To save your insteps on shoes or boots whilst using stainless steel spade, cut a length of garden hose lengthwise and slip over sharp edge. Use adhesive to keep it in place.
Gary Clayton (February 2000 competition winner)

If you have a greenhouse or coldframe, make the best use out of them by building (or even buying) a small cloche or frame inside them. This will help hardy annuals etc. get off to a quicker start and protect against unexpected and heavy frosts.
Robert Cooper (February '99 competition winner)

Save stockings and tights and use them for storing all those 3" pots and p9s by putting them into the legs inside each other If you cut the toes off you can pull the pots out of their storage one by one as required you can seal the 'open' end with a clothes peg.
Glyn Meadows

Cardboard wine carriers make excellent garden caddies for twine, secateurs, gloves etc. My Tesco one has lasted quite a few months. If you are worried about their looks they can easily be painted.
Amanda Hawkins

Daffodils which do not produce flowers need not be consigned to the compost heap. By following these tips your daffodils(narcissus) will again ensure delightful colour to your garden. Ensure the bulbs are planted deeply enough, there needs to be two times the height of the bulb cover of soil. As daffodils go through a lifecycle, the large flowering bulbs multiply to produce smaller younger bulbs. These might not be mature enough to flower yet. Keep them well fed. Add a granular high potash feed, and then liquid feed with Phostrogen or similar every fortnight from about April until the foliage dies down. Let the foliage die down naturally. This is essential for the bulbs strength the following year.
Sarah Flemming

Float a ball on garden ponds to discourage freezing.
Carolyn Byrom

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