Cheapies corner

Not quite where you'll find a selection of cheaping baby birds! While there's nothing wrong with the garden rule books, there's lots of little tricks and techniques you can use in the garden that might be a means to an end and save you time and money - the latter being especially important these days!

While they're not garaunteed to work each time, if you're prepared to take the risk, often they do. Why not exchange your ideas here?

I'm not sure if I completely understand what you mean but here goes...

Cheap Bird Baths

I have two bird baths in my garden, the second one only put in place this week. The first one has been in place for a good few years now. They are two cheap plastic saucers, sunken into the ground with some rocks and gravel in so all birds can easily access the water. Nothing fancy, just about £3 each...and the birds love them.

I'll upload some photos soon. Not sure if you can upload video but I'll try as I have a briliant video of starlings and sparrows queing up to use it recently.

This is the well established one. The blackbirds love it and you'll often see them splashing around in it.

Couldn't upload a video but it's here... http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=101792999832120&saved#/video/video.php?v=101792999832120

This is the new one. Not put in properly as I didn't want to disturb the birds at the table too much at the moment.

Hi Paula
Yes this is just the thing I was thinking of - cheap and cheerful ways to and end! The birdbaths look great and as you say, they’ve cost barely any time or money to create.

There's lots of short cuts you can do around the garden even in techniques which understandably a full blooded horticulturist may baulk or turn in their grave, but...

It's often referred to as bodging, but there's bodges that look just that and there's bodges that don't and you can get away with it!

Love the pictures, I've been puzzling over the lovely little white flowers in the foreground of the first picture and is that a Lycestra next to the Skimmia?

If you have any more practical short cuts that have worked with also an idea of cost and time it would be good to see them posted. For now, I'm going to pose a question to the forum.

I inherited an old shop bought small vertical cold frame, which is past its sell by date and broken. I tend to find those things anyway are so flimsy they blow around the garden in the first puff of wind! I have been contemplating making a wooden one and thinking of options available. One I go and buy new wood, two I could try to recycle a pallet or similar.

Does or has anyone made their own and do they have a design and materials list? Oh, and I don’t want to spend a lot of time or money messing about making it!

Cheers
John

John Day

Love the pictures, I've been puzzling over the lovely little white flowers in the foreground of the first picture and is that a Lycestra next to the Skimmia?

Hi John

Thanks for the comments :-) Being honest I can't remember what the plant with the white flowers is called. The name thing is in the back of the shed which means emptying it before I can get access to it.

Here are a couple of close ups for you. As you can see the flowers have a pale blue colour to them. It just spreads and clearly loves where it is!

I also have a "blue" version beside the shed which is more purple in colour.

It's Summer Jasmine beside the Skimmia. Doesn't seem to flower much but again spreads like wildfire. It's probably in the wrong place but it'll have to stay there for the time being!

Oh and I added a link to the video of the starlings and sparrows having a bath!

Hi,

In responce to John with regards to the cold frame I made one a few years ago using an old shower screen and some scrap plywood. I

John Day

Hi Paula
Yes this is just the thing I was thinking of - cheap and cheerful ways to and end! The birdbaths look great and as you say, they’ve cost barely any time or money to create.

There's lots of short cuts you can do around the garden even in techniques which understandably a full blooded horticulturist may baulk or turn in their grave, but...

It's often referred to as bodging, but there's bodges that look just that and there's bodges that don't and you can get away with it!

Love the pictures, I've been puzzling over the lovely little white flowers in the foreground of the first picture and is that a Lycestra next to the Skimmia?

If you have any more practical short cuts that have worked with also an idea of cost and time it would be good to see them posted. For now, I'm going to pose a question to the forum.

I inherited an old shop bought small vertical cold frame, which is past its sell by date and broken. I tend to find those things anyway are so flimsy they blow around the garden in the first puff of wind! I have been contemplating making a wooden one and thinking of options available. One I go and buy new wood, two I could try to recycle a pallet or similar.

Does or has anyone made their own and do they have a design and materials list? Oh, and I don’t want to spend a lot of time or money messing about making it!

Cheers
John

You are governed by the size of the door but if it's any help I could do a quick sketch and include it in a post for you.

Graham

Hi John,

Sorry for the way the last post turned out pressed thick click to include in post button last. Will remeber in future to do it first.

Graham

Hi Paula
Having been somewhat busy the past week, I've not had time to comment on those great pictures which to me look like different kinds of periwinkle or Vinca. They are great little shrubs and very pretty.

If your summer jasmine is spreading well then it probably is actually in the right place and might get a tadge upset if its moved in the autumn or winter :o) 

Don't forget you can get lists of trees, shrubs and flowering plants from our website. The following links are just for the shrubs and flowers, but check around the site for the other lists.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Shrubs_tcm9-162426.pdf

http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Flowers_tcm9-162422.pdf

On the subject of plants and this being what I call cheapies corner, its a good idea to bear in mind that planting in the winter and using bare rooted plants can save you lots of £££ !! 

It would be nice to hear about other peoples ideas and thoughts on winter planting.

Hi Graham
Keeping on top of all that's urban takes a lot of my time here, but while I have a minute, I like the sound of your heavy duty vertical cold frame.

That means I might finally have the chance to look at and use http://freecycle.org, to see if there are any old shower screens. If there's anyway you can produce and post an illustration/plan that would be much appreciated.

If you have any other ideas about cheap short cuts you've tried do please post away. You may notice that I have also replied to Paula and mentioned about the pending planting season, looking for people's thoughts on winter planting. 

John

Hi John,

First may I say forgive my drawing.

