Be inspired by credit crunch to make every penny count

However, award-winning garden designer Sarah Eberle has created three fun credit crunch gardens at short notice (costing £5,000 each), to fill the space Fleming’s left when it withdrew its show garden due to the bush fires in Australia in February.

Money-saving visitors should be inspired by Sarah’s creations, The Overdrawn Artist’s Garden, The Off-Shore Garden and The Banker’s Garden, which show how to create entertaining, environmentally responsible gardens on a low budget.

The gardens feature hard materials, furniture and other items made from things found at the local scrapyard, while environmental messages include water harvesting and urban drainage.

Sarah, who runs her own business from Hampshire, says there are many things gardeners can do to save money during the credit crunch.

“Use your imagination and think outside the box as to how you could use materials, making your garden more personalised,” she suggests.

“People can stamp their own personality on their garden.

“It’s much better to have something charming and slightly more informal than trying to do something that the professional landscaper would do.”

For those who want a selection of new plants, but don’t want to have to pay a lot for them, Sarah advises holding a garden party.

“Invite your friends around and ask them to bring plants instead of wine. You can always drink elderflower cordial instead.

“Alternatively, visit your local summer fete, which always has a plant stall, and swap with friends if you have to lift and divide clumps of different plants.”

When choosing plants, she says anything slow-growing and evergreen is going to be more expensive.

“Choose plants which are naturally prolific as they may grow quickly and self seed.”

She recommends grasses which can be grouped together and can give you real value for money. They’ll also look fantastic in small urban gardens.

“You can make whole gardens out of grasses and cut different lengths into patterns,” Sarah says.

“Draw a couple of ground lines, mow them and come up with something really interesting.”

If you are after colour, try seeded flower mixes in urban situations, she advises.

“Get a load of seed and scatter it for a wonderful blanket of colours. Sow seeds of annuals, which you can change each year, and will give a much more natural effect than bedding plants.”

Don’t overspend on trying to achieve a particular look, like over-patterning paving by giving it a brick edge, which may be unnecessary.

“Although details are important, overall it’s the quality of the space which is paramount and that comes from personality, comfort and feeling appropriate to the user.”

There are other techniques you can use to save money.

Award-winning horticulturalist and TV gardener Chris Beardshaw says limit yourself to one new plant each month.

“That way you will have something new to admire and, if you choose one for each month of the year, you can be sure that your garden will have year-long interest.

“Take advantage of any multi-purchase offers, as planting in blocks makes a bold impact and fills an area quickly and cheaply.”

Chris, who has teamed up with Grant’s Whisky to create blueprints for the perfect credit crunch garden (www.grantswhisky.com/ gardenafterhours), recommends people shop at nurseries rather than supermarket-style garden centres.

“Often there is more variety or more unusual plants on offer and you have less nongardening items to distract you into spending more money. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you need every gardening gadget under the sun. Stick to the basics like a good spade and fork, a decent pair of secateurs and a knife and limit everything else as you can often get by just as well without it.”

● The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by Marshalls, runs from May 19-23 at The Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London SW3. To book tickets, visit www.rhs.org.uk/flowershows or call 0844-209-0363.

Best of the bunch – Dwarf phlox

These pretty low-growing plants provide rockeries and scree beds with plenty of colour at this time of year in many shades of pink, blue and white, tumbling over walls or creating flat carpets of flowers. They are easy to grow and will last a few years if given a little TLC. The most popular is the carpeting P. subulata (moss phlox), which grows to just 3in (9cm) and spreads around 45cm (1.5ft), flowering in April and May. Good named varieties include G.F.Wilson, which is pale purple, Apple Blossom, a pink variety and Temiscaming, a red type. Phlox thrives in any well-drained, moisture-retentive soil in full sun.

THREE WAYS TO...

Start with edibles in small spaces.

1 To get a regular crop of your favourite salad, sow small amounts two or three weeks apart.

2 Start some vegetables off in small trays or modules on a well-lit porch or kitchen windowsill.

3 Add seaweed concentrate to your watering can for better yields and disease-resistant plants.

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK

● Sow seeds of biennial flowers like honesty and Canterbury bells, which can be transplanted to their flowering position later on in the year.

● Raise new plants of deciduous azaleas, magnolias and other shrubs by layering low-growing shoots of young growth to soil level.

● Continue tying flower spikes to canes on tall-growing perennials like delphiniums.

● Pinch out the shoot tips of fuchsias in the greenhouse to encourage branching.

● Dig out individual lawn weeds by hand.

● Keep potting on cuttings of chrysanthemums into larger pots in the greenhouse, as their roots grow.

● Apply long-lasting weedkiller to gravel paths and drives.

● Remove green algae from ponds by twisting it onto a stick or rake, adding it to the compost heap.

● Thin gooseberries using the crop for cooking.

Remove every alternate fruit along stems, leaving more room for the remaining ones to develop.

● Hang pheromone traps in apple trees to attract and catch the male codling moth.

● Cover fruit cages with netting, or drape it over strawberries to keep birds off developing fruits.