Expert advice How to garden if you rent

From planting for the present, to being able to take plants with you - HANNAH STEPHEN-SON digs out some gardening tips for renters

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Perennials can be propagated to take with you

GARDEN designer and nurseryman Jamie Butterworth, who helped create Monty Don’s Dog Garden at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, has been a renter all his adult life.

The 30-year-old newlywed Chelsea gold-medal winner, owner of nursery Form Plants, moved a month ago to a rented house in Windsor, which has a courtyard back garden measuring 2m wide by 5m long and a similar amount of space at the front.

“I've always been a renter,” says Jamie, author of What Grows Together: Fail-safe Plant Combinations For Every Garden.

“Pretty much every rental property I've ever been in has been either gravel or paving. We have sun in the front garden but not the back garden and it’s all paving with no soil border. I imagine when you're renting, most landlords will pave the area because it’s easier for them to maintain.”

“One of the barriers to gardening as a renter is that you're only going to be there for a certain time so what's the point in bothering?” he continues.

“But you can make it an amazing space and having any greenery will help improve your life vastly and actually, it doesn’t matter whether it's one pot or 20, or how big or small your space is.”

Here, he offers the following tips on how renters can make the most of their outdoor space.

ADAPT TO THE RENTAL TIMEFRAME

Plant in a pot, not in the ground

“You're normally on a 12-month contract, so you never quite know what's going to happen beyond those 12 months. You have to adapt the way that you consider gardening.