The Thrifter Gardener: How to Create a Stylish Garden for Next to Nothing by Alys Fowler.

4/5 rating. 190 pages.

Book #7 of 2023. Read March 5, 2023.

This book is the perfect compendium to my Master Gardeners class I’m taking right now!

Alys does a great job of bringing together general garden knowledge, specific advice, and ways to reuse and rejuvenate old materials to make your own fun, eclectic garden. I found myself writing down a bunch of the useful advice for what best to grow on decks or in containers, good ways to grow plants from seed, and some ideas for how to battle pests and disease.

Possibly as useful as the whole rest of the book combined, Alys includes a small directory of some of the most popular garden plants, herbs, and easy flowers to get started. Within here, it has some information about the different plants, some good cultivars, and just a quick overview of each.

I have included some of her advice below that I found especially enlightening…or made me laugh:

• “Gardening is something you do, not something you buy.”
• “You can break down people who love houseplants into over-indulgers and under-indulgers.”
• “All soil can be transformed into a healthy growing medium, and it does not have to be done all at once.”
• “If the conditions are right – correct temperature, light and good compost – you don’t need to water your seed trays until the first seedling leaves appear.”
• “Eat your weeds. Yes, I ate my weeds – chickweed and dandelion salad. The good things about many weeds is they grow in winter. So one way to look at them is as a source of winter greens.”
• “Organic methods rely on good husbandry, prevention and healthy soil.”

Overall, I think this is a great book for gardening newbies like myself!

Additional Quotes:

“When you go to the garden centre, there are a few things you must think about before you head for the till. The two most vital considerations are what sort of soil the plant needs, and what sort of light conditions.”

“As you battle your way home through taxis, buses and cars, you may think that all the bad air is outside, but the sad truth is that things aren’t that rosy indoors either. Some research suggests that our indoor environment can actually be up to ten times more polluted than outdoors.”

“An overfed plant looks just as unhealthy, with lanky, week growth. If your plant is in a clay pot, you may see a white, salty-looking deposit on the outside. This usually indicates mineral build-up from overfeeding. The solution is to feed sparingly, never more than fortnightly in a growing season.”

“To check your soil pH, you can buy a kit from the garden centre, but the easiest way is to make one yourself, using red cabbage. This contains a water-soluble pigment, called a flavin, that turns red in acid conditions, has a purplish tinge in neutral conditions, and shows bluish green to greenish yellow in alkaline conditions. Bring two cups of chopped cabbage to the boil and let them cool. Drain off the water – and eat the cabbage! Put about a tablespoon of soup in a cup and half-fill this with water. Stir the soil around so that it’s suspended in the water. Now add about 3mm of cabbage water.

The liquid will turn a purplish red with a slight tinge of blue for a neutral soil. Greenish-yellow is very alkaline and very red is acid.”

“Water is the most essential factor. Forget that and you’ll be marching your plant off to heaven. If the weather has been dry and your soil is thin, water the hole before you plant. Fill it right to the top and then walk away and do another job. After ten minutes or so, it will have drained away and the hole will be in perfect condition for you to plant into.”

“Suddenly they go from a drink a day to cold turkey because you’ve put them in the ground, given them one last drink and expected the rain to do the rest. These plants need your help to adjust; they need you to give them a good drink at least once a week through the hot months.”

“First you remove the three ‘d’s – dead, dying or diseased material. Then you take out any branches that are crossing because these can rub against each other, leading to weak spots that provide potential opportunities for diseases and pests to get in.”

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