SPOTLIGHT ON... crafty gardening

Anyone of a certain age who regularly watched Blue Peter as a child will be well aware just how much can be done with some stickybacked plastic and a cardboard tube taken from a toilet roll.

The late, great Geoff Hamilton had much the same approach to gardening on his early appearances on Gardeners’ World, where he crafted all sorts of useful gear out of old tights, timber offcuts and used cups.

Today there’s a lot to be said for bringing some old-fashioned thrift to bear again. So next time you’re sorting household rubbish, set aside any items that’ll come in handy around the garden.

Toilet roll cylinders make perfect sweet pea tubes and if you start saving now you’ll have enough by mid-October to sow seeds this year. They’ll save a few bob – and they’re biodegradable.

Also, yogurt pots and soft fruit punnets are brilliant for sowing things in small quantities.

Save small clear plastic bags to slip over pots of rooted cuttings on windowsills indoors. And cut the bottom off plastic soft drinks bottles and turn them upside down to make covers to push over cuttings.

You can also cut plastic bottles down to make funnels, small cloches or scoops for potting compost or bulk fertilisers.

Old tights make brilliant plant ties, scissored into strips, while a whole leg makes a string bag for storing onions or flower bulbs.

You’ll be amazed at what you can reuse. Besides saving the planet, you’ll be saving yourself a fortune on garden shopping too.