BBC Gardeners' World presenter Frances Tophill has addressed the cost of living crisis in relation to gardening, sharing budget-friendly approaches and warning against certain potted plants.
Herbs in supermarkets: a waste of money?
When asked on the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine podcast whether any plants were poor value for money, Tophill was candid. She responded: "I mean basically any potted plant in the supermarket that's a herb. I really wouldn't waste your money on those."
She explained that such plants are often stressed: "I think coriander, basil, thyme, anything like that, they're so stressed out by being sown so thickly. They're all tiny little seedlings all out competing each other." Tophill advised that if bought, they should be divided into many plants, but she added, "it's more cost effective to just buy a packet of seeds and sow them, especially with things like coriander, they grow so easily from seed."
Garden centre veg plugs: overpriced?
Tophill also cautioned about buying vegetable plugs from garden centres, using cabbages as an example. She said: "You could easily pay between five and eight pounds for a little cell of maybe six cabbages." She noted the additional costs of care and potential losses: "Many will get slugged. If they don't get slugged they'll get caterpillared. You're going to be watering them, fertilising them, covering them with netting which you have to also buy."
She concluded that often it might be cheaper to simply buy the vegetables: "If you get a crop at the end, it will probably be quite small. Maybe not, maybe they'll be amazing cabbages, but actually you could have bought six cabbages for less money then you spent on the plants and you've spent all that time also looking after them."
