Products and plants at the garden centre seem to be getting more and more pricey, along with everything else. Become a savvy shopper, though, and you can save money and still enjoy a lovely garden. We’ve rounded up what to avoid splashing the cash on, when to buy big ticket items, and what to invest in for excellent value.
#1 Buy expensive kit in the off season
Summer is not a great time to buy a barbecue, thanks to increased demand. A charcoal ‘kettle’ barbecue is going to be your cheapest option at this time. If you’re hanging out for a gas one with lots of bells and whistles, look out for seasonal offers or wait until the end of summer, Black Friday or even the winter months as retailers clear their summer stock.
Looking for garden furniture? If you can wait until August or later, many garden centres start selling off their summer stock to make space for Christmas displays, which now increasingly appear as early as September. Towards the end of summer, you can also look out for ‘ex display’ stock. It may not be perfect as people will have been sitting on it to test it, and it will be sold ‘as seen’, but if it has survived any damage, it could offer you a considerable saving.
If you need a mower, again, it pays not to buy one in summer. As with furniture, you can sometimes find good pre-season deals in spring. Black Friday can also be a great opportunity to bag a fancy mower. Manual or push mowers are often the cheapest option – you can pick one up for around £50. Using one is refreshingly simple and it’s the most eco-friendly option. Corded electric mowers are also cheap, although you will have the hassle of a cable and will need an RCD.
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#2 Buy veg plants in spring – but avoid root veg
In spring, garden centres are full of trays or strips of young veg plants such as French and runner beans, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, carrots and radishes. They’re expensive, but they can be worth it if you don’t have a greenhouse or much seed sowing kit, don’t need oodles of veg plants, or if the crop is hard to grow from seed. However, anything that you eat the root of, such as carrots or radishes is going to be very bad value – you could be paying up to £1 per carrot if you buy young plants this way.
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You’ll get far more mileage out of leafy crops, such as lettuce, cabbage or kale. Lettuce in particular can be used as a ‘cut and come again’ crop, which means that if you cut the leaf down but don’t remove its stem, it will regrow. Radishes are one of the easiest veg to grow from seed, and are popular with children for this reason. You can grow them as a ‘catch crop’, in between other crops while they grow, and can enjoy a harvest in as little as four weeks.
#3 Buy tomatoes and chillies in early summer
Tomatoes take a long time to grow – many people start sowing their tomato seeds in February or March, and they need potting on and hardening off before they can be put outside when the risk of frost has passed. If you only want a few plants, summer can be a great time to find plants that the garden centre is keen to offload – you could find a plant for around as little as £1-£2.
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#4 Buy summer plants early
Buy trays of young plants in spring instead of one expensive pot later in the season. Some garden centres literally pot up their smaller plants into larger ones as the season progresses, so bag a bargain early. If you’ve missed the boat, buy tender plants such as cosmos right at the start of the summer so that you get the most benefit from them.
#5 Buy perennials, not annuals
Annual plants will flower for the summer, then die in autumn. A perennial will come back year after year. Many flower for ages – salvias flower all summer, so are an excellent choice. So are verbenas, such as Verbena bonariensis, penstemons and Mexican daisies.
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#6 Buy bedding at the height of summer
If you do want to grow annuals, garden centres often offer plug plants of colourful annuals in spring, which can be great value if you have a frost-free space, such as a greenhouse, in which to grow them on. However you’ll also need to buy compost for potting on as they grow, which can be expensive. If you want the cheery colour from annuals, bedding plants are often being sold off by mid-June. This is a great time to buy them, as you won’t have to worry about frosts and you can fill your pots and window-boxes cheaply. In high summer, excess summer bedding is reduced, which makes it good value if you want to fill pots or window boxes with cheery colour for the rest of the season. We’ve spotted cheerful geraniums and fuchsias for around £2 each, or a tray of six busy Lizzies for £2.99, reduced from £5.99.
#7 Take advantage of membership deals
Many garden centre chains offer great deals and discounts via a membership scheme, and some retailers will even give you cashback in the form of vouchers.
#8 Don’t buy tender plants in September
Come September, garden centres are full of plants that are still flowering and looking great, such as cosmos and dahlias. Cosmos are fantastic half-hardy annuals that come in a range of colours, from white and pale pink to deep vermillion. They make brilliant cut flowers and look great in borders and pots and flower their socks off for months on end – so they can be good value if you buy them at the right time. Buy cosmos plants in early summer, so that you can enjoy months of colour from June to the first frosts.
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A decent-sized cosmos can cost around £8-£12, and garden centres can be a bit sneaky by still offering them for sale in September. At that time, they will only have a few weeks of flowers left –if a snap frost doesn’t kill them first. Other plants such as dahlias and bananas will still be looking good too, but they will need protection from frost, which by September, could be just a few weeks away, so don’t waste your money.
If you’re looking to inject some late summer colour into your borders, go for late flowering perennials such as asters, Japanese anemones and rudbeckias which will give a good autumn display year after year and are not affected by frosts.
#9 Buy plants that have finished flowering
Spring flowering perennials such as drumstick primulas and shrubs such as azaleas are often sold off cheaply in summer when they’ve finished flowering, as they’re less appealing to buyers. It’s a great time to bag a bargain and boost your spring garden next year.
#10 Don’t buy potted bulbs in spring
It goes without saying that a potted bulb in spring is going to be a very pricey option – and your choice will be very limited. It is far better to buy bulbs in autumn. For the best choice, it’s best to buy online – the deals tend to increase with the number of bulbs that you buy. Or wait until the last moment in November or December to pick up bargain bulbs at the garden centre – it’s not too late to plant bulbs in December, or even January.
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#11 Head to the bargain area
If you’re green fingered, head to the reduced section where a variety of sad looking plants await you. Often they have simply been underwatered or not deadheaded or are a bit wonky, and with a little TLC they will thrive again.
