Every Cloud

I know, I thought, I'll squeeze a trip to the garden centre in now. I don't know why I don't normally go at this time. I can just pop in quickly with the little one and buy my bits. Perfect!

Fast forward half-an-hour and the reason why I don't hit any shops at four o'clock in the afternoon, much less my favourite ones, becomes all too apparent as I slam my goods on the counter and sprint after the disappearing back of my running two-year-old.

This was the fourth, or was it fifth, time I'd had to stop what I was doing to rescue my errant toddler. From the floor. From upending a watering can to make a puddle. From pulling the flower off a clematis. From running down a ramp again and again. From underneath a flower display.

As he writhed and screamed in my arms an old lady, the place was full of them, told me my son, who I was feeling a bit cheesed off with, was tired. She could tell. It was his eyes. Actually, he wasn't, he was just bored.

Shush, shush, shush, whispered another old dear as she walked past us. Oh thanks, that's sure to help. Why didn't I think of that, I managed not to say. Out loud anyway.

Still every cloud and all that. My silver linings included getting a lovely young man to carry my box to the car and buying two bags of pixi lilies, one bag of shallots , a Canna Cleopatra bulb and a bag of dahlia bulbs all for ten pence each! I'm hoping they'll keep for next year's gardening club. If I haven't pulled my hair out, lost my marbles, or lost the bulbs by then.

Gardening on a Budget

I think I really need some help with gardening on a shoestring. Obviously growing flowers from seed is great and cheap but somehow I always end up buying loads of seeds. And ten packets of seeds can start to add up. Plus there's all the other stuff. In my case a half-price jasmine, a thyme plant and a rosemary. Oh and some violas and a tray of geraniums. Add in the children's bits and I'm left with a hefty bill. Gulp.

I did manage to resist a window sill propogator thing with pots that can be transplanted straight into the ground. Instead I have used the idea I got from Gayla at You Grow Girl and recycled empty loo rolls. I couldn't remember what plants would suit this system best so I sowed some sweet peas. Not the most attractive looking things but hopefully they'll do the job.


Other than sowing everything from seed and composting seriously (I am a bit feeble about the C word but this will have to change) I can't think of anything else. Oh, I know - must remember to not step foot inside a garden centre with children. Actually, I think not stepping foot inside a garden centre FULL STOP would help. Enormously.

Still, the Potting Shed Plan is, surprisingly, taking shape. They have been tweaked a bit (the place where I wanted to site it is not good, being in shade for most of the day). And the online prices we've found are too pricey. But Hubby has decided to build one! This apparently will be much cheaper and because it will be 'bespoke' I can tweak his plans. I have decided a cold frame attached to the side would be wonderful.

I guess our DIY potting shed could be construed as being on a shoestring but really the most frugal thing would be not to build it. Budgeting is obviously not a strong point of mine, otherwise there would probably be no need for such a tight budget, but I have decided I need to curb my spending in other ways. So I'm pledging not to spend anything for the next three months. No magazines, no coffees and no......goodness this is hard to type....no books. I think if I remember to equate that £3.50 magazine to x number of seeds it might just work.