Gardening Top Tips

Grow your own veg

Growing your own veg can save you money and help to cut down on food packaging. You don’t need a lot of space and clever utilising of pots and window sills can give you a good harvest even with the smallest of spaces.

The RHS website has lots of helpful information on what you can plant during each month and harvesting throughout the year.

Window ledge gardening

Even if you’ve only got a windowsill, you can still grow some lovely grub. Choose the widest possible windowsill and the one that gets the most sun. Avoid overcrowding the plants and make sure to water often as windowsill plants can dry out very quickly.

You can find out some more advice on window ledge gardening on the BBC’s Dig In website.

Start home composting

The best way to deal with food waste is to compost. Start home composting and turn garden and kitchen waste into an organic peat-free compost. You can find a helpful tutorial on composting in 4 simple steps here.

Don’t forget, Devon residents are able to get a cut price compost bin – click here to find out more!

Cut the grass more frequently

Cutting the grass more often enables cuttings to be left on lawns. This saves having to take cuttings to the Recycling Centre or using bags for collection.

Hire or borrow

Hiring or borrowing garden equipment for special tasks is much cheaper than purchasing your own and you don’t have to  pay to have it maintained and repaired. Why not ask around your neighbourhood and start a gardening ‘tool share’ scheme? You may have resources like a Shareshed or Library of Things in your area where you can borrow anything for however long you need it.

Reuse items in the garden

Reusing or re-purposing items elsewhere saves you the cost of buying something new. Many household items can be reused in the garden. Plastic bottles can be used as mini ‘greenhouses’ for young plants and yoghurt pots are good for seedlings.

Recycle Devon’s ‘Gardening, Allotments & Houseplants’ Pinterest board has lots of interesting reuse ideas for the garden.

If you have a top tip suggestion of your own that you would like to see shared on our website and social networking sites send us an email on the contact page.