In the smallest of gardens, yards, or even in a polytunnel, try and make a small water haven for wildlife, possibly using a sunk barrel, this can attract so many beneficial insects and creatures like frogs and toads love the damp atmosphere, these beneficial creatures will clear up pests like aphids and slugs for you.
Angela Redmond (August 2000 competition winner)

My husband makes me lovely trellis' from the batons they use to hold tiles on the roof. This timber is pressure treated and a lot stronger than the commercially available trellis'.
(August '99 competition winner)

Going on holiday and no one to water your plants every day? Fill the bottom of a black refuse sack with compost - pack your plants in their pots into it - wet compost thoroughly then using pea sticks to form a frame cover with horticultural fleece. They'll stay moist for a few days at a time and the fleece lets them breathe while keeping moisture in.
Angela McCarthy

Buying cheap plastic pots and spraying them with stone effect paint looks nicer and is a lot cheaper than buying them already done. I have several round my pond and they look excellent.

Cleaning up your patio just use Jeyes fluid rather than the expensive patio cleaners.

Another use for the roof batons is Runner Beans. A much stronger support.
Kim Barton

There are now organic chemicals available to sweeten the water left standing in water butts. However, I have found that it can also be used to the same effect in pebble pools which can stagnate if left unused for some time.
Gareth Wyn Jones

If you are, unfortunately, like me a smoker, there is nothing worse than finding dog ends around the garden, or just as bad an ash tray spoiling the overall view. My tip is as follows. Get a nice 4" diameter teracota tapered pot and place it upside down into a teracota pot base with water in, of approximately the same size. The hole in the bottom of the pot, now facing upwards makes a good entrance point for dog ends and the water puts the cigarette out imediately leaving no smell or unsightly view. The actual pot and base assembly also has quite a novel appearance, and blends with the garden theme!
Alan Blackburn

Get the children interested in gardening, it will fill those long school hols. Mine are digging a pond, pruning bushes and growing peas.
Tina James

Whoops! I nearly came unstuck with my attractive red leaved lettuces which I had grown as an edging plant around a flower bed. I hurried home at the end of the day to prepare for a dinner party. My husband also hurried home to mow the lawn before the guests arrived. When I went to the garden to choose two of my beautiful organic lettuces to use in the starter, just guess what I found? Every leaf of every lettuce was 'garnished' with fresh grass cuttings!! I'll never forget how long it took to wash those lettuces. Moral - don't grow lettuces too close to the lawn!
Prue James

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