Most expensive thing in your garden?

[Plocket]

Following on from the "So.... how much should a garden cost?" thread - what is the most expensive item or plant in your garden? Or perhaps I should ask what WAS the most expensive thing!

For me I think it must be my water feature but it was given to me as a present. My most expensive plant would be a £30 Acer which died.

[Juliet]

I think the most expensive thing in my garden is probably the fence, Plocket ...

... er, other than that, don't really know as I payed for most of the plants in bulk when we first had things done & the gardener who did the work got them for me wholesale - she didn't give prices for individual plants. I suspect it was the holly though.

Oh - and even though we did the whole thing at once & employed someone to do it, it didn't come to anything like £22,000!!!

[Deleted]

I'm a real cheapskate when it comes to plants and things in the garden but being 'in the trade' I can usually manage to barter or swap for things.

The most expensive plant I have was a present. It's Trillium Grandiflora 'Snowbunting' which is about £30-£35 normally, it was sent to me by a customer as a thank you for sourcing some rare Erythroniums for him.

[jlottie]

Same as Juliet, it was getting the fence but well worth it, then there was the patio, decking, shed and poly tunnel and rotovator and I'm trying very hard not to count

[sweetleaf]

OH`s two lamposts...vintage Victorian, and a Victorian street sign which he cleverly altered so that it says ***** Place (our family name).My greenhouse comes next but was way cheaper!
I could spend months in the GC, to spend enough to compete with the lamposts though.

[Main Admin]

In my garden the most expensive single item would have to be the shed, £200 from B&Q, I have a couple of plants and trees that cost into the £20+ range including my Acer that's doing fine at the moment but will probably suffer in winter unless I can maybe cover it somehow.

[Plocket]

Mmmm fences can be expensive. I do worry about anything crashing into our garden wall, or it falling down, because not only would it damage all my plants but we'd have to pay to repair it and I'm sure the insurance would never cover the proper costs. We do have four fence panels at the other side of the garden but our neighbour kindly treats them every year and we've not had to replace them in the 5 years we've been here. I think in a year or so they might have to be changed though as our cat keeps scratching at them. Humph.

Hopefully you'll be more successful with your acer CB. I don't know why mine snuffed it but the replacement (bargain!) has been much more successful - so far

The lampposts sound different - any chance of a photo?

Luckily our patio was very cheap - the cost of the sand and hard core (about £100 I think). We got the slabs from neighbours and did the work ourselves. It was bloody hard work but well worth it. Perhaps not a professional job but a good job all the same.

I've just thought - I have a lovely metal screen thing with hanging baskets on it. It cost £90 I think but my sister bought it for her garden and couldn't take it to NZ when she emigrated. So I benefited!!! And I really do want to invest in a decent set of garden furniture. That might set us back a bit

[Deleted]

I have to hang my head in shame and admit that we spent a small fortune on our hobbit hole but we did all the work ourselves - except putting in the shell of it. It was a real project and took nearly a year but I've never worked out the cost as I'd probably choke, especially as we may be moving!!!!

[sweetleaf]

Only pic showing even part of one of the lampposts, and the only reason thats safe is down to Photobucket, my files seem to have been "lost" due to a certain childs helpfulness. >:(but this is better than nothing, I suppose, the other lampost is in the rear garden and I will photograph it tomorrow.

[4pygmies]

Mine's my 30ft polytunnel. It's been fantastic though and has only needed the plastic changing once in 15 years so I consider it money well spent. I don't really spend big chunks of money all at once as I don't actually have any! I spend about £50 + on seeds every year but I sell plants and grow my own veg so I more than recoup easily too. If I had lots of money to spend I would employ a ratcatcher every month and put a livestock proof fence all around my garden....oh, and get a gorgeous BIG greenhouse like Berryfields....

[sweetleaf]

ps.
I painted the crest on the door, it is the Birmingham one, the lady denotes art, the male figure denotes industry.

[Main Admin]

We were lucky to have moved to a brand new estate, some of which is still getting built and the 6ft fence was all round the back garden, otherwise could have cost a fortune. I have spent hundreds on my garden but I'm not really bothered about the cost of it.

[Margi]

Hi Sweetleaf

It's a close run thing in my garden. I paid £150 last year for a lovely teak bench out of my remortgage money when the ex went, which I adore and consider money very well spent.

But in the lead by about £30 was my 'free' greenhouse, which I got in the October of 2004 from a friend of my parents. The other 'friend' who brought it over the Pennines for me broke about a third of the glass on the way, but as I only wanted the fence-side wall in glass and the rest in perspex (due to having a Seedling running around) that wasn't too bad. I actually decided to do the whole lot in the perspex, luckily, as between then and the following March or so, we had the most horrendous windy winter (and I had unknowingly sited it in a wind-tunnel) so I spent a total of just over £180 on buying the original perspex, and replacing large portions of it ('highly recommended for greenhouse use' - yeah, sure!) after three particularly bad storms - I used to lie in bed listening to the wind ripping the sheets out and throwing them around my garden and my neighbours' gardens, and couldn't go out and look in case one of them took my head off - until the final straw came in the March of 2005 which actually dismantled the aluminium structure itself - ripped the roof off and door out, and screwed up the rest of the formerly pretty solid structure like so many paper drinking straws! I was SO glad it had been perspex-glazed, or I'd have been picking glass fragments out of my neighbours and my own gardens from now until Hell freezes over!