This drawing is for a horizontal cold frame but to make it vertical keep the measurements of the sides equal ie 15x15 inches and make the front 15 inches aswell then al you need to do is devise a way of holding the door one of those elasticated strap that you can buy hooked onto some screws on either side should do. The measurements are  really up to you , the only ones that would be fixed are the front which would be govered by the door. The only other thing you would have to do is fit a back panel if you wanted it vertical unless you have a waal you could fix it to.

If I can help further let me know or if you want I may be able to do another drawing.

Graham

Don't ask for drawings please but one of my friends had a fairly large drum that he cut in half. 

Painted it then used No-nails or similar to attach wood down both sides then on the inside at top and bottom.  Pieces across the top and bottom stop draughts I think.

He then attached 2 pieces of polythene at one side.  One piece with holes for air to get in during the day -I think.  The other piece he puts over at night for extra protection if cold.  He rolls the bit he isn't using round a piece of cane that he  somehow slotted down the loose side of the polythene.  He mad some shelving from old bits of wood  and used a strip of velcro to attach the loose sides of the polythene to wood at the other side ot the drum.  Maybe staples to attach the fixed side.

He only  used one half but I am sure you could stand one half on top of the other if you wanted a bigger one.

Thinking back to when my dad had an allotment he used old bricks and window frames.  He took the glass out and put polythene in its place.  The meant he could fold the polythene back on warmer days.  He used loose bricks so he could vary  the size of the cold frame.  He just stood the spare window frames at the back leant against the bricks.

Hi John, you do realise that I'm going to have to dig my way through the shed to find those labels now, don't you? It's going to bug me no end if I don't!

EDIT - I've braved the beasties and the plant in question is.....(drumroll please)..... Pratia Pedunculata (syn. Lobelia Pedunculata)

John Day

It would be nice to hear about other peoples ideas and thoughts on winter planting.

Winer planting and bare root plants....we have 4 trees in our garden which were FREE saplings from a garden centre as a result of some project or other a few years ago. Bare root and planted early winter. They're as happy as larry and are now huge! One is a birch, one a cherry, one a sorbus and one a rowan.

I also grew another shrub / tree from a pruning. I'm not much of a gardener...I plant it and if it grows then fine, if not try something else...works for me! The neighbour had his shrub (he keeps it as a low shrub) pruned and the cuttings came over the fence so I trimmed it down, removed all leaves, dug a deep "V" in a corner of the garden, stuck it in there and forgot about it. It rooted and grew! It's now a medium sized tree and is also as happy as this bloke larry. EDIT - Have remembered what it's called - Sambucus racemosa 'Sutherland Gold'

This year I've collected seeds from my aquilega and am considering putting up a thread offering them free to anyone who wants them.

I'm waffling....and jumping around all over the place so I'll finish for now.

i dont pull any think up till i know what it is if it a tree seedling or plant that i like or want i keep it

i,ve got 6 birch trees that i like from seeds and there all different crosses and small bird love birches

now look out for wild flowers bird seed has alot of wild flowers in them so who knows what might come up

trees from seedlings takes a few years to get big and can grow too big for your garden well you then cut them down andf start again the wood from the trees can be allowed rot  leave the stums in too for the stag beetles

also you get seedling from your neighbours gardens too and from farther away the birds bring them to the garden from berries they have eaten

I can concur with Red Robin the opportunities of cultivating plants from seeds. There's no end of tree, shrub and flower seeds that will suddenly spring up. Give them time to see what they are and if you decide you want to keep it, then away you go.

Birch, in particular, seed quite prolifically and are great trees for birds - house sparrows eat the seeds, but more noticeably perhaps so do goldfinch, redpoll and siskin.

If you only have a small plot you could regularly coppice the tree and keep as a multi-stemmed shrub. Once you have plenty of stems growing, you could cut a proportion (say a third) of them every 3-5 years and so keeping a range of different aged regrowth - better for wildlife. You can save some of the wood for invertebrates in the garden and some of the stems can be used as garden canes. This is what I done with a sycamore in my garden:-

Earlier this year, I was going to coppice a large sycamore at the end of my garden. As I started thinning the many branches out (it had been cut down sometime in its past), I noticed there was one decent sized straight trunk. I decided to retain this and lift the crown to allow light into my proposed future shrub bed below. The wood was divided up between, leaving it under the tree and around my newly constructed pond to provide valuable habitat for invertebrates. The remainder was cut for fire wood and bean poles, and the thin twiggy brash as kindling for my fires. Not a bit of that tree has gone to waste and I've shared it equally between me and the wildlife! Over the summer, there's been some regrowth from cut stems at the base of the tree - this I can harvest a proportion of every few years as small garden canes and if I allow some to grow bigger as replacement bean poles when the ones I have now finally rot.

Hi John

And not only seeds. Many years back a 2-3 feet branch of my forsythia flopped down onto the lawn. My (then) husband succeeded in cutting it off from the plant by running over it with the petrol mower. The end was thoroughly "mashed up" but as the stem was in flower I stuck it into an already planted up tub - basically just to enjoy the flowers until it died. Well, it went on flowering all summer but no leaves came. Come the autumn, the flowers died back and so I assumed, as you do, that that was the end of it. Walking past it I took hold of "the dead twig" and carried on walking, expecting it to simply come with me. Not a bit of it - I nearly fell over because it had been busy all summer putting out enough roots to gain a remarkably firm purchase in that tub! 

Don’t get me started on cheap and free, I’ve got a garden full of recycled, home made and time saving projects. I hate seeing anything go to waste , I can always find a new use for it. I can’t walk past a building site without tapping up the foreman for any damaged bricks, blocks or wood.

Our local recycling centre is one of my regular haunts, there is not much you can’t find there for next to nothing.

This is the cold frame I made from an off cut of conservatory roof (£2 from the recycling centre) and off cuts of timber (free from building site). The one thing I have found on larger project is time and money always seem to balance out, the cheaper it is the more time it takes.