Budget gardening

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I love plants and since we moved house last year I’ve been looking forward to stocking our new garden with lots of lovely flowers. But then when I go to a plant nursery or garden centre I’m always a bit shocked at how expensive the plants are. Nowadays the trend seems to be to grow the plants for longer and sell them for higher prices, so you get good-sized plants but at a price. I guess this is what modern consumers want – instant results – and if you have a small garden, as is so often the case, then you only need a few large plants to fill it anyway. Of course the growers need a fair price for their work, but if you need a lot of plants it gets very expensive. I have set my heart on plenty of flowering shrubs and herbaceous plants. Of course I will buy some, especially the more unusual and hard-to-find varieties I fancy, but for common types I am keeping my eyes peeled. Garden centre sales, local charity plant stalls, even roadside stalls in people’s gardens can be a source of interesting plants if you can be patient. And one underestimated source is the edge of the road! Many plants seed freely and if they happen to hang over a garden wall then seeds may well sprout on the verge or even at the kerb outside. As I’m walking or cycling around I keep an eye out for any suitable candidates. Tough plants like lavender, Alchemilla mollis (ladies’mantle), or Stachys byzantia (lambs’ ears) pop up in the most unlikely and inhospitable-looking places. One of the most common finds is Buddleja (butterfly bush), which really will grow anywhere – I’ve even seen plants growing out of the side of a chimney stack! Of course there’s no guarantee of what colour flowers you will get on a plant picked out of the pavement, but Buddleja are so prolific and so variable that it’s worth trying a few in the hope of getting some you like. My shrub and perennial collection is growing steadily – does anyone else collect garden plants this way? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2017.