In this blog post, Kayleigh discusses little changes we can introduce to our every day, to help you save a few pennies over the summer season. From growing your own fruit and vegetables to creating your own compost, there are lots of great ways we can utilise our garden space as a way of reducing spending.
As the UK continues to face interest rate increases and a spike in prices it is sure to be a year of challenges for both businesses and customers. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has predicted that ‘household incomes are to drop for a second consecutive year, before recovering in 2024’. Below we will discuss how the team at GardenSite can help you save some money over the coming months with the help of your garden and outdoor space.
Have You Thought About Going Solar?
As an alternative option to mains power, we are proud to say that currently, we have over 60 designs of solar water features available to cater to different styles and decor themes. Whether you are looking to add a novelty piece or something more natural in appearance, we certainly have an eye-catching selection of features available from some of the most popular industry leaders.
Our Aqua Creations solar range even offers a backup, rechargeable battery pack to provide further power to your feature during those cloudier days.
Not only do we offer solar alternatives for our water feature range, but we also have a range of stylish garden lighting that will help illuminate your garden as the night draws in.
For example, the Konstsmide Assisi 7810 Solar Light is perfect for lighting up your pathways or enhancing your garden boards during the evenings, and even better, can offer either white or pastel-coloured lighting!
Grow Your Own
Food shops can often place added pressure on the monthly/weekly budgeting and especially when we see prices starting to increase at our local supermarkets. So why not skip the shops and visit the garden instead?
Raised planters are a great way to start growing your own home produce and thanks to their design often eliminate the threat of frost. Designs such as the Zest Deep Root 1.8m Vegetable Planter are a great starting point to introduce a ‘grow your own’ zone into your garden and are perfect for root variety vegetables.
If you’re looking for something a bit more tech-savvy, then the Harvst range will certainly float your boat. Consisting of automatic, app-controlled growing conditions, the Harvst growing range can be supplied to run completely off of solar power energy. Allowing you to put your feet up whilst the greenhouse does all the work, from self-watering, to temperature regulation, saving you time and money!
More traditional in their design, greenhouses will also offer a suitable environment for growing produce such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. With such a breadth of sizes, styles and accessories available, you have the opportunity to tailor your greenhouse exactly to your needs, whilst also allowing you to adapt and change the functionality of your greenhouse as the seasons change.
Rainwater Collection
A recent news release from Severn Trent has urged people to think twice about how they water their garden over the summer season as they detail how ’sprinklers can use as much as 1,000 litres of drinking water in just one hour - which is more than a family of four would use in a day’, so what can we do to cut down the water bill and save some extra pennies.
A simple solution would be to introduce a rainwater collection system into your garden. Whether this is introducing a water butt to your guttering currently in place or collecting water from your outdoor buildings such as a shed or greenhouse. Not only is it ‘free’ water but studies show that rainwater offers a higher level of nutrients to your garden than that supplied in your external taps.
Not only can the water collected be used for watering the plants but can also be extended to tasks such as washing the car and filling up birdbaths.
Small Changes To Make A Big Difference
Composting:
If you’re looking for a way to add nutrients to your soil then why not invest in a composter?
Not only do these reliable contraptions help to reduce waste, but they also allow you to produce your own unique compost to keep your borders and pots full of quality soil to help your flowers thrive through the seasons. Our Garantia ECO composter range especially will not only help you to reduce spending but will also reduce your carbon footprint thanks to its structure being manufactured from 100% recycled polypropylene.
Not only is composting great for the environment but it will also offer financial benefits too, allowing you to cut down on purchasing bagged multipurpose compost, fertilisers, and pesticides, not to mention the cost of petrol to transport bags of compost from your local garden centre to your home.
Monitoring food wastage on a weekly basis when adding to your composter will also help with saving some pennies during your food shop, as it will offer an insight on what produce you may wish to purchase at a reduced quantity or stop buying entirely.
Attract the Bees to Save on Feeds:
Another great way to save money on fertlisers is to attract our little busy black and yellow friends into your garden. This can simply be done by introducing a Bee Hive or Nectar Feeder into your garden.
As part of the ‘Clean Farming Revolution,’ scientists have come to find that Bees not only assist with pollination but also transport small varieties of microbes around when moving from plant to plant adding beneficial bacteria to what is being grown across vast farming land having the potential to make them a lot more efficient than spray on fertilisers.
So imagine just what they could do for your garden!
Reuse Old Pots and Sharpen Tools:
As the famous slogan goes:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
So why are we so quick to through out old tools and just buy new ones?
Pots supplied when buying new plants for the garden can easily be stacked together and stored away for reusing when looking to start growing your own fruit and veg and will certainly save a lot of money on buying brand new trays.
Sharpening your tools and keeping them stored correctly will also extend their lifespan. Small repairs of parts, should they be required, will also mean your not forking out (pun intended) for a new top-of-the-range product that may encounter the same issues down the line.