Tips for saving on garden essentials is partly about re-using and recycling. But as this frees up your money so you have more to spend on new plants and seeds that can only be a good thing!
But there is a caveat, nevertheless: I am not saying do not buy any new items, such as seed trays. Rather that if you are new to gardening; money feels a bit tight; or you’d like to recycle more, that these tips may be helpful. Plus there’s something satisfying about re-using items.
A list of tips for saving on garden essentials
Just a quick list to start with, so you can always skip down to the bits that interest you more.
- re-use food containers
- re-use plastic bottles, all types
- do you make ice lollies for the kids?
- surprising uses for cutlery …
- and for writing implements
- the joys of the loo roll
- and newspaper
- and those cardboard packing boxes
- shredded paper and straw that came in those online deliveries
- that stash of empty potting compost bags
Many of these tips come from my years of growing vegetables, fruit and flowers on an allotment. Re-use and recycle is second nature to allotmenteers.
Re-use food containers
Any list of tips for saving on garden essentials is going to have this, because we all end up with them no matter how careful we are to reduce the packaging!
Shallow food trays can be used as plant saucers and seed tray saucers. They’re especially useful for 1/4 and 1/3 sized seed trays.
Deeper ones with holes already in them such as fruit punnets are good used for sowing small amount of seeds. And if they came with a lid rather than film, then you can use that too; either to keep the seeds warmer or as a drip tray that fits.
And of course they can be used to store dibbers and seed labels so these are readily to hand when you’re sowing and pricking out seeds.
Re-use plastic bottles, all types
Another favourite ploy of allotment gardeners is to use larger plastic bottles as mini cloches. These will both keep seedlings out the way of slugs and offer some protection from the elements.
Smaller bottles can have pin prick holes punched into their lids, turning them in to mini watering cans for newly sown seeds and seedlings.
Tips for saving on garden essentials – plant labels
Do you make ice lollies for the kids? Once washed, the sticks can be used as plant labels. If you’re lucky they’ll last a couple of years, so don’t treat them as a permanent label. Once they start to rot, add them to the compost heap.
Or perhaps you eat vegan spread from a plastic container? These can be cut up and used as plant labels. I’ve found they last 1 – 3 years, so certainly worth using for annual flowers and vegetable seeds.
Surprising uses for cutlery …
Transplanting seedlings from the seed tray to a pot (also called pricking out) is a fiddly business. You can buy little forks like this basic one or swanky versions to help tease out the seedling. Alternatively, use a fork from the cutlery draw. Many of us have some mismatched cutlery rattling around and this is one way you can make use of it. Dessert forks are better than table forks as they’re smaller; best of all is a child’s one.
Other uses for rarely used cutlery include palette knives, cake knives or a small fish slice as an aid to lifting the seedling you want to transplant with minimum damage.
Just don’t ask what I use my sharpest kitchen knives for on occasion. And that’s despite having good quality pruning knives, secateurs, saws…
and for writing implements
Using your finger to make a hole when transplanting seedlings is not recommended. Mainly for the reason that your finger is likely to make a hole which is too big and then there’s all the faff of carefully filling up the hole with soil around the seedling and disturbing the ones you’ve already transplanted.
Far easier to use a dibber – or a pencil.
Tips for saving on garden essentials – the joys of the loo roll
Loo rolls have so many uses! They keep your plant labels tidily to hand and can be used as plant pots when sowing seeds that will develop a long root. This is like those root trainer type seed trays which are commonly used for sweet peas, plus veggies such as beans and peas. In fact the inner tubes of kitchen paper towels are even better for that purpose as they’re longer.
The upside of using loo rolls for seeds is that you can plant the whole thing straight out into the ground. And the downside is that because they’re open at both ends the soil falls out when you first fill them. There are two ways of dealing with this.
Either make 4 vertical cuts at one end of the tube and fold the flaps inwards so that they overlap and make a base for the ‘pot’. Or fit about 6 of them into something like a mushroom punnet which will support them and contain the soil.
and newspaper
Newspaper will help insulate your seedlings if you lay it underneath the drip tray. And newspaper can also be made into individual seed pots and small plant pots. There are kits you can buy to help you make these , or you can use the origami method of folding to make the pots.
original photo is by mrpliskin
and those cardboard packing boxes
Small packing boxes can be used for seed packet storage and to keep the same ‘sowing month’ ones together. Others will store all those bits of twine that you keep stuffing into plant pots, and the safety tops for bamboo plant canes so you can easily find them when needed.
Middling sized ones can be used to keep the plant pots neatly together. Well, you have to keep re-using them until they fall apart or it would be wasteful!
Larger boxes can be laid flat and then used to insulate the inside of your greenhouse. Yes, this will reduce the light getting through so is only a temporary insulation fix. But quick to do.
Those same large pieces of cardboard can also be used as a weed suppressant in the veg garden. And as a means of creating a raised bed by using the lasagna method – see blog link below.
Yet more tips for saving on garden essentials
The shredded paper and straw that came with those online deliveries has to be an improvement on endless polystyrene. Use it for insulating plants outside in the garden and for extra greenhouse insulation.
With the former, place it on the soil around the plant. If the plant is in a pot, you could also wrap it round the pot to protect the roots. Bind the loose material round with some of that twine (told you it would be useful).
In the greenhouse either tuck it around the plants or add as an extra layer between the glass and cardboard (from those large boxes).
frosty greenhouse, photo by annie spratt
That stash of empty potting compost bags
Tips for saving on garden essentials just had to include these, as they can be a real nuisance to dispose of. Some garden centres will takes them for recycling, but generally, we’re stuck with them taking up space behind the shed.
Suggestion. Use them instead of potato sacks for growing potatoes. They can also be folded down and used as large size pots for tomatoes and other annual vegetables and salads. I also use them as temporary pots when lifting and dividing herbaceous perennials and for moving plants around the garden.
Remember to add some holes before using as a pot substitute! Empty potting compost bags can also be split open and used as liners for hanging baskets.
And finally
As you will have noticed, tips for saving on garden essentials could easily have been called tips for recycling in your garden. But as someone who loves buying plants and seeds, and new ‘bits and bobs’ of garden sundries, I felt the different emphasis would be more like fun and less like being lectured to. I suppose the final of my tips for saving on garden essentials would be to buy less and buy wisely. In other words, for those items that you’ll keep and use for years, it’s worth buying quality items.
As gardeners, we are well placed to improve the environment, and it’s good to be reminded as to how easy and fun that can be. Do get in touch for gardening lessons where your classroom is your own garden, ornamental edible garden designs, planting schemes and garden consultancy.
For further gardening advice and inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet – You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.
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