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

Making Money from Nothing

At the moment my head is in a space of 'making money from nothing'. 

It's car boot sale season for the next few months and we are both having a good sort out of the house and jettisoning all sorts of things that once we would have felt were necessary and useful, but are now most definitely not what we need or what we want in our lives.

It's interesting sorting through the things you own with fresh eyes and a totally new perspective and sometimes when you are looking at things slightly differently you spot things that have been right in front of you for a while that have merged into the background.

The Aloe Vera plant in the top photograph was a case in point.

Bought from a car boot sale a couple of years ago for 50p with the large green mug it sits in also from the same seller for another 50p ... although she hadn't thought to put the two together until I slipped the plant into the mug to free my hands to put my purse away ... it has sat just as it was purchased on the bookcase next to the sofas ever since.  Moving it over to dust after a sorting out session the other day I noticed how very top heavy it was and had a closer look.

It had a mass of baby plants all around it.  I was pleased ... this is the first Aloe Vera plant I have ever kept alive  :-)

I took it over to the polytunnel with me this morning and spent a pleasant half hour repotting it.

Ten plants from one pot.

Yes, I feel totally guilty that this lovely family of plants once resided in the tiny black plant pot to the left of this photograph. 

Seven small plants that I hope to sell for 50p each ...

... and two larger ones that I'm hoping will fetch a pound each.

So a possible £5.50 in takings.

And the lovely thing is that I still have my original 'mummy' plant along with the one baby that did not have a root system of it's own so was not ready to detach.  So the green mug is back in it's original position on the bookcase and nothing has changed in the house.

Except that hopefully once we have done a couple of car boot sales, or popped them out at the farm gate on a sunny day, we will have made some money from nothing to pop into the Food and Plants Fund.

Sue xx