8 money-saving gardening ideas for autumn

Wise gardeners will plan ahead in autumn to save precious plants bought this summer, and increase stocks of plants and material for next year. Costs continue to rise in every

In gardening, ‘aspect’ refers to the direction in which a garden or plant is facing. This can affect the amount of sunlight and shade that plants receive, as well as the temperature and wind exposure. South- and west-facing aspects are usually warm and sunny, while east- and north-facing aspects are colder and shadier.

Eight autumn ideas

1) Divide, swap and share

In early autumn, select shoots from late perennial, summer flowers such as penstemon and salvia, or from tender plants, including fuchsias and pelargoniums. Ideally choose non-flowering shoots, rooting these in a

A heated propagator is a portable heated structure with a vented lid and adjustable, constant, thermostatic temperature control. It provides a warm, humid environment to help seeds germinate and cuttings to root quickly.

A method of growing new plants from parts of an existing plant, such as sections of root, stem, leaf or bud. When prepared correctly and planted in the right conditions, they can produce roots and eventually become independent plants. There is a wide range of different methods for taking cuttings, depending on the plant and time of year.

cuttings

Propagate from your hardy geraniums now for lots of autumn colour – all for free

Many succulents produce offsets too, such as this Echeveria

By mid-autumn, summer flowering plants such as hardy geraniums, phlox and rudbeckia will be dying back and be ready to divide.  Detach offsets from the edge of existing clumps and plant in new borders, or pot up to plant in spring. Next year these small rooted pieces will grow away quickly and should make substantial plants for summer. Removing offsets works on the same principle as dividing your plants, except you just take material from the edge and leave the centre intact.

If you have an abundance of plant sections, why not share with friends, neighbours or even with passers-by. If you leave them nicely wrapped in newspaper, outside your front gate, they might even return the favour. Be kind – don’t distribute plants with pests, diseases or an invasive tendency, such as golden rod or plume poppy, and be aware that not everyone will have your high standards, so examine other people’s offerings closely. The parts of divided plants you have retained will soon regrow and be all the better for thinning.

2) Take cuttings

Cuttings of evergreen shrubs can root well in early autumn. Choisya, euonymus and hebe are typical of these easy-to-root plants, using new shoots that are neither soft nor too woody but are firm at the base and flexible higher up – called ‘semi-ripe’. They will root within a few weeks in a heated

A propagator is a portable, lightweight structure usually plastic, with a vented or unvented lid to provide a humid, slightly warmer atmosphere. It is useful to help seeds germinate and root cuttings. It may have adjustable, thermostatic temperature control.

Cold frames are glaze box-like structures made from brick or wood with a  hinged or removable, glazed, sloping lid. Useful to protect plants from cold weather over winter or acclimatise (harden off) young plants in spring and provide extra warmth for tender crops in summer.

Mulch news

cold frame

A cloche is a  small, portable, protective structure made of glass or rigid transparent plastic used to protect plants, especially overwintered and early vegetables, from wet and cold weather and to warm the soil before planting.

Read more

cloche

Get free plants by taking cuttings of shrubs such as Weigela

After leaf fall, consider taking

Hardwood cuttings are taken from mid-autumn until late winter from vigorous healthy shoots of the current year's growth - this will be woody but pliable. Use for deciduous climbers, shrubs, trees (including fruit) and some evergreens such as hollies.

3) Save summer bulbs

Before summer-flowering

These are fleshy, rounded, underground storage organs, usually sold and planted while dormant. Examples include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, lilies, onions and garlic. The term is often used to cover other underground storage organs, including corms, tubers and rhizomes.

