Frugal garden beginnings in the UK

Spring is attempting to break through in the UK--daffodils are everywhere, and temperatures have finally jumped into double digits this weekend.

I've been thinking quite a bit about garden topics. The place it looks like I'll move into has the outdoor space. I've been reading up online about UK planting times and I stopped by the garden store to get an idea of what is sold here and the pricing. Seed and container prices are roughly equivalent to Germany prices. There is some variety here in what is sold: I saw more varieties of potatos than I've seen in my entire life! Also, they sell these sort of heavy plastic bags in which you grow potatos, or with holes in them on the sides for more plants, strawberries. The advantage which I see with them is that once you empty the dirt in the fall, they can be flattened down for easier storage.

I was thinking about that bittersweet moment a few months ago, when I freecycled my garden stuff on Freecycle Cologne. On a whim I signed up for my 'new' local freecycle in Essex this morning and cancelled my Cologne one, and noticed that someone was cleaning out their planting things.

I sent her a note an hour after she had posted, offering to pick them up anytime today. She named a time two hours later. So basically three hours or so after I had started this adventure, I was bringing home exactly the basis which I need to get started, at zero cost:

Everything was used and obviously well loved and cared for. She mentioned that it had all belonged to her father (and now they're getting rid of all of it, so I didn't inquire further). I am especially pleased with the seedling trays on the left--they're useful, but I find it irritiating to pay so much in the store for a little plastic box, first, because of the cost, and second, because it's plastic.

I'll still need to get some larger pots or those plastic bags described above for the summer season, but this is exactly what I need for right now to get started with seeds. This was a perfect end to a fantastic weekend.