ALMOST everything is being recycled or upcycled these days and many household items, which have apparently come to the end of their useful lives and seem destined for the dustbin, can now enjoy a useful lease of life in the garden.

It’s a sensible way to save money and materials, ease the pressure on the overflowing landfill sites and transform rubbish into something that will help your garden grow.

There’s hardly anything that can’t be given a new lease of life in the garden.

For instance, cardboard toilet-roll tubes can have one end bent over, filled with compost and sown with the seeds of plants that like a long root run like beans or sweet peas.

You can also sink a row of tubes in the garden and plant them with leek seedlings.

Used aluminium cooking foil can be cut into inch-wide strips to wind round the stems of Brussels sprouts, cabbages and cauliflowers when planting out to prevent damage from cutworms and cabbage root fly.

Line a cardboard box with foil and raise seedlings on a warm windowsill. By reflecting the light, the foil stops plants getting too leggy.

We all know that plastic is a threat to the environment and there are many ways it can be used in the garden.

For instance, cut plastic bottles into strips to make plant labels or cut out the bottoms to make excellent mini-cloches to protect plants from pests like slugs and snails.

Remember to take off the tops so the plants can breathe.

Plastic food containers, like yoghurt pots, are idea for potting on seedlings. Poke a hole in the bottom of the pot for drainage.

Cardboard and old carpet can be reused in large pieces for weed control and can be made less unsightly with a covering of gravel, bark or wood-chippings.

When using carpet for mulching beds and borders, cut holes for plants and shrubs. Here again, you can cover with gravel or bark to approve appearances.

Unwanted DVDs make effective bird-scarers by threading them on strings across the vegetable garden, and egg boxes are useful to hold sprouting seed potatoes.

They can also be used to raise seedlings.

Egg-shells crushed and sprinkled around plants are said to deter all but the most determined slugs.

Growing bags can be given an extended life by being planted up in the autumn with spring-flowering bulbs and universal pansies.

You can also make your own grow-bags from empty compost bags filled with a mixture of fresh and already used compost.

Fallen leaves break down into super compost given time.

Fill empty bags, leaving holes for water ton enter and store for a couple of years.

Even hair from grooming pets or clippings from a friendly hairdresser can be added to compost or dug into the soil to slowly release nitrogen.

Newspaper, when shredded and soaked overnight in liquid manure, can be used to line pea, bean and celery trenches.

Use thick layers of newspaper for mulching.

When shredded it can be added, a little at a time, to compost - but not magazines or colour supplements!

Plastic pipe naturally keeps its shape and can be cut into hoops for creating tunnel structures. Netting or fleece can be draped over the hoops and weighed down with bricks or wood at either side.

Planters can be made out of virtually anything, from old drawers to baths, sinks, chimney pots, wheelbarrows and even old toilets.

Soap scraps should be saved.

Two ounces dissolved in a gallon of water can be used undiluted as a spray against aphids and whitefly.

And soot, when weathered, can be used for warming up the soil in spring and for the onion bed.

Teabags can be saved and used as a lining for seed trays.

Teabags have also been known to keep pests from damaging and destroying your plants. Simply bury them and the smell will keep pests and rodents at bay.

Loose tea-leaves when sprinkled on a lawn work as a slow-acting tonic.

Old window frames and pallets which would otherwise end up being dumped can be invaluable in the garden.

Windows make great lids for home-made cold frames to protect plants from autumn to spring and pallets can be used to make compost containers and raised beds.

So, before you bin anything, have a think about whether it could be used in the garden.

If so it’s a win-win situation for both people and the planet.

JUST THE JOB

What to do in West Somerset gardens in April

This month can still have the occasional night frost so be wary of buying bedding plants before it’s safe to put them out unprotected.

IN THE FLOWER GARDEN

Lift and divide border perennial plants like hostas, to get two for the price of one! Pinch out the tops of fuchsias to encourage bushy growth and divide primroses once they have finished flowering.

Feed trees, shrubs and hedges with a balanced slow-release fertiliser by lightly forking into the soil surface. Roses will particularly benefit from a good feed as they come into growth.

IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

Maincrop potatoes should go in around the middle of the month.

Prepare vegetable seed beds by removing weeds and digging a 5 cm layer of compost or well-rotted manure. Then cover with black plastic sheets to keep soil warm and dry ready for planting.

Thin carrot seedlings to achieve good-sized carrots.

This is a job for the evening when carrot flies aren’t around!

IN THE FRUIT GARDEN

Protect fruit blossom from frost with horticultural fleece on cold nights.

Mulch fruit trees with well-rotted manure or garden compost and feed raspberry canes and fruit bushes with slow-release fertiliser.

Watch out for early sawfly on gooseberries.