Coffee grounds, corks and old newspapers . . . secrets to cut your gardening costs

SPRInG bouts of sunshine and showers are working together to make everything grow abundantly. This is great news for anyone with outside space that needs perking up.

Sunshine and rain are free, but many other aspects of gardening can be pricey, particularly when it comes to buying plants and tools. According to Statista, we spend an average of £678 on our gardens each year. So there have to be ways to cut that bill down.

One of my first principles is always to get as much as possible for free, and when it comes to growing things, there are freebies if you know where to look.

The free app Olio is a good place to start. This is a community of people who give away all sorts of things, from food and plants to cuttings, seeds, pots and other gardening items.

You can also find free plants, pots and garden tools on such sites as freecycle.org, Nextdoor.co.uk, Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree Free Stuff. You can post requests for items there, too.

AlSO, speak about to sharing your neighbours cuttings and unwanted plants. My friend, Adam, spent days pulling out pond ‘weeds’ that were choking some of the other plants, only to find that they were actually aerating plants and cost a bomb to replace. He realised he could have offered the plants to neighbours.

Join your local gardening group to make new friends and swap seeds and cuttings. These groups often have plant sales as well that are usually much cheaper than the garden centre.

Another budget-friendly strategy is to grow plants that are self- seeding. Garden designer Jilayne Rickards says this means you can harvest your own seeds and baby plants and either resow them in your garden or swap them with your neighbours. She recommends fennel, gilliflower, granny’s bonnet, poppies and lady’s mantle for this.

It’s also worth choosing perennial plants over annuals for the bulk of your garden. Perennials last year after year, so you’ll only have to pay out once. Admittedly they’re not usually as colourful as annuals, so it’s worth budgeting for a few of those if possible.

When you get a new perennial, you might be able to divide it to make more plants. Just before planting, split the rootball in half with a knife or sharp spade.

Don’t waste any peelings or uncooked food: turn it into compost to help nourish your plants through the year. You can also put in grass cuttings, tea bags, crushed eggshells, fallen leaves and even cardboard egg boxes as they all break down nicely.

Robert Dyas has a grey compost caddy by Addis for £6.99 and some councils offer discounts on compost bins and water butts.

If you’ve got a coffee machine, save the grounds. They contain nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, so they’re a great nutrient boost for your plants. Just sprinkle the grounds directly onto your soil and lightly rake them in. Your local cafe will give you some grounds for free.

Jack Sutcliffe, co-founder of Power Sheds, suggests using discarded wine corks as vegetable markers. He says: ‘Slice one-fifth of the cork off to reveal a flat surface, then use a permanent marker to write each vegetable’s name on.’

My friend, Wanda, who keeps horses, occasionally brings me a bag of ripe manure to spread on my roses and other, grateful, plants. But if you live in the country, you may find that locals with horses leave bags of the useful stuff outside their gates for passers-by to pick up.

Chloe, a blogger and horticulturalist from Getintogardening.co.uk, adds that you can also use Epsom Salts as a DIY fertiliser. Just add a teaspoon once a month.

It’ s much cheaper to grow plants from seed than to buy at the garden centre. Wilko, B& M and The Range are Chloe’s go-tos for seeds on a budget.

Rather than buying plastic pots to grow your seedlings, you can create your own, biodegradable ones using this newspaper!

Take a double page, fold it over a few times and roll it around a tin or jar to create a tube that you fold at the bottom to create a base. Then fill your paper tub with soil, plant your seeds and once they’ve grown into seedlings you can plant the whole thing in the ground because the newspaper decomposes.

@ Joesgarden. official on Instagram has a video tutorial if you’d like to watch an expert do this.