Blooms on a BUDGET

Fill your garden with flowers by using some thrifty tricks

- CHRIS MORLEY

Well spread 

Filling a garden with scent and colour can be as cheap as chips. Ways to save include growing self-seeders, such as calendula, which generously spread themselves around and pop up each year without any effort on your part. You can also cultivate annuals from seed, and use division and layering to increase your stock of perennials, shrubs and climbers. All you need is a little patience and – ta-da! – floral ab

Sow capsules of colour 

Growing annual seeds is a purse-friendly option for ramping up summer colour. It’s quick too, with some plants flowering just eight weeks after sowing. March to May are the key months to sow hardy annuals, such as candytuft, and half-hardy annuals like cosmos.