Lots of ways we can save money

The cost of living crisis affects us all in one way or another. It is more expensive to heat our homes and fill our cars with fuel, while food in the shops costs noticeably more.

And it will hit our favourite pastime too. I have spoken to people who are already planning not to heat their greenhouses this winter because they can’t afford to. It may not be a matter of life or death but it’s still important to a great many gardeners. In this issue we’ve got some great advice on gardening on a budget in the coming months (see page 16). I know many of our readers are already very thrifty (some of the upcycling ideas you suggest on our Garden Gems page are ingenious!) but it’s fair to say that gardening could be a very expensive hobby if we allowed it to be!

Also, take a look at Mark Lane’s column on page 42 about garden design on a budget. There are always ways to save money in gardening if we look for them.

Elsewhere in this issue, Carol Klein is planting her tulip bulbs (page 24). As she says, this is always a significant moment in the gardening calendar

– as this year’s colours fade we start to look ahead to next spring. After all you can’t beat a good display of tulips! We can get all sorts of bulbs in now before the really cold weather arrives.

Speaking of starting off next year’s flowers, you can get sweet pea seeds going now too (see page 34). They are definitely a favourite flower of many gardeners and autumn sowings can lead to much stronger plants. Have a great gardening week.