I followed Dawn from Doing it for our selves in Wales and went to Wyevale this morning. Look what I found.
Red Windsor Apple
Katy Apple
James Grieve Apple
All three were reduced from a penny short of £40 down to £10, a saving of £90 as near as dammit.
BTW , The Bamboo is there to keep Ben off my newly planted garlic, so far I have put about 50 cloves in. I will not grow all that I use, a, the garden is not big enough and b, I do not have the room to dry and store it. I use lots of garlic, I love it.
Then I decided to go and have a dig amongst the reduced seeds.
These are almost all the seeds that I will need for next year, I will not be setting all of them so they will hopefully do 2 years growing.
I will also be swapping plants and produce with my neighbours.
I do like a home made Chinese fairly regularly and these mung beans will give me a good supply of bean sprouts.
I also like an egg and cress sandwich and that little packet will make at least a hundred. The cucumber is Marketmore, my Dad used to grow them. I have not had them for several years, I normally grow a Ridge Cucumber , these will be inside and outside to see how they do.
The total value of the seeds was £47.83, I paid the grand sum of £9.50 so a saving of £38.83, nice.
On the way back I stopped at Aldi in Cross Hands, just to have a look.
They may be small but with a little TLC and some well rotted manure they will grow fast.
Four evergreen shrubs, £1.79 each, total spend here £7.16, I still have to find a Berberis and 2 Flowering Quince for the front garden, both of these have pretty flowers followed by edible and tasty fruits. I have spring flowering bulbs for the front and will grow some bedding plants as fillers while the shrubs grow.
I have put a few plants and a whole heap of bulbs on the left side of the greenhouse steps.
I forgot to tell you that I am finally picking tomatoes from my 2 plants, enough for my needs as I do not have the freezer space to make gallons of sauce. Quite a good thing after my exploit during the week.
The apple trees are on semi dwarfing rootstock and have been pruned to grow into an open cup shape, this is how the professional fruit growers like them, the sun can get at all the fruit and you only need a set of steps to harvest it. Both the Red Windsor and James Grieve are suitable to cook with, I have never grown Katy before so it will be a voyage of discovery.
I still have to find a Plum and a Damson, there are several places that I have found them and it will be an on line purchase. None were reduced at Wyevale and they were over £40 each.
I looked at the Pears that were reduced but they were not as good quality and I am not too worried about them, now if I could find a Robin Pear it would be a different story.
Reasons to be grateful.
1. My amazing bargains today.
2. The still glorious weather.
3. The faint smell of wood smoke wafting from the odd chimney.
4. A Sweet Chestnut tree that I discovered yesterday.
5. Watching Ben playing for an hour this afternoon with his doggy pals.
There were 3 small dogs and a Springer and they were in motion for a solid hour, Ben is now snoring beside me.
A very good day, I may have spent a fair amount but my savings on the actual value was £128.33. Goodness knows what the end savings will be, it would be an idea to weigh and value everything that I harvest but I do not see it happening.
I have found a source of well rotted Horse Manure, I have 10 bags coming on Monday. If it is good I will be getting several more.
My bread is out of the oven and I think that I may have to try a piece, in the interest of quality control.
TTFN Pam.
