11 secrets garden centres won’t tell you

Garden centres won’t tell you that you could be saving a fortune on your gardening costs. You can grow beautiful, healthy plants by using these common, inexpensive household items in your yard.

Lay several sheets of newsprint over soil and then cover with mulch; they’ll help retain moisture and suffocate weeds.

Don’t miss these must-read insider tips to save money on gardening. 

Water your ferns and acid-loving plants like hydrangeas with brewed tea for luscious-looking leaves.

Here are 10 more cool gardening tips. 

Keep aphids off your rosebushes by burying dried or cut up banana peels a few centimetres deep around the base of the plant. (Whole peels will attract animals, who will dig them up.)

Here are more extraordinary uses for bananas in the garden.

Mix strips of aluminium foil with mulch and you’ll keep bugs away. The foil will also reflect light back on the plants, which encourages growth.

Check out these 45 uses for aluminium foil you didn’t know about. 

Kill snails and slugs by dousing them with salt – they won’t survive long.

Here are 6 more easy ways to control snails and slugs. 

Ripen end-of-season tomatoes perfectly by wrapping in a couple of sheets of newspaper once they’re off the vine. Store in an airtight container in a dark cupboard, checking every few days.

Find out about the best ways to grow tomatoes. 

Add wet, shredded paper to compost to remove odour.

Check out 10 things you didn’t know you could compost. 

Sprinkle new or used tea leaves around ferns and acid-loving plants and cover with mulch –when you water, nutrients from the tea will release into the soil.

Learn more ways to enrich garden soil. 

If you want more butterflies in your garden, place overripe bananas or other fruit on a raised platform. Be sure they’re above head level and not centrally located, because they will also draw bees and wasps; and bring the food indoors before sunset to avoid unwanted hungry critters.

These facts about pollination will blow your mind.