8 money-saving gardening ideas for spring

The price of raw materials for garden products continues to rise, with costs of potting media, paper, plastics and plastic substitutes, fertiliser and energy remaining high. Here are some environmentally sustainable, seasonal solutions to ease the pressure on your wallet.

8 money-saving ideas for spring

1) Grow fast flowering plants from seed

Raise speedy annuals

Annuals are plants that complete their life cycle in one growing season. They are generally easy to grow from seed or can be bought as young plants from garden centres. Annuals are ideal for growing in summer containers and filling gaps in borders. Some examples of annuals include sunflowers, cosmos, sweet peas and zinnia.

such as cosmos, marigolds, sunflowers and zinnias in April and May for flowers later in summer. These are all plants that create impact, which will fill gaps in your beds and borders. Annual climbers such as sweet peas, morning glories and canary creeper are fun to grow and offer great value for money too.

How to grow annual and biennial flowers

2) Sustainable seed sowing

Instead of buying pots and cell trays, make your own using newspaper and paper roll centres. Alternatively use supermarket goods trays to grow seeds in. Space seeds evenly and plant out when they are big enough. Except for some plants that favour undisturbed roots, calabrese and sunflowers for example, this works nearly as well as cell trays.

Make your own pots using recycled food containers, newspaper or paper roll tubes

Gardeners with well drained soil in full sun can sow their seeds for planting straight in the ground from mid-April, transplanting seedlings

A seedling is a young plant grown from seed.

once they can be handled – this has no cost except for the seed.

Sustainable container growing

3) Learn to love your weeds

There are some showy weeds, hawkbit and green alkanet for example, that can be lifted and potted to be replanted (perhaps best not to let them set seeds though). Or just leave them in situ, closely supervised, for a touch of the wild. Compost

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.

any that prove too ‘expansionist.’

Identify common weeds

All things wild and wonderful

4) Plant from your pantry

Sweet potatoes make lovely lush, summer foliage – in fact some cultivars have been specifically bred for this. Sprout them in the airing cupboard and plant in the garden once the risk of frost has passed. Plant supermarket onions in spring and they will produce large, purple, globe-like summer flowers loved by bees, much like their cousins the ornamental alliums. Carrots, if grown on, will produce feathery insect-friendly flower heads, which look rather like cow parsley or the trendy annual, Ammi majus.

What to do with leftover fruit and veg

5) Buy plug plants

Grow on plug plants

Seedlings or young plants grown singly in small modules, with the advantage that they can be transplanted with minimal root disturbance. Bedding plants and young veg plants are often sold as plug plants of various sizes, with smaller ones requiring more aftercare. They usually need to be potted up and grown on indoors until large enough to plant outside.

in small pots – they will grow swiftly when this is done in spring. Just make sure you keep them indoors or in a greenhouse to start with. They’ll be ready to plant in the garden as soon as the roots fill the pots and frosts no longer threaten (late May in the south, early June in northern and in high-altitude gardens). Nicotiana, Osteospermum, penstemon and petunias are good choices.

6) Use smaller tender plants as ‘stock plants’

You could also buy small tender plants such as Argyranthemum and fuchsias to act as ‘stock plants’. Repot into fresh potting compost and place on your sunniest windowsill or in a conservatory if you have one. Liquid feed once roots appear at the bottom of the pot. Remove young soft shoots, nip out the softest bud

A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.

and after stripping lower leaves place in a heated propagator

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.

in good light or in a pot covered with a plastic bag. Pot up once rooted. Do the same later, with sideshoots from tomato plants to get offspring to plant outside in June.

RHS advice: buying mail order

Argyranthemums make great stock plants that can be repotted

7) Feed your plants for free

The price of fertiliser has also risen markedly. However, it is easy to make your own free, and much more sustainable, alternative. Gather rampant spring growth of borage, lawn grass, nettles and green alkanet, and place in a covered bucket for a week or two. The resulting, rather smelly, ‘liquor’, diluted with water to straw colour, makes a liquid fertiliser that, being weak, can be used generously.

Not only is borage a favourite for bees, it makes great, free, liquid feed

Fertilisers

8) Recycled compost

Potting compost is costly, and although the expense is generally worth the investment when sowing seeds or raising young plants, there are less pricey options for the large amounts needed to fill tubs and troughs. Mixing spent potting compost from last year with fresh material is a good option.

For long term containers containing shrubs or a tree, adding 30% (by volume) of fine landscape bark

Bark is the outermost layer of woody plants (trees, shrubs and woody climbers). It is several cells thick and provides protection against physical damage, disease and environmental stresses. Bark comes in a wide variety of colours and patterns, and these can help gardeners when identifying plants. The fissures and crevices of bark on older plants also creates valuable habitat for many garden creatures as well as lichens and small plants.

to recycled potting compost makes an effective mix. Add a cup of general fertiliser per bucketful of mix to top up the nutrients

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 nutrients usually taken up from the soil are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Plants also need carbon, oxygen and hydrogen to make carbohydrates — their main energy source. Carbon and oxygen come from the air as carbon dioxide, while hydrogen is drawn from water absorbed by the roots. Other important soil nutrients include magnesium, calcium and sulphur. Most garden soils contain enough of these nutrients to support healthy plant growth.

. Mixtures can also be made using sieved garden soil, and homemade compost or leaf mould. These are more variable in terms of success, so be prepared to experiment in order to reap the cost benefits.

Renew old compost by mixing it with some fresh, or by adding homemade compost or leaf mould

How to reuse spent compost