Gardening is good for your health. Now make it easy on your wallet

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/may/25/gardening-is-good-for-your-health-save-money

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Been inspired sufficiently by the Chelsea Flower Show to go out into the garden? Then you’ve been enjoying some “horticultural therapy”. A growing number of GPs and healthcare professionals are “prescribing” gardening to improve their patients’ health. In fact, the benefits of just being able to see a green space from a window is said to be worth £300 per person per year to the economy.But what’s good for your health is not always healthy for your wallet, and gardening can be an expensive hobby. Estimates of the typical spend on gardens by UK households range from £123 a year to as much as £30,000 over your lifetime, according to research by Poundstretcher and Gardeningexpress.co.uk. We asked a range of experts to give us their top money-saving tips:

Get to know your garden“A mistake most gardeners make when starting out is to buy lots of expensive plants without taking into consideration the requirements of each plant, which often results in a waste of money and effort,” says Veronica Perez Diaz, gardener for Better Bankside and Borough Market in south London. To avoid this, she recommends “getting to know your space” so you can identify sunny spots and plant accordingly.

Talk to your neighbours“Look at neighbouring gardens to see what is growing well,” says Sue Harris, head gardener at the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent. This will help you to avoid buying plants that won’t thrive.

Be realistic“The most common mistake gardeners make is buying too many seeds that don’t get sown. It’s a false economy to spend £20 on 500 seeds when you simply don’t have room to nurture them,” says Tony Woods, founder of landscape garden company Garden Club London. “Be patient – wait and see what comes up.”

Take an organic approachThis not only benefits wildlife, it saves you money, says Perez Diaz. “Nurturing the soil with your own home compost or using a homemade nettle plant feed won’t cost a penny.”

Stay focused at the garden centre“Many larger garden centres and nurseries price plants, particularly shrubs, based on the pot size, so be sure to avoid paying extra for a newly-potted plant in a big pot,” says Woods.

By the same token, he says look out for herbaceous perennials that have been grown in two- or three-litre pots: “Many will have been potted at the nursery more than 12 months ago, and can be divided into three to five smaller plants that will establish quickly if given a cutback after dividing and plenty of water.”

Be on the hunt for bargainsDon’t assume the best plants are always to be had from garden centres: “Good buys can often be had from charity plant stands,” says Harris. “The National Trust, for example, run some excellent plant fairs.” Family, friends and neighbours may also be willing to give you cuttings and seeds from their own gardens.

Do “companion planting”This will attract beneficial insects and deter unwanted pests,” says Perez Diaz. “For example, grow tomatoes with marigold, chives and garlic to repel white and black fly, instead of buying harmful pesticides.”

Be organised“Label the best plants or make a plan of your garden as some ‘disappear’ over winter – these can easily be weeded out by accident or lost through digging,” warns Harris. She also recommends planning ahead. “For example, bare root wallflowers are cheap in autumn, while cuttings from pelargoniums are easy to strike and will survive a winter on most windowsills.”

A “much cheaper option” than buying at a garden centre, she says, is to go there to look at what is in flower, then plan to grow one next year.

Stick to a routine“The most important thing when gardening is not to set yourself up to fail,” says Ian Kavanagh of Putting Down Roots, a gardening group for homeless people run by St Mungo’s Broadway in west London. “Have discipline and stick to a routine. You need to allow plenty of time when tending to your garden; many people rush what they are doing which results in their plants drying out. Starting again costs double the price.”

Collect seeds“Collecting and storing seeds, keeping tubers and propagating plants using cuttings from mature plants are all excellent ways to produce dozens of new plants from a single flower for free,” says Dawn Ewing of Bumblebee Conservation Trust, which offers guides on seed collecting and taking plant cuttings on its blog.

Use the internetThere are a number of good money-saving gardening websites, including:

■ Gardenswapshop.co.uk and Growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/seed-swap/. Swap plants and seeds with others online.

■ Streetbank.com, Streetlife.com and Letsallshare.com. Borrow gardening equipment for free from your neighbours.

■ Moneysavingexpert.com/deals/patio-and-garden. A round-up of best deals on patio and garden products by Martin Lewis.

■ Landshare.net. Enables people with land to share to connect with would-be gardeners who want to grow fruit and veg but don’t have space. Both parties share the proceeds.

■ Freecycle, Freegle and MySkip.com. Free stuff for your garden that other people are trying to get rid of.

A wildlife oasis for less than £20

Ben Andrew, a wildlife adviser for the RSPB, decided to create a wildlife-friendly garden on a tiny budget using anything and everything around him - including his own beard, writes Donna Ferguson.

Andrew, 32, who lives in Luton, Bedfordshire collected facial hair shavings and put them outside in a container to provide birds with nesting material, and created a compost heap of lawn cuttings and food waste next to a “wild area”of the garden, where he let the grass grow long. “I had grass snakes laying eggs in there, and blackbirds and song thrushes visiting to eat the worms and slugs.”

He created a water feature from half a beer barrel, found at a reclamation yard, and made a 2ft tall and 3ft wide “bug hotel’, using logs he picked up on walks in the countryside. “I also used some roof tiles that had been left behind by a previous owner, and old bricks I got at a builder’s yard.” He stacked up the materials and filled in the gaps with leave and moss. “I got lots of woodlice and ladybirds, and once saw a toad there.”

He created bird feeders by mixing suet with dried fruit and cheese gratings and basting the mixture on to pine cones. “I left it to set in the fridge overnight, then hung the cones from the trees in my garden. I got blue tits, great tits, goldfinches and robins coming to feed from them.”

His neighbours were so impressed, they gave him cuttings of nectar-rich flowers and seeds from their gardens as gifts. In total, Ben estimates he spent less than £20 for the suet and aquatic plants - everything else was free.