Simple money-saving and sustainable hacks for gardeners

Swedish gardener Filip Johansson quit his job in IT when his love for gardening took off after he and his brother claimed a free plot of land where they started growing flowers and vegetables.

Today, his passion has gone viral, with nearly 63.2k followers on Instagram alone, whom he encourages to try his money-saving, sustainable hacks for gardening success.

He has now written his first book, Garden Hacks, with 70 tips for gardeners to create shortcuts, with step-by-step instructions for ideas as they recycle, save money and think sustainably.

Here are a few of his ideas:

1. Make a cardboard weed barrier

Cut out a piece of cardboard, cut it to the center to make a hole and place it around the plant.

“It prevents weeds from competing with the small seedlings or plants you just planted. It acts as a collar around the stem of the plant and also helps deter snails from eating small seedlings.”

The cardboard will disintegrate within a few weeks and if you don’t like it, you can cover it with grass clippings or mulch, he suggests.

2. Harvest herbs quickly

Save time tearing off many leaves from herbs by reaching and pulling the stems from the inside through the holes of a colander, which requires removing the leaves, which are left in the colander so you can use them. Good herbs for this are sage, mint and oregano, or anything else that doesn’t benefit from putting the stems in your dishes.

3. Save water by rinsing your harvest

“I use a basket from my bicycle as a harvest basket, pick the vegetables and then rinse them in the basket over a bucket, so I save the water, which I then use to water the plants. It’s a good way not to waste water. And in the summer months you have to save every drop.”

4. Breathe new life into old potting soil

If you plan to throw away all your old potting soil in the spring, think again, he advises.

“It may not have a lot of nutrients in it, it may be hard and compact and not very nice looking, but you can restore it, as I call it, and just add some nettle water or some coffee grounds and mix it in. and let it sit for a while.

“Worms are probably going to work on the soil, so instead of composting, which takes a year or two, this takes a few weeks.” You can also use comfrey water as a fertilizer to revitalize the soil, he suggests. Don’t worry if it has carrots in it, because coffee grounds and other additives like barbecue charcoal (not briquettes or ash) will give it structure, he says.

Don’t plant the same plants in the old soil, he advises, because that will lack the nutrients that those specific plants love. He uses old, rejuvenated soil as top soil for his vegetable garden beds when he plants new seed and mixes it with new compost to plant other types of plants.

5. Make your own seed tape

Small seeds, like carrot seeds, are difficult to distribute evenly, but you can make your own seed tape from toilet paper to do the same.

Mix the flour with water to create a sticky ‘glue’, lay down the toilet paper and fold it lengthwise to create a crease in the middle. Run a measuring tape along the length of the paper so you can space the seeds evenly, then dip a pencil into the flour mixture and place it in the seeds so that one is picked up. Twist the seed halfway between one long side and the fold on the toilet paper.

Repeat this with equal spacing for the seeds, and when you’re done, apply some floral glue along one edge of the paper. Fold the paper along the original crease, roll it up and let it dry so that you can put it in a garden bed in the spring when you can put some soil on it and water it.

6. Keep ants away

If you are bothered by ants on your patio, use coffee filters or insect screens and place them at the bottom of patio pots to prevent the ants from getting into the soil. “It hinders them from starting their colony,” he says.

“The other thing is keep watering because if it’s damp they don’t like it. So always try to keep the soil moist.”

He also recommends using cinnamon to deter them, by sprinkling ground cinnamon on the bottom of your pot or potted saucer or along the lines that ants form between pavers or near the patio door.

7. Use corks to create perfect spacing for seedlings

“I use corks that have already been uncorked from the bottle and screw them into a wooden board or plank with the desired spacing.

“So for peas or beans you can space them 10cm apart, then you just push the long plank with all the corks attached down into your garden bed and you have perfect holes everywhere, into which you can drop the peas or beans or small seedlings, perfectly distributed.”

Garden Hacks by Filip Johansson is published by Murdoch Books and costs £12.99. Now available. Photography by Peter Carlsson.