GROW A hedge Fund
Trying to create your dream garden on a shoestring budget? Alan’s thrifty tips will help to get you started
as hobbies go, gardening is up there with the best of them – creative, absorbing and, even if you have to start from scratch, you don’t have to spend a fortune.
rather than going for the full-on look straightaway, start simply and add on in easy stages. It spreads the cost plus it’s more fun to watch the garden develop slowly, week by week. here’s how…
do the ground work
Start with your basic floor covering. If you have a bare plot and you want grass, prepare the ground now and sow the seed late next month – it’s far cheaper than laying turf. If you prefer a courtyardstyle garden, choose gravel. This is very effective in a tiny plot, less work than a lawn, cheaper than paving and easy to lay yourself. Just level and firm the ground before spreading the gravel out one to two inches deep.
Add an outdoor bench and tubs of winter pansies. They’re great value and will keep flowering right through to next summer. For tubs, look for bargains in the sales. Go for good quality, frost-proof containers that will last for years.
plant trees and shrubs
For long-term framework plants, start with a small tree. Choose one that has more than one season of interest, such as a crab apple for blossom and fruit, which could stand alone in the lawn or gravel, or as a border centrepiece bulked out with shrubs. Stick to old favourites like ribes, hydrangea, hardy fuchsia, forsythia, hebe, and popular varieties of roses. They’re good value for money, reliable and foolproof.
add bulbs for colour
Once your tree and shrubs are in, add some spring colour by underplanting them with a carpet of bulbs. Cheap mixtures for naturalising are great value sold loose or by the bag. Cheerful and reliable they can be left in the ground, don’t need a lot of fussing over, and come up every year. You’ll find them on sale now, so buy them soon and get them planted over the next four to six weeks.
When it comes to perennials to fill gaps between shrubs and summer flowers for next year’s containers, the smart way to save money is to buy baby plants next spring.
All sorts of outlets and mail-order firms supply young plants that just need potting, then feeding and watering for a few weeks until they’re big enough to plant out. If you only want a few, you can grow them on your windowsill
indoors or in the porch, but if you’re serious about having enough to fill a garden, make a cheap cold frame.
To do this, nail four planks together to form a backless box. Place it outside, fill the base with an inch of sharp sand and cover the top with a sheet of clear, rigid plastic, held down with a brick in each corner.
Keep your costs down
There’s no need to break the bank buying new tools, look for second-hand ones instead. You’ll discover old, restored tools on sale at gardening shows and unwanted ones at car-boot sales. You can also ask friends and relatives to turn out their sheds and see what they can spare.
If you already own the basics, look after them. Invest in a decent file to keep shears and secateur blades sharp. Always wipe spades and hoes to keep them clean, and rub them down with wire wool after use to keep them free of rust.
And instead of spending a fortune on noisy power tools such as leaf blowers, rotary line trimmers and shredders, which you don’t really need, you can do routine jobs by hand in a small garden.
Plus, you’ll be a lot leaner, meaner and greener, too.
Be a diy dynamo
Save a fortune by doing it yourself. Invest in a book (or watch online tutorials) and try making your own garden furniture and timber plant containers. It’s a good way to fill the long winter
evenings and more profitable than going down the pub.
Learn to raise your own plants from scratch. Take hardwood cuttings of roses and shrubs, such as hebe, berberis and cornus in October, and take softwood cuttings of your favourite geraniums and fuchsias now.
Keep them on a windowsill indoors throughout the winter and you won’t need to buy new plants next May.
Instead of buying large plants for instant effect next summer, buy young plants in spring and grow them.
recycle to save cash
Recycling is a way of life these days, and it saves you money, too. You can save a fortune by cleaning old flower pots and plant labels to reuse.
Don’t waste good garden rubbish by taking it to the tip – turn it into compost and dig it into the garden or spread it as mulch rather than pay £2-plus per bag for similar stuff from a shop. It’s easy to do – just invest in a cheap compost bin, set it up in a corner of the garden and fill it with grass clippings, annual weeds and kitchen peelings. Empty your tubs, plant pots, and hanging baskets into it at the end of the season and let the lot stew for six months until it’s ready.
Keep the budget for garden products under control by hand weeding and hoeing instead of buying weedkiller, and stick to one or two good, go-anywhere fertilisers. One packet of organic generalpurpose fertiliser will do for all your garden beds and borders, while an economy tub of soluble feed is fine for containers. You can even use it on the lawn, diluted and put through a watering can. Just be sure to do it in late spring or early autumn when the ground is still moist.