Challenge Three: Gardening for Free

It has taken me a while to realise what the point of gardening is.  For many years I felt that it was just housework that took place outside, with a list of chores that needed completing every so often.  But that was because I was spending all my time weeding and raking up leaves, with a bit of occasional pruning thrown in.  I have only recently realised that gardening is really about being artistic and creative and seeing the pleasure that there is to be gained from creating a flowing flower bed, or an enticing view from a gate that makes you want to come in and explore.  So I now spend far less time weeding and more time digging things up and moving plants around, which feels more like designing and creating than doing a household chore.

My Third Challenge is therefore to continue to explore the benefits of gardening, while spending a minimal amount, ideally nothing. Over the past 12 months we spent £480.97 on the garden and I would like to reduce this to an absolute maximum of £100.

I have started already and have planted up a lovely pot which is now happily sitting beside my old garden bench.

The pot I had sitting in my garden shed for about five years.  I filled it will ordinary garden soil.  I put a bit of ivy in it which I had cut off an established plant, (a piece which had just started rooting in a new area of ground). The other plants are coriander seeds, which I got free with a recent tub of fresh soup, and an attractive 'weed' which had self seeded itself elsewhere in the garden.  It may not look like much at the moment, but it will grow itself into a nice little tub.  Previously I would have spent a minimum of £10 filling up such a tub by using plants from the garden centre.

I also planted up a little holly tree which had self seeded in a position where I didn't want it to grow and where it wasn't going to get much light.

I have put it into a nice sunny position to get it established properly and then I will use it as part of a new hedge I want to grow.

The other thing I have been up to is collecting seeds from my lupins:

So that instead of paying £5 for a new plant, I can try and grow my own for free in the spring.  I also collected some yellow poppy seeds and will try to grow more of these next year:

And my final job was to completely dig out an overgrown area of garden which hasn't been used at all since we moved in.  I am not sure what I am going to do here as yet, but it may be a vegetable bed, depending on the amount of sun it gets.  I am keeping my eye on it for the moment.

Digging this area up was certainly really good exercise and much more enjoyable than going to the gym, (not to mention it was joyfully free of charge!)