When Anya Lautenbach was young in Poland in the 1980s, growing her own produce wasn’t a choice, it was a necessity.
In a country still recovering from the aftermath of World War II, I was surrounded by people who were able to conjure something out of nothing in the garden. They saved everything they could to reuse and make free plants.
Now he’s sharing his wisdom in a new book, The Money-Saving Garden Year, which shows how to have a beautiful, productive garden without spending a lot of money.
It is the follow-up to her best-selling first book, The MoneySaving Gardener, and tells readers what to do in the garden month after month. She also has over a million followers on social media as @anya_thegarden_fairy.
Hobbies like gardening may be the first item we stop spending money on during the cost of living crisis, but Anya believes being outdoors with plants is essential for our mental health and well-being.
Dazzling: For best results, space pink peonies in fall, not spring.
SOW SEEDS OF SAVINGS
While many people finish the garden in October, there are many things we can do for free or with very little money in late fall.
This is a good time to look for good quality used garden furniture, pots and decorations. Try local Facebook or WhatsApp groups and ask if anyone is downsizing or wants to get rid of things before Christmas.
Anya says: “Now is the time to look for things like that, not in April, when there will be a whole army of gardeners competing with you.”
Late autumn is ideal for taking cuttings and planting them in pots. Take semi-ripe cuttings of hydrangeas and lavender or hardwood cuttings of buddleia, flowering currants, dogwood, forsythia, roses and viburnums.
THE TIME IS RIPE
Now the days are cooler but the soil is still warm, it is the best time to lift and divide plants.
You can do this with most herbaceous plants that have been in the ground for two or more years. Peonies should be divided only in fall, not spring.
Anya says, “Take a shovel, dig it up and don’t worry about damaging the roots because plants are very forgiving.”
Look for natural spaces between stems and use a spade to cut a clump into two or more sections. For hard root balls, use two garden forks one after the other to separate them.
Cut away diseased or damaged roots and old stems before replanting at the same depth.
Fall is also the time to plant spring-flowering bulbs, but these can be quite expensive and popular varieties sell out quickly.
Anya advises: “Sometimes garden centers have them half price at the end of the season when they are full of Christmas stock, so wait a bit.”
For tulips, it is a good idea to plant them later in November, or even in December or January, as long as the ground is not frozen.
The Daffodil Paperwhite is also a bulb that sells out quickly online, but it can be a fraction of the price if you wait.