Gardening on a budget

Gardening can be expensive. There are ways of cutting the cost.

Making your own compost instead of buying it in, for example and using grass clippings as mulch instead of bark chippings. My mother stops contractors butchering hedges down her lane and asks them if she can have the shredded material - they seem only too pleased to dump the whole lot on her drive for a tenner.

Boot fairs can be good places to find hand tools, plants and gardening books. Charity shops sometimes have gardening books or you can borrow them from your local library.

Supermarkets and garden centres often start selling off garden compost and barbecue charcoal at the end of July. Argos usually brings in its Autumn/Winter catalogue in August so there are bargains to be had in the clearance section http://www.argos.co.uk

Discount stores are, in my experience, great places to bag gardening bargains - everything from pots, compost and fertiliser to the plants themselves. I'm quite happy to tell people that my canna tropicana, ficus benjamina and yucca filementosa all came from Lidl. I've picked up bonemeal from Poundland http://www.poundland.co.uk rose feed from 99p Stores http://www.99pstoresltd.com weed control fabric from Poundstretcher http://www.poundstretcher.co.uk

Reader special offers however, need careful consideration. Two reader offers with same plants and named supplier. The upmarket newspaper's reader offer can be several pounds more expensive !