Rhizomes are creeping swollen root-like structures that are actually adapted stems. Roots, stems with leaves and flowers are produced along its length. See plants such as Anemone nemorosa, bamboo, canna, border iris.

rhizomes

Tubers are swollen, usually underground, parts of a stem or root used to store food by the plant. They have buds that can produce new plants. Examples are tuberous begonia, cyclamen, dahlia and potato.

tubers

Use cost-effective plants to create a beautiful summer border with a pop of seasonal colour

Spring flowering bulbs such anemones, crocus and snake’s head fritillaries are good buys, as they often persist for many years, unlike hyacinths and tulips, which can swiftly dwindle. Potted bulbs make good houseplants with potted daffodils and grape hyacinths being suitable to be planted out in the garden after flowering where, with luck, they will persist for years.

4) Scavenge seeds

Until the cold and wet causes seedheads to rot after mid-autumn, many seeds can be collected from garden plants. Seeds mature about two months after flowering, so summer flowering rudbeckia, helenium, salvia and sunflowers, amongst many others, can provide valuable seeds to sow next spring. Shrubs and climbers can also yield useful, easy-to-grow seeds; brooms, Abutilon vitifolium, Clematis tagutica and Leycesteria formosa for example.

Sowing tomato seed into biodegradable modules

Planting out germinated vegetables from seed

Tree seeds can make useful hedging plants – beech for example, which must be sown fresh. Haws –  the red berries of hawthorns that make valuable wildlife-friendly hedges, need to experience winter before they germinate. Crush the seeds with damp sand and put in a pierced biscuit tin or similar container outdoors, where the weather can act on the seeds, breaking their dormancy, so they can be sown, sand and all, in spring.

Seeds from supermarket fruits such as avocado, citrus, dried dates and figs, grapes lychees and mango often germinate well in a warm place such as the airing cupboard and soon grow into reasonable houseplants on a bright windowsill. They might become a little distressed by late winter, but trimmed and left in a warm sunny place outdoors next summer they should recover for bringing indoors before winter.

5) Treasure seedlings

A seedling is a young plant grown from seed.

seedlings

Planting young holly, that will go on to fill a section of a border

6) Make your own compost and fertiliser

Composting spent crops and plants, and gathering the abundance of fallen leaves in autumn, is a low cost way of maintaining soil fertility.  Mix materials in roughly a proportion of one third soft, nitrogen rich ingredients such as grass mowings, vegetable crop waste and uncooked kitchen waste, with two thirds by volume of straw material, such as dying-back herbaceous plants and fallen leaves. Use shredded or scrunched up paper and cardboard, if short of straw-like waste, and a sprinkle of dried poultry manure or lucerne (alfalfa) pellets if lacking nitrogen-rich material. By spring these wastes will be rotted enough to use as

Can refer to either home-made garden compost or seed/potting compost: • Garden compost is a soil improver made from decomposed plant waste, usually in a compost bin or heap. It is added to soil to improve its fertility, structure and water-holding capacity. Seed or potting composts are used for growing seedlings or plants in containers - a wide range of commercially produced peat-free composts are available, made from a mix of various ingredients, such as loam, composted bark, coir and sand, although you can mix your own.

Compost bins don’t have to take up lots of room and you can even buy them as ready-to build kits

7) Recover and reuse

Gather up all those sundries and store them away. Canes, for example, can have their rotten ends sawn off and be tied in bundles of the same length ready to use next year. Similarly for stakes, netting, and fleece. Keep solid fertilisers dry and don’t let liquids freeze – they will take no harm before next year.

To grow well, plants need a wide range of nutrients in various amounts, depending on the individual plant and its stage of growth. The three key plant nutrients usually derived from soil are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, while carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are absorbed from the air. Other vital soil nutrients include magnesium, calcium and sulphur. Gardeners can add nutrients by applying fertilisers (either artificial or naturally derived) to boost plant growth and improve flowering and fruiting.

nutrients

Sowing green manure has many benefits.

8) Hold on to prunings

Retain woody stems when pruning in autumn and winter to be used for plant supports and ‘pea sticks,’ or store to use as tomato stakes or bean poles if they are more sizable stems. Acquisitive, yet helpful, gardeners may offer to prune neighbours’ gardens to get more free sticks – a modest gift suitably offered may help here.

Save woody prunings as support for plants like peas