye on Adverts/Donedeal/Gumtree all the time for free stuff is a good idea, especially if you have somewhere to keep useful things until you are ready to use them.

paddy147

Some of the garden centres and DIY stores collect up half litre and 1-2 litre pots and plant trays so their customers can take them for free.

Homebase do this on a regular basis at the very back of their store.

So you will easily come by some 1-2 litre empty plants pots for free.:)


You will also pick up "burst bags" of compost for 2-3 euro in the likes of B&Q and Homebase from time to time.

They reduce the price when any of the bags get burst,and these will usually be found out back in their outdoor garden centres on pallets/trolleys with reduced stickers on them:)

paddy147

Also if/when you buy plants...never throw out the pots.

Keep them so that they can be re-used to sow/plant on other plants and flowers.:)

shawnee

I suggest you put an ad in adverts.ie for a "fairy godmother"..:P Alternatively visit your friendly neighbours and many will be prepared to share some plants with you. You will "eventually":p have a lovely garden

Sonnenblumen

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

any ideas?

No garden, no budget but plenty of time wasting?

Sgt Pepper 64

Ok so I was being kinda jokey, commenting more on how easy these guys make it all look, in a few days you get a fab garden, just dont look at the cost!
But I have a plan for mine anyway and that is to "chop" it up into small sections and do one section at a time, as money and time permits.
I like the idea of garden rooms or sections so that makes it easier.
At the moment I am working on the shady part. The most expensive part of that should be the entrance arch and maybe a trellis dividing wall.
Most of the garden is given over to the kids with the usual swing\slide etc, but I can have one nice long section I think

Theres some good suggestions there anyway, so thanks.
Plants are the easiest and cheapest, as you say, cuttings, seeds etc.
Its the hard landscaping thats the most expensive

magicbastarder

i'd love if they kept the bloom gardens so people could see how easy they were to maintain over the course of a year. and how many of the flowers bloom at the same time when they're out in the open air (and how it looks when they're not in bloom).

paddy147

Lots of pots and trays to be had in Homebase for free.

Handy for planting up and/or potting on.

paddy147

magicbastarder wrote: »

i'd love if they kept the bloom gardens so people could see how easy they were to maintain over the course of a year. and how many of the flowers bloom at the same time when they're out in the open air (and how it looks when they're not in bloom).

4 days after Bloom last year.Not much left of anything.:pac::D

Wrong time/date on camera

Sgt Pepper 64

paddy147 wrote: »

4 days after Bloom last year.Not much left of anything.:pac::D

Wrong time/date on camera

looks just like my garden now!

Oldtree

Got the free pots then you are nearly there.

Collect leaves in autumn and compost for 2 years, and then 1/2 mix with some sieved soil, and you have a reasonable starting compost.
make your own compost from kitchen leavings.
Collect chicken manure or sheep manure from the fields, visit horse stables for their leavings.
Collect seeds of plants you like, asking first.
Ask friends for seeds/plants.
Visit an allotment to see if there are any friendly gardeners that could give you plants or seeds.
Collect cuttings in winter of trees/shrubs you like, asking first.
prepare your garden by making a plan.
prepare the ground.
plant out.
Use newspapers as a mulch.

there you go easy, just takes time....

Sgt Pepper 64

Oldtree wrote: »

Got the free pots then you are nearly there.

Collect leaves in autumn and compost for 2 years, and then 1/2 mix with some sieved soil, and you have a reasonable starting compost.
make your own compost from kitchen leavings.
Collect chicken manure or sheep manure from the fields, visit horse stables for their leavings.
Collect seeds of plants you like, asking first.
Ask friends for seeds/plants.
Visit an allotment to see if there are any friendly gardeners that could give you plants or seeds.
Collect cuttings in winter of trees/shrubs you like, asking first.
prepare your garden by making a plan.
prepare the ground.
plant out.
Use newspapers as a mulch.

there you go easy, just takes time....

but, but, but most of the gardens have a lot of hard landscaping and water features.
Can I make them out of newspaper?

prospect

Free rocks for landscaping

Free top soil

Free garden bench

magicbastarder

that topsoil looks like it's free for a reason...

paddy147

magicbastarder wrote: »

that topsoil looks like it's free for a reason...

+1


I wouldnt........Subsoil possibly mixed up in there aswell perhaps

inocybe

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

but, but, but most of the gardens have a lot of hard landscaping and water features.
Can I make them out of newspaper?

you sound like someone I know whose garden is nothing but grass. She hasn't planted a thing in 10 years because she's waiting till she has the money to 'do' the garden. All in one go. I keep trying to get her to plant some trees, they'd be nice and big already after 10 years :rolleyes: Start small, let it evolve... this is why I hate these garden makeover programmes, it makes for unrealistic expectations.

paddy147

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

but, but, but most of the gardens have a lot of hard landscaping and water features.
Can I make them out of newspaper?

Put a few quid aside each week.

Every time you get change in your hand,then throw it into a large glass bottle,jar or biscuit tin at home.

It all adds up,and in 6-7 months time you would be very surprised how much money you will have saved up.

This can be used as funds towards some landscaping materials.

tommy2bad

Oh for God's sake!
Gardens like Bloom are to show whats possible not as a start but an end. Get a spade and a fork, dig a bed, buy seeds, 2.99, add time and water.
Wash, rinse, repeat, adding stuff as you see how it works.
The good news is it's that easy and once you get the bug no amount of money will seem expensive. OK that last bit is bad but in a good way.