With the bluest month of the year finally behind us, now is the perfect time to prepare and scape a colourful garden that can be enjoyed throughout the brighter months.
To help guide the nation in building the ultimate planting kit for brighter days, Gumtree UK has partnered with gardening expert and influencer @noughticulture, to share her top tips on how to turf the net to find the best sustainable and pre-loved purchases to help your garden grow!
- Buy local: If you’re new to growing and buying young plants – divisions, cuttings or seedlings – through local growers, for example at farmers markets or on online platforms such as Gumtree, is a great and inexpensive way to try different varieties out and experiment. Try searching for tomato and strawberry plants for sunny spots, and herbs for shadier ones.
- Shop for the season: Spring is a great time to pick up young seedling plants that nearby gardeners have leftover. Try to buy ornamental plants in multiples of three or five to create calm in your space.
- Assess the space: Planting up is crucial in any space, but especially small ones. Trellis and bamboo-fencing are balcony-friendly as they’re light. You can paint them before training fast-growing climbers such as jasmine, honeysuckle and clematis up them.
- Future-gaze your furniture: Now is a great time to think about the garden furniture you want to use in six months’ time. Buying new can incur months of waiting for delivery, so search for second-hand gems on re-commerce sites like Gumtree for local, pre-loved garden furniture – it’s more sustainable, too.
- Weather-proof your garden: Paint can transform tired garden furniture: use a weather-proof spray paint on metal and an outdoors fence paint on wood. Black looks chic, while brighter colours are more cheerful!
- Nail the tools for landscaping: Hard landscaping can cost a small fortune – by shopping second-hand for materials on re-commerce sites like Gumtree, you can pick up paving slabs and sleepers for a snip from nearby sellers, especially if you offer to pick them up yourself.
- Optimise your space: Look for old mirrors – either metal-framed or simply glass – to create intrigue and space in darker corners of the garden.
- The bigger the pot, the better: I love buying plant pots second-hand: you can get beautifully aged terracotta at a bargain, and it’s near-impossible to buy elsewhere. In small spaces, planting up a handful of the biggest pots you can find will create a more cohesive and relaxing feel than lots of little ones – your plants will be happier, too!
- Sweep your space: You can save a fortune by buying tools second-hand, and they often come beautifully pre-loved. In small, paved spaces, you can get by with a good hand-trowel – a broom and dustpan and brush, though, are crucial. I love finishing off a good gardening session with a sweep!
- Good for the soil: Composting your garden and food waste is fantastic for the planet and many find it therapeutic, too. See if you can tuck a small compost bin or wormery in your space – you can always arrange container plants in front of it.
Alice Vincent, Gardening Expert and Creator of Noughticulture says: “I have always believed the best gardening is sustainable gardening. Gardeners love to share – and often end up with too many seedlings – so you can usually find good, sturdy and homegrown plants and cuttings locally on re-commerce sites like Gumtree at a much cheaper rate than nursery prices. Plants sourced from your area are more likely to thrive in your garden too.
“Some of my personal favourite Gumtree Good Finds include an old tin bath and Victorian chimney that I turned into planters – as well as aged terracotta pots that look more authentic than anything you could ever buy new. If you’ve never shopped second-hand for your garden, now’s the time to give it a try!”
Hannah Rouch, Gumtree UK CMO, commented: “Gardening is a labour of love, and it’s important to make the most of the colder months to prepare for sunny BBQs and leisurely afternoons when the days feel brighter.
“If you’re passionate about your garden, then using sustainable practices is a great way to ensure you’re doing all you can to do what’s best for the environment – and your bank account. At Gumtree, we’d encourage everyone with green fingers to embrace pre-loved plants, pots and everything in between to keep waste to a minimum and add timeless character to your garden – no matter how much space you have.”
