AS the recession continues many people are still tightening their belts – but there are easy ways to save money on gardening.

So says celebrity gardener Chris Beardshaw, who insists you don’t have to buy loads of new plants, liquid fertilisers and bug killers to enjoy a rich and bountiful garden.

At the recent Tatton Park Show in Cheshire, many gardens demonstrated more austerity measures and still looked stunning, says Worcestershireborn Beardshaw, a former lecturer at Pershore College of Horticulture.

He said: “A lot of the processes are so simple. It’s about rediscovering how our grandparents would have gardened. Post-war Britain was about austerity and yet people had the most beautiful gardens.

“To save money, sow your own seed from hardy annuals in autumn to cover areas of bare or cultivated ground. If you go to nurseries or garden centres in autumn they are selling off some of the seed stock cheaper which was designed for spring.

“It still has huge viability, so you are going to get good germination rates at a fraction of the price. By spring the plants are starting to flower. Nigellas and calendulas and digitalis (foxgloves) create a wonderful floral tapestry. You can get several square metres covered for just a few pounds.”

Communities of gardeners should get together to swap plants, seeds and tips.

Beardshaw said: “Herbaceous perennials revel in the opportunity to be lifted and divided. It reinvigorates them. Most of us have geriatric herbaceous perennials that would welcome being divided up and passed on to other gardeners and suddenly you have plants for free.

“Wild geraniums, heucheras, alchemillas and many herbs such as mint and thyme can all be easily lifted with a garden fork, sliced through with an old bread knife and half of it plunged back in the ground where it was. The plants and the gardeners benefit.”

Gardeners can collect seeds from many plants. Place a brown paper bag over the heads of oriental poppies, securing it with an elastic band, and when the seeds start to rattle cut off the stem and turn it upside down, hanging it in a cool, dry place, to let the seed dry. Soon, you’ll have thousands of seeds from one poppy head. Do the same with digitalis.

If you have a wild area with such weeds as nettle and comfrey, you can also make liquid feed which will be just as effective as any chemical product you might find in a garden centre.

Beardshaw said: “People spend far too much money on food for their plants. We reach too readily for artificial fertilisers.

“If you are growing plants like comfrey or you have an area of the garden where nettles grow, you can create comfrey and nettle ‘tea’ just by harvesting the plants, filling a bucket with fresh leaves, pouring over hot water and topping it with cold water and then letting it steep for about a week, straining off the sediment.

“The liquid can then be watered straight on to tomatoes. It’s as good a tomato food as anything you’re likely to buy in a shop.”

Nettles are nitrogen-rich, which is good for leafy growth, while comfrey is higher in potash which is good for flowers and fruits.

Many gardeners are using thick mulches around their plants to suppress weeds and retain water, which is particularly useful during a hosepipe ban.

Beardshaw said: “The most important thing not to lose sight of in the current economic climate is what the garden offers, which is a release, stimulation, a paradise space. Just because we are trying to be more cautious about how we spend our money doesn’t mean we have to lose sight of the beauty of the garden.”