Serena Cowdy highlights top gardening freebies and green-fingered money making schemes.
Spring has sprung - or at least it’s trying to. After a particularly long, hard winter, many of us are determined to get out into the fresh air and put our green fingers to good use in the garden.
However, times are still tight and your household budget may well not stretch to pricey garden plants and equipment.
So here, I’m going to look at how to garden on a shoestring. I’m also going to highlight some ways your garden could actually make you money. And finally, I’ve rounded up some great money-saving gardening deals out now.
Save money in the garden
First, here are three tips for successful gardening on a tight budget:
1. Free equipment
Before you nip down to the nearest garden centre, see if you can get some gardening essentials for nothing at all.
Community freebie sites Freegle and SnaffleUp are both worth a look. People use the sites to give away things they no longer want or need, so - as long as you’re willing to collect - you might be able to pick up free tools, pots or even garden furniture.
It’s also worth having a root around at your local recycling centre. It’s amazing what people throw away in their efforts to make some space, and good-quality metal gardening tools often end up on the ‘junk’ heap.
2. Free plants and seeds
Ask around family and friends to see if anyone has leftover seeds they’ll let you have. Many people buy too many seeds and end up storing them away (then never using them), so they may be happy to donate them to a good home.
Lots of gardeners will also be happy to furnish you with free cuttings from plants they already grow. To get you started, here’s a guide to 12 garden plants that grow well from cuttings.
Finally, check out gardening swap sites like Garden Swap Shop. Most are free to use, and allow you to swap seeds and plants with other community members.
3. Free water
If your house uses a water meter, making the most of rainwater in the garden should help you cut your water bills.
You may not want to invest in a flash rainwater harvesting system, but even a simple water butt should make a big difference.
For example, this 210l water butt set from ALDI costs £24.99, and should pay for itself fairly quickly. And of course, you’ll be doing your bit for the environment, too.
Make money in the garden
You could even make your garden work for you, and use it to earn a bit of cash on the side. Here are three ideas to get you started:
1. The fruits of your labours
If you’re a mean fruit and vegetable grower, why not sell your excess produce?
Unless you’ve got a lot of time and planting space, supplying a shop might be more hassle than it’s worth. However, friends and neighbours may be only too glad to pay decent prices for really fresh, local produce - particularly if they can see exactly where it’s come from!
You could start by advertising the fruits of your labours on community message boards, like the one in your local library.
2. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow
Some people like the look of a beautiful, well-stocked garden - but find growing plants from seed very fiddly and time-consuming. If you have the skill and patience, you could do the hard work for them by propagating seedlings, and then selling them as small plants.
Again, you could sell to family, friends and neighbours, or advertise in your local community. To make a decent profit, just make sure you grow plant types that people will pay a decent price for (perhaps do some discreet market research at your local garden centre!).
3. Rental rewards
If you have a garden or other green space that you don’t use yourself, you could make some cash (with minimal effort) by renting it out.
In many parts of the UK - particularly towns and cities - there is now a high demand for allotments. In fact certain London boroughs are now reporting 40 year waiting lists!
So, tap this demand and use a site like SpareGround to advertise your garden to rent. Here’s the SpareGround guide to getting started.
The possibilities are virtually endless. For example, if you live in a likely holiday destination, and your garden is big enough, you could even rent a patch of your garden out as a camping spot. Just make sure you get permission and fill in the right forms with your local council.
Top gardening deals
If you’re busy getting green-fingered this spring, have a look at these top garden deals:
At LIDL, you can now get a climbing clematis for £3.99, or a garden rose for £2.99 (two for £5).
And Netto is selling a range of potted shrubs for just £2.49 each.
ALDI’s ‘special buys’ currently include a wide range of gardening equipment. For example, you could get a walk-in greenhouse for £29.99, two pairs of gardening gloves for £2.99, a 30l organic growing bag for £1.19, or 1l of tomato or vegetable feed for £1.99.
Over at Wilkinson, you can choose three packets of seeds - from a huge selection - and pay £1.50. You can also encourage wildlife to your garden, with eight bird feeding fat balls now priced at just 97p.
Several sets of garden furniture are currently on offer at Robert Dyas. They include this four-person hardwood set, reduced from £199.99 to £129.99.
And finally, 99p Stores have lots of bulbs, plants and garden equipment priced at - that’s right - 99p each!
Get help from lovemoney.com
If you need help saving and making extra cash, you've come to the right place.
Ed Bowsher investigates how to earn some extra money!
Adopt this goal: Make some extra money or why not have a wander over to Q&A and ask other lovemoney.com members for hints and tips about what worked best for them?
More: The best websites for bargain-hunters | Seven unusual ways to make money in 2010