A Bargain Six on Saturday

I’ve been on a massive weed of the garden this week as all the rain means the weeds are growing strong and hiding themselves behind all the lush growth. Like many things in the garden though, a quick weed turned into many, many hours as you always see things in a different light when you get up close and personal with your plants!

I’ve making mental notes of things to move around come Autumn as inevitably, the right plant does not always find the right place on the first attempt. There are also plants which have grown so strongly that they now need divided. In Spring this year, I divided a clump of Echinacea, not because they seemed crowded but because I wanted to have more of them in different spots. I have been rewarded with several strong growing and pink blooming clumps now and I could not be more pleased – plants for free are always a bargain! You can read more about Echinacea on a blog post from earlier this week!

I am also really pleased that I bagged a bargain in these gorgeous Dahlias XXL, reduced at the garden centre to £3 each. I may or may not have carried five of them furtively to my car!

This is certainly the time of year for bargain hunting for plants and I also found these poor Pelargoniums languishing for a drink on a clearance shelf of B & Q! Normally retailing at 3 for £10, I brought 10 home for £10. They’ve been hospitalised in the pink wheelbarrow for a few days to enjoy some rehydration and rest and will be popped into pots or empty spaces in the borders this week. Even if they don’t flower, I’ll enjoy the foliage well into Autumn.

• 

I mentioned Hydrangea Phantom a few weeks ago and I have to mention it again as the tinges of pink on the flowers are just so delicately gorgeous when you are up close and personal with it. This is a new one for me this year and I have to confess to already having bought another one – it may not have been a bargain price but finding a plant which is so delicious that you just want to have another one is a bargain of a different kind!

On the veggie side this week, I’ve been harvesting more potatoes and we’ve eaten Bonnie, a second early and Golden Wonder, a main crop variety. I bought five seed potatoes of six different varieties this year at Glasgow’s Potato Day and I’m comparing them in a loose trial for six and taste! 30 seed potatoes for less than a fiver to produce hundreds more tatties – that’s bargain I like!

• 

• 

And finally, I’ve been pulling onions and drying them in stages. I think I planted almost 50 onion sets way back in March so I’m pulling them a row at a time to dry out and store. This is the biggest bargain of all as the sets worked out at 1p an onion and last year, the onion store lasted right through until February so hoping that by planting more this year, we extend that store a little longer for less than a pound! It’s such a feeling of smugness to waltz past the over-priced bags of plastic-wrapped onions in the supermarket!

Do feel free to me leave a comment on these bargain six as I love to chat about plants and enjoy reading other #SixonSaturday blogs for information and inspiration from gardeners around the world, sharing six things from their garden on a Saturday. #SixonSaturday is hosted by The Propagator, and you’ll find lots of links on Twitter on the #SixonSaturday hashtag. You can find The Pink Wheelbarrow on Twitter at @PinkWheelbarrow.