Bit sad that the most expensive item was a failed miserably one, but at least I've got a lovely bench, and the Seedling's got a nicely prepared veg plot!!!

Margi x

[Deleted]

My most expensive single item was No. 2 g/h but given that I've started from scratch this year (shed & base, g/h No. 1, then No. 2, ten tonne of compost and sacks of various improver) , the total bill is too much to even contemplate.

I guess the worst "damage" was the £500 bill for the car at christmas when I had to have "things done" to the rear end (probably due to the aforementioned lugging of soil about).

And to top it all, the car has now gone

But I love my garden and don't regret a penny .... well maybe one or two !

;D

[chickadeedeedee]

Hmmmmmmm. The single most expensive item in the garden is a tree. The DAWN REDWOOD ... (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). The price was in the three digit range. Lovely tree then. Lovelier tree now.

C3D

[Plocket]

Ooooh I love Redwoods. How long have you had it ChickaDDD?

[Main Admin]

A load of money well spent on gardens, as I said my shed was the most expensive but the contents would definately treble the price of that with the bikes lawnmower strimmer, fishing rods and tackle and BBQ and all the various tools and garden tools.
I'm planning buying another shed and joining them end to end to make one big one.

[oldmoleskins]

plocket said:

Ooooh I love Redwoods. How long have you had it ChickaDDD?

I've got one of they Wellingtonias, Plocket - we call them punchbarks round here - does that count? I can't price it because it's been here for 150 years, I guess that makes it irreplaceable, and fairly valuable.

OM

[Deleted]

Well, the patio slabs and builders' sand cost a few hundred, but we donated the sweat ourselves, and edged it with old bricks a neighbour was throwing out - admittedly it's not the most even patio in the world, but does the job fine ! In terms of plants, last year, when I was a complete novice and very foolish, I splashed out on a large-grown variegtated honeysuckle at a GC, which cost quite a bit - and what made it really expensive is that I loathe it - horrible spotty leaves that look diseased and white flowers turning a dirty yellow - and wish I'd had the sense to get the common dark-leaved red honeysuckle. Also, at that time I didn't yet realise that young small plants are cheaper and more easily established! But lots and lots of lessons have been learnt since then ... cheers ...

[4pygmies]

Actually, looking about my garden I think the most expensive thing in it is my daughter! I've had to shift bikes, trollies, barbies, sandpits, paddling pools, even soggy cardboard castles and that's not including walking round the trampoline, to get to the washing line, and now I'm trying to shift everything round for the winter so the place is littered with her stuff. She NEEDS it all though apparently

[Deleted]

A 7 year old ivy arch,found at the back of a local garden centre........It was into 3 figures but well worth it.
Got pics but haven't a foggy how to show them.

[Plocket]

Sounds lovely! I wanna see - I wanna see!!!!!

[oldmoleskins]

Petuniapots, the best thing I can do for you is to quote Spruance (we must make this a FAQ)

If you don't already have one, I would suggest that you open a PhotoBucket account.

photobucket.com/

Once the account is set up, click on account options at the top right of the PhotoBucket (PB for short) screen. Under Album Options ensure that Yes is selected against make public. Next, in the same screen (on the blue bar towards the top) click on my album.

Now you can use the browse option to select an image from your PC. Alternatively, if you have seen an image on the web, you could just click on add images from URL, and enter the URL of the image. This is handy if you want to secure a particular image without having to rely on the site where it was originally hosted.

Anyway, once you have the picture of your choice in your PB account, you can either use it as your avatar (the photo in your profile) or post it as a photo within a message.

To use the image as your avatar, open your profile in a new window, and click on modify profile. Back in PB, left click on the box immediately below the image, marked Url, then right click and select copy from the dropdown menu. Go back to your profile, and left click in the box marked Avatar URL, then right click and select paste from the dropdown menu. The boxes marked Avatar Width and Avatar Height allow you to adjust the dimensions of your avatar image. The maximum size being 100 x 100 (pixels). As a guide, my own rose avatar is set at 100 x 100. Finally scroll down to the bottom of the screen, and click on Modify Profile on the left hand side. Your photo should now appear in your profile.

To post photos within a message, you need to select the bottom of the three boxes in PB, the one marked Img. Just copy and paste this into the desired location within your image.

One other thing. If you would like to use a photo as your signature picture, like greenwizard does, you need to copy and paste the Img file into the box marked Signature in your profile.

Confused?
It's fairly straightforward when you get used to it.
Spruance

How's that?

OM

[Deleted]

Right here goes..............



Fingers xxxxxx!

[Deleted]

Oh wow!! I want it ... and the surrounding garden. That is absolutely stunning <quick complexion change to green smiley>

[Deleted]

OOOhhhhhhhhhh...........How did I manage that (photo I mean).

I would love to say the arch was my handiwork.....but it was well established (it came in 2 pieces!)...when I bought it.
Saying that it's done really well and is now onto the third major haircut since last year.

[Plocket]

The arch is beautiful, but I'd put clems up it!!!!!

The wellingtonia sounds lovely Oldmoleskins - any chance of a photo? Another tree I'm keen on is the tulip tree - mum and dad have one and I'd grow one from seed if I had room for a tree in my garden

[Deleted]

The shed. Mind you, don't regret a penny of it.

[Deleted]

Oh. Missed the fact that there was a Page 2 - didn't realise we'd moved on!

[veggardener]

Perhaps not the most expensive thing in my garden, but I 'm quite chuffed with this new patio set I've recently bought.