Hot tips to save on greenhouse costs

Is it worth installing a greenhouse heater? – Lester, London DAVID: Greenhouse heaters can be great but cost money to run – and you have to be careful with humidity as they can dry the air out. If you use a gas heater, you also need to ventilate your greenhouse.

If your plants are not too vulnerable you may be able to get away with insulating your greenhouse using bubble wrap and cardboard. That can help to bring the internal temperature up by a good three degrees.

The depths of winter can make getting out in your garden hard – it’s cold and gloomy, and all those spring flowers still seem a long way off. So a quick fix for gardeners’ winter blues is to make up some colourful window boxes.

You’ll have a lovely splash of foliage and flowers right under your nose to brighten your day no matter how bleak the weather.

And window boxes are brilliant for winter gardening – sometimes you can even tend your plants from inside.

They are great for people who have no outdoor space or as a first step into gardening, while keen cooks will have homegrown herbs in easy reach.

As a way for plant enthusiasts to add a beautifully arranged container to their stockpile, they’re perfect.

Installing a new window box is a quick and easy process – although if you’re lucky you may already have one in place that can be revitalised.

If not, you may have a wide window ledge on which a trough container can sit, or some balcony railings on which to hang a window box.

Otherwise you may need to install angle brackets – these can be bought

Herbs are great for window boxes if you like edible gardening