Sowing Seeds for Car Boot Selling

This year for the first time I've been selling flower plants at the car boot sales we've had a stall at, as well as the vegetable plants that I've been selling for a few years, and they've been really popular.  It's been a good way to use up some of the seeds that I've gotten free on magazines and from my seed stash.  This Saturdays big sellers were these Cosmos plants, (the photo was taken over a week ago ... they were much bigger and chunkier by Saturday) ...

... and the French Marigolds that I picked up from Tesco for 20p.

I only made £14 selling them at 50p each, but it was money we wouldn't have otherwise had and it all helps the food and plants fund.  I also sold the last cucumber plant for a pound, they have sold really well this year.  I'm keeping records of what I sell and when I sell them so I can hopefully do the same or even better next year.

Over in the polytunnel the spinach plants from last year have irrevocably gone to seed, so the lucky chickens have been getting one plant each day to have a good peck at.  I hang it on the big hook on the henhouse and they gather round to attack the leaves, they love it.  Luckily this years spinach crop is already big and in daily use, so there's been no gap in spinach availability for us.

They also got this wonderful specimen to eat last week ...I'm good to those chickens  :-)

It's a Kale plant from two years ago, the flowers had been attracting bees and pollinating insects into the tunnel for a couple of weeks, and it's cheerful yellow flowers made me smile every time I stepped in.  It was finally a sight for sore eyes, with all the flowers dropping off and the leaves lacy and browning ... and as I needed the space it was in for more salad crops the chickens were welcome to have a final peck at what was left before it went to the great compost heap in the sky.

The car boot sale on Saturday was a real success, this time we had lots of books and bitty bits which I thought would limit the money we could take so I was amazed when I counted the takings when we got home ... doubly amazed that when added up the takings on 'housey' stuff was exactly £100 ... we couldn't do that again if we tried!  With £14 on plant sales and another £4 on eggs (we only took four boxes), it made a grand total of £118, not a bad mornings work.

Now it's time to carry on sorting through the house ready for the July sales, and I've already potted on the Ox Eye Daisies that I hope to take with us next time.

Sue xx

Bargains

I've picked up some brilliant plant bargains just recently, perhaps it's been because I haven't really been food shopping so much and have had my eyes open for other things.

The two large plant pots in the top photo were a really good find early on a quiet Monday morning at Tesco.  They had obviously just been given a good watering as they were dripping wet and by the time I had arrived were already perking up nicely.  They both contain four plants, Lavender, Rosemary, a Pepper and a Tomato plant, annoyingly it doesn't give any information about the plants but they are healthy enough and I think I'll repot them into their own pots soon.  At the moment they are stood on the patio looking really good in the big terracotta pots they came in.  The pots alone are worth the £2.50 I paid for each pot.

There were four for sale at this price but I left the others for someone else to grab a bargain.

A couple of days later also at Tesco I came across these trays of French Marigolds reduced from £2 each to just 20p each ... and you know me I had a PLAN  in mind straight away  :-)

My plan was to take one of the trays of marigolds and plant them where I need them to attract all the beneficial insects for my crops ...  and then use the other along the lines of yesterdays post ... making money from virtually nothing.

Potted up in some old black plastic plant pots that cost me nothing, the marigolds will be added to either this weeks or next weeks car boot sale stall.  Hopefully I will be able to get 50p each for them now they are already getting bigger. 

So I should be able to make £3 for my 20p outlay ...every little helps and adds nicely to the Food and Plants Fund.

While I was at Tesco there just inside the doorway there was a wire tray full of these boxes ...

...all reduced to clear.

So altogether for the marigolds and these packs of flower bulbs I spent a grand total of £1.50, the full retail price should have been £14.  If I make the hoped for £3 at the car boot sale I will be £1.50 in profit and have lots of flowers for us ....and the bees.

Plant bargains make me just as happy as food bargains.

Sue xx