Plants that are easy to propagate?

mamablue

My big garden is just a huge sad rectangular lawn and could do with lots of borders. I can't afford thousands of plants so will do it all from cuttings and seeds but need advice on which plants to go for. It's a big garden and I'm a single mum so low maintenance plants would be better.
I know hydrangeas, rose bushes and fuchsias are easy to root, any others you can recommend?
Also are there any self seeding annuals that keep comming back with little work?
Also looking for perenial crops (ruhbarb and strawberries?) for the kitchen garden

My soil is mostly clay and garden is south facing.
Any help much apreciated!

The Sweeper

Buy a bag of nasturtium seeds for starters - look pretty, and self-seed so they'll spread. Also edible (sharp, peppery leaves good as an accent in salads). Also excellent for planting with the kids, because the seeds are a little smaller than dried peas, so very handle-able.

Lavander and rosemary are both great plants - they can be propagated with a good sucess rate from cuttings. They can be hedged, and they can also be allowed just run riot. Then you can put cut lavander in your airing cupboard to make your towels smell nice, and use rosemary in cooking.

Over winter this year, buy a few packs of bulbs and put them out in the garden - they'll give a nice splash of colour every year.

Peas and beans are great kitchen garden crops for kids - they can help plant them, because again they're very easy to handle, and they can harvest them (and scarf them raw off the plants - one pea pod for the basket, one for me...)

Squash and pumpkins are also good - plants have different yields, but the fruit will store for a long time. Try butternut squash. They grow easily from seed and yield well.

If you have a big garden, you might look at getting a couple of fruit trees - but that's straying into more expensive territory. You can buy bare-rooted in winter more cheaply, but there's always the risk that if you don't do your soil preparation, they might not survive.

mamablue

Thanks for yor help, do all bulbs come back? Do they need any other care?

Beruthiel

Bulbs like daffodils and tulips can be put in the ground and never thought about again. They will come up ever year.

magicbastarder

if you wait till the spring, and don't mind the digging, you could create a wooded section for relatively little - you'll pay about a euro a tree for bare root trees, but they will obviously take a fair while to mature.

Degsy

Geraniums are incredibly easy to propogate.
All yu need to do is cut off a section about 6 inches long and stand it in a glass of water,it'll root in a couple of weeks and can be planetd out.
geraniums require no special care apart from they dont like harsh frost but will usually come back if they do suffer.
I also like Nicotiana Alata (flowering tobbaco).its sown from seed and gives a huge amount of trumpet-sheped flowers that are fragrant in the evening.It also self seeds so you'll always have it as well as seedlings to give away or swap.