Dirt cheap hacks

NO NEED TO FORK OUT A FORTUNE IF YOU PLANT SMART

- DAVID DOMONEY

YOU could easily spend a fortune on your garden - but it really doesn’t have to cost you the earth. Get into smarter habits and you can fill your plot on a budget.

Smart shopping

The clearance benches at garden centres and DIY stores are a potential goldmine. Look out for perennials and shrubs with healthy roots.

Soak the rootballs, trim dead growth and repot them. They will soon bounce back and give your garden a boost.

Reuse and repurpose

Discover your local household waste reuse and recycling centre. You can find solid tools and stacks of pots for pennies. Clean metal with wire wool, oil the joints and sharpen edges too.

Upcycle your own containers too. Buckets and wooden crates become planters if you add drainage holes. Avoid tyres for growing anything edible. Some may leach compounds, so keep them for ornamentals.

Start plants for free

Collect seeds on country walks only from common plants in public areas. Never take from private land without permission and avoid protected sites.

Gather acorns, conkers and sycamore seeds. Also, save seed from borders.

Poppies, sunflowers and hollyhocks are generous. Dry seed pods in paper bags, label and store cool.