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8 money-saving gardening ideas for spring

With living costs still rising, many gardeners will be feeling the pinch this spring. Here are some cost-cutting options to help gardeners have a beautiful, and productive garden this year

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 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.

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Zinnias make long-lasting displays of late summer colour
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Cosmos, such as this C. bipinnatus ‘Apollo Carmine’ are easy from seed
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Pot marigolds can be sown direct where they are to flower
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Zinnias make long-lasting displays of late summer colour
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Cosmos, such as this C. bipinnatus ‘Apollo Carmine’ are easy from seed
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Pot marigolds can be sown direct where they are to flower
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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 once they can be handled – this has no cost except for the seed.

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 any that prove too ‘expansionist.’  

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Green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) has pretty blue flowers that are much loved by bees
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Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus) is often seen growing brightly in wild grass banks
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Celandines (Ficaria verna) are related to buttercups and have similarly bright yellow flowers
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Green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) has pretty blue flowers that are much loved by bees
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Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus) is often seen growing brightly in wild grass banks
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Celandines (Ficaria verna) are related to buttercups and have similarly bright yellow flowers
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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.
Ipomoea ‘Sunpuma Purple’ is a cultivated variety of sweet potato
Edible onions have ‘drumstick’ flowerheads similar to these ornamental alliums

5) Buy plug plants

Grow on

plug plants 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.

Small and compact, plug plants are readily available in garden centres and are also ideally suited for online ordering
In just a few months you’ll have masses of beautiful flowers, such as these Bacopa (now known as Sutera)            

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 and after stripping lower leaves place in a heated propagator 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.

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

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

About the author - Guy Barter

Guy Barter is the Chief Horticulturist of the RHS and author of RHS How Do Worms Work, RHS Can Anything Stop Slugs, and, to be published in April 2024, RHS What's That Weed?: Know Your Weeds and Learn to Live with Them. He, alongside the RHS Gardening Advice team, answers a range of gardening questions for thousands of gardeners each year.

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