The Frugal Flower Garden and other stuff

What's been going on in the Rosebank Garden this week

The crocus began to open - it seems we all  like a little sun to cheer us up.

Over on my other blog A Woman of the Soil I have been talking about being frugal in the veg garden and have received many comments and tips on how other people save money  when growing veg.  I also practice what I preach in the Rosebank flower garden too.

A great way of filling the borders with plants without spending any money is to split the existing plants.

I know you are meant to wait till the plants have finished flowering but I wanted to take advantage of the fine weather at the beginning of the week to split the primulas that had become congested, and from just one clump I split it into four, each having a good root system and transplanted them elsewhere in the garden.  I did this with several plants that needed thinning out, added some bonemeal to the planting hole and watered them in well.

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This year I won't be buying any more perennial plants - even though I seem to have lost several over the winter.  Instead I will be filling out the borders growing anything I need from seed - mainly wildflowers and annuals that attract bees and butterflies.

It's a lot more work than just going in to the garden centre armed with a wad of cash and coming out with very little, but hopefully the results will be worth it.

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Other stuff


My husband's motto is "If it doesn't move - creosote it".  He told me he was going to creosote the wood on the outside of my raised beds before I planted them up.  Fine I said.  What he didn't tell me that whilst he was at the top of the garden he thought he would creosote the compost bins as well.  Later on I decided to start emptying them and was leaning against the wood whilst digging my spade in.  When I got indoors I thought the smell of the creosote was still very strong and couldn't understand it.  It was only later when I was getting changed that I discovered the smell was coming from my jeans - they are ruined, I washed them straight away but creosote is waterproof and they still had the stain - laugh, I could cry - they are my most comfortable jeans.  Grrr!

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I have been busy being frugal in other areas too.  Below is a cushion recycled from an old shirt of my husbands - cutting off the collar and sleeves, using the front of the shirt for the cushion opening and the back with a little added decoration as the front of the cushion is a good way to make use of an unwanted shirt.

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It was so nice to be able to get out in the garden after so many weeks of bad weather that just seeing a line of washing drying in the sunshine gave me pleasure.

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One of my birthday gifts was a basket of hyacinths which are a beautiful blue, it has taken a week but they have finally flowered.

A couple of weeks ago I opened an account with Amazon so that I could sell a lot of books that I no longer needed.  The enterprise has been quite successful so far.  I have sold 15 books and made an average profit on them at £5 per book.  Not a huge amount, but it has helped boost the bank balance a little.

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This week I have been reading

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From the sound of the weather forecast for the coming week things are going to get a bit nasty again so I am happy that I was able to get on with a few jobs outside that desperately needed doing - now waiting for the opportunity to get on with some seed sowing.

Happy gardening!

ladybird - basking in the sunshine