Gardening News – great savings on a small scale!

The price of flowers and fresh produce is soaring – and it’s only set to get worse as temperatures dip. While home gardens appear to be the answer, how do you grow anything when winter is just around the corner, your outdoor space is at a premium, and you’re not as adept with a trowel as you used to be? Turns out, it’s not so difficult when you garden smartly – and we have two suggestions to help you do just that. Read on for our simple solutions to profitable (and pretty) growing!

Evergreens Mini Greenhouse

There’s a nip in the air that says ‘autumn’ like nothing else – and your plants are responding to it. Colder mornings and evenings are a signal for gardeners to go undercover with their growing, and the good news is this: even if you don’t have the space (or the dollars) for a full scale greenhouse, you can still create a cosy autumn and winter home for your flowers, salad greens, and even baby root vegetables, with a sun-trapping mini greenhouse.

Evergreens have come up with a flat-pack mini greenhouse that’s affordable, space-saving, and – wait for it – seriously insulated! It’s all down to its fluted, polycarbonate walls and roof. While there’s never any problem getting sunlight (and the heat it carries) into a greenhouse or cloche (provided its panels or ‘skin’ is clean), what makes the difference to plant growth is how quickly heat escapes back out again, especially at night. Polycarbonate, with it’s double walls, lets the sun pour in, and holds it there for longer! But the Evergreen mini never overheats because top ventilation is controlled by twin lifting lids, with multi-position catches to hold them partially open or fully closed.

Perhaps the most useful feature of this versatile little greenhouse is the fact it doesn’t have a base. Because of this, you can either sit it on your deck, and fill it with planters, or pop it directly onto your garden, and grow in-ground. Either way, the structure comes with pre-drilled holes in each lower corner so it can be anchored down against the wind.

And if ‘mini’ has you thinking twice about capacity, think again. The Evergreens 1m x 0.6m space offers plenty of room for several loose-leaf winter lettuce you can pick from again and again throughout the year. Grow microgreen mesclun mixes to 10cm high leaf stage, and you can turn over salad crop after salad crop. Protect your pansies and fairy primula from rain and associated fungal disease, and you’ll have flowers for a little coffee table posy every week. It’s not difficult to see how the savings can mount up when you protect what you have from the weather, and lock in the heat!

Head to Trade Tested and search for ‘Mini Greenhouse’.

Keter Alfresco Raised Planter Bed

There’s a reason why ‘growing platforms’ are becoming increasingly popular, especially with older gardeners. Many of us no longer want to slip our way to a fall on icy, muddy paths, and prefer instead to conduct our cool season gardening from the comfort of our balconies. Enter the ‘Keter Alfresco Raised Planter Bed.’ At 84cm high, it takes the bend out of planting and harvesting. Fill it with quality, free-draining compost, and the soil heats up in no time thanks to the container’s dark-charcoal exterior. What many gardeners don’t realise, too, is growing in a confined space is the key to maintaining low-cost plant nutrition. That’s because, as your garden fertilizer leaches through the growing medium, it is caught in the Keter Alfresco’s water reservoir. Empty the liquid into a watering can via the drainage plug, and the nutrients can be recycled back onto your plants!

The Keter Alfresco Raised Planter Bed is ideal for ornamentals or edibles. It’s dark sides are just made for showing off plants with brightly coloured foliage (think heuchera, coleus, and autumn mesclun mixes), and it’s deep enough to accommodate baby carrots (‘Paris Market’ would be ideal), radish, and even white turnip.

Head to Trade Tested and search for ‘Raised Planter Bed’.

You don’t need a large garden to make a dent in your weekly fresh flower and produce bill. And with winter not yet here, there’s still time to sow and plant for a cool season harvest!