[jmc1949]

I inherited 7 very nice 8x4 raised beds when I took over a plot 6 weeks ago. They take up half of my quarter plot, but I haven't spent any money of the other section. Other allotmenteers have very kindly given me a composter, water barrel and wood. So I suppose mine is cheap and cheerful.

[grendel]

definitely budget allotmenteering here free pallets and scrounging electrical conduit from the scrap skips at work for posts, basically if there is a way of doing it for free thats the way it will be done.
Grendel

[angelavdavis]

Ours is a mix of freebies and budget purchases - although we have been accused of being posh!  It's amazing what a free greenhouse (free provided we dismantled, moved and installed it again), piles of free pallets from freecycle, bargain decking and a bargain internet shed can do once it has a coat of paint. 

I paid £160 for my shed (delivered), £75 for decking/posts/arch, £30 for weed suppressant and enviromesh, £70 for fruit trees/seed and £20 for paint.  I budgeted myself at £1 per day for the first year to get the plot established (there was nothing there when I took it on).

So, my structure is now in place and I can now get free manure, have recently built a fruit frame from an old gazebo, plastic water bottles for cloches, free bark chips from a local tree surgeons, recycled old guttering off freecycle, sealed up a split waterbutt with silicone and reused it, built pallet compost heaps and cloches (covered in enviromesh).

Really, I could have done it without the decking, arch, new shed and weed suppressant fabric, but I wanted a secure shed and didn't want to spend my weekends fighting back the couch grass spreading from paths - I prefer to have the membrane paths and use my time better. 

I tried the budget approach by getting old scaffold planks but the cost was three times more than the new decking to buy!  I do think the growth in allotments means that the cost of seemingly cheap recycled goods are gone up!  I remember reading that a 40 year old greenhouse recently went for more money than its original purchase price on ebay recently!

[shoozie]

Cheap? Not always
Cheerful? Definitely
Posh? Looks quite dandy when the grass is cut on a sunny day .... The veggie plots though are always a work in progress 

[Axe]

hoping mine looks posh...to keep the boss happy i bought an allotment with a £140k house built on it for her to tend to her needs inside

[Madame Cholet]

My alias is Madame Cholet due to my love of cooking and wombling so
mines recycled except the chicken wire so far an Christmas pressy. Lots of skip diving and bribing the local hardware shop with biscuits. for empty buckets, pallets and cardboard.

[plum crumble]

well, everyone else thought I was posh when I built my splendid Munty frame, but 2 seasons of lovely runner crops have persuaded them all it wasn't just some piece of frippery!
I try to do everything as cheap as chips, and we do have a good sharing ethos on the site if anyone has anything surplus to requirements. I have found my hot beetroot chutney to be an excellent bargaining tool....

[tonel]

Have to admit have spent quite a bit since taking ours on in April - mainly on tools etc (started pretty much from scratch). Managed to construct a few compost bins from pallets though, and try to recycle where we can. Just need to find a supply of manure now (don't really have the means to transport it ourselves..least I don't think my wife would like the idea of filling the car with bags of poo..heh)

[plum crumble]

nah, bags of poo in the car is a no no - you can't really carry enough to make much of a dent in what you need for the lottie, and your suspension and upholstery won't thank you for it, let alone the OH!

[mashbintater]

The only things bought for my plot are: seeds, canes, gloves, a bucket, a riddle, fleece, trowel, compost, diary & tent pegs, lime, fbb, string. Oh and a greenhouse for my birthday  .

The rest: plastic bottles, edging, modules, netting, tools, surplus seeds & produce, poultry pellets, slug pellets (unopened), ground covers, water butts, compost bins, labels, more seeds, pots and very soon a shed; I already had or was given to me.

So yes, cheap & cheerful!  

[clairebeau]

Awww....you guys are fab!

If only we were all on the same site and you were my neighbours...I'd invite you ALL for CAKE.

So has my life changed forever now...?      That I won't be able to walk past a skip without peeping in?       Go to the tip without coming home with more than I took?      ...and trade only in surplus veg, pickles and jam?  Ooooooh I can't wait   

Thanks for answering everyone, I feel positively encouraged now, I CAN DO THIS! x x x

[plum crumble]

course you can do it Clairbleu! In fact, be careful what you wish for......I put an email round work saying I had a lottie and that I needed lots of jars for pickling etc............now I can't move for the b*gg*rs!    I come in to find carrier bags on my desk with a cornucopia of different jars - and always so beautifully cleaned too.

 

[Yorkie]

Just the regular warning that (in England and Wales at least) you MUST ask the permission of the skip company or the house owner if you want to take anything from a skip.  You can't just remove anything without asking permission or it's theft.

[Trillium]

Although mine is in my backyard, its a mixture of freebies and bought stuff. Bought stuff only because I haven't been able to find it free so far and I really needed it. Auctions, year end sales, charity shops, etc, have all been my primary sources.

Mine is also a wee bit posh since garden tours come through here and design a la George (sorry George  ) just doesn't cut it.

[fekq]

A couple on our lottie had their plot done by a landscape gardener if rumour is to be believed. Rolls of turf laid between immaculate raised beds!!! We on the other hand are very old school. Lots of muck, digging, freecycling. I slow down past skips and scavenge anything useful. Do have prettiest shed on the lottie - because when someone wrote my car off, I used the insurance payout to buy a shed - and a smaller car (since I was using the boot of the old one to store stuff in anyway).