Beg, borrow or steal used film pots. (When sending films away for processing, they don't need to be sent in these!) Get a good garden knife and cut a criss cross of cuts in the pot lid. There you have it. Stuck on top of support canes, this will save you and your loved ones from a poked eye. Also makes draping a fine mesh net over your greens that much easier and fleece won't get torn when protecting early stuff, especially carrots from the dreaded fly.
Lawrence Hutton (May 2000 competition winner)

I found that if you use the coffee machine cups from a vending machine,after you have cleaned them, they make perfect 3inch pots!! It saved me a fortune.
Sue Price. (May '99 competition winner)

If you are moving into a new housing estate, arrange with the neighbours that you all purchase different herbaceous plants, making sure that most of the selection is popular with most residents. After two or three years you will be able to split the plants and fill up everones gardens at a much reduced cost. Other advantages are:- 1) breaks the ice with new neighbours. 2) gets everyone helping each other adding to communal spirit. 3) keeps everyones interest going to see what some of the plants will look like as they mature (the plants that is!).
Ann Munro

Cheap washing-up bowls make ideal containers for starting tuberous beginias indoors. No drainage holes mean no leaks! Just make sure not to overwater and rot the tubers.
Heather Goldup

Use modelling clay (that hardens without having to put into the oven) to put over support canes in the garden. Just a small ball pushed over the top of the cane could save many an accident with your eyes. You could paint them if you wanted to see them better.
Sue Daniels

If you want to be sure that no animals or wildlife can get at your vegetables. Then cut up an old hose pipe and stick the pipe bits on to canes, then attach canes to the other end of the pipe and bend the pipe over, so that your cane reachs another cane with pipe on to make an arch, you can then put a net over the top of this, and then weigh the net ends down and then your vegetables are totally safe. Which is particulary useful if you put slug pellets down, you can then be sure that your pets or other wildlife won't eat the pellets or dead slugs. A very cheap solution to buying a fruit/veg-net cage, and also gives you a chance to re-cycle your old hose pipes. I do this on my small vegetable patch of about 12ft by 10ft.
Sue Price

When the greenhouse and the cold frame are bursting at the seams - be glad that so many of the seeds you put in came up rather than thinking what can I do with them all? Find out the dates of the local school and church fetes and turn up early to donate your extra plants to them. They will be delighted! (That is what a kind lady did to me recently and we made over £10.00 from her plants which were all quite different to ours). On a separate point we have an electronic "wanted" board at work on our computer system and I asked for flower pots for the plants I grow for my community group. I was thrilled at the response. The same plant sells first in a flower pot and then in a yogurt pot!! I now cut up the yogurt pots for lables. Most gardeners are only too delighted to give away some of their pots for a deserving cause.
Janet Tublin

Before gardening scrape your nails over a bar of soap, thus preventing soil getting in and making your hands easier to clean when you're finished gardening.
Norma White

When using an electric mower, cut the grass across the garden - not up and down - there's less chance of cutting the lead because you will be cutting where the lead has not reached to.
David Shiret

Think ahead to next year and to the butterflies you would like to see in your garden. Sow seeds now of honesty and Sweet Rocket ( Herperis matronalis), and also that lovely wildflower Ladies Smock ( Cardamine Pratensis). All of these plants provide food for the caterpillars of Orange Tips - Orange Tips are on the wing in April & May - look out for them now. Follow this tip to help these lovely butterflies.

Tip for May in the Veggie Garden

If you feel like you are just feeding the slugs & snails when you carefully set all the plants you have grown out in the garden then here's the tip for you! Slug pellets are harmful to wildlife & to pets and are best avoided - organic gardeners never use them - yet they grow good crops. One way to protect plants is to cut up plastic drinks bottles to form 10cm (4") high collars & pop those around lettuce & runner bean plants - they are a great deterrent.

General tip

Are you a new gardener! Wondering what you should be doing? Well a great way to get ideas & advice is to visit other peoples gardens. These are often advertised in local papers and there is a "Yellow Book" that lists alot too. Also HDRA the country's leading organic organisation has too organic gardening weekends with gardens open all over the country - get details on 01203 639229.
Lynn Formison

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