Use this Homebase promotional code to get 20% off gardening and decorating items, even those already discounted or on special offer. The code is available to use this bank holiday only.

Click here to use your Homebase promotional code*

• Discount: 20%
• Applies to: gardening and decorating
• Promotional code: DEC20
• Expires: 6th May 2013

To use this code, go to the Trolley page, and enter it in the promotional code box. It will work on flooring and tiling as well.

According to posters at our sister site HUKD, this code will work on products and services such as paint mixing. Have a look around for the special offers - according to the T&Cs you can use this code with existing offers. Such as the buy one, get one half price deal on Dulux paints.

Thanks to MrBeanzy at HUKD!

If you have green fingers and are on the look out for a bargain then you might want to pop over to Thompson & Morgan and pick up their Lavender B collection - it features 18 plug plants (six each of three different Lavender varieties) which usually retail for £17.97 but will be yours for just the £4.95 postage.

• Click HERE to take a look at the Lavender B collection over at Thomspon & Morgan

Now I know that the timing for this Lavender plants deal isn't the best because, you see, Lavender is a wonderful little plant for summer; they really don't like being in wet ground (especially in the winter, so if you plant it in the garden make sure you add some sand or grit to your soil, if it's heavy, to improve drainage) and love to bask in full sunshine.

I adore Lavender in the garden; the smell is fabulous, it's very easy to grow, it grows quickly too and bees love it!

I've ordered plenty of plants from Thompson & Morgan in the past, including Lavender collections very similar to this one - they are always reliable and the plants are always of exceptional quality.

Simply add the Lavender B collection to your basket and the price will be adjusted accordingly - but don't dawdle, this deal expires on Tuesday 17 July (that's this coming Tuesday).

Thanks to bright_star at HUKD

I am absolutely in love with this idea. I love a herb garden, but it's not something I've always had success with, primarily due to space. This shoe bag herb garden is an incredibly good idea!

What a great way to get kids involved in the gardening and teaching them the names of the food they eat too!

Play.com have the Ninja Corporation’s My Garden Greenhouse Pop Up Tent on offer for £12.99, which saves £12 off the original £24.99.

• Grow little green fingers this summer

The cynic in me wonders why you’d need a special child sized green house, and wonders if you wouldn’t get more for your money with a normal greenhouse and a marker pen, but you know… that’s not the point.

I suppose the benefit of this over your regular Tesco Direct version is that it’s all on the ground, making it easier to reach all the plants. The standard stand up variety has a smaller footprint, but the shelves are too high for the average tot to not pull a greenhouse full of sand filled pots out over themselves… thereby probably answering my own question.

With this greenhouse your little ones can learn through play – the easily assembled Greenhouse can be used to monitor the growth of plants or even seeds, creating a lovely area for them to be studied.

The assembled size for this is 80cm x 80cm x 50cm and it features a chart for documenting the weather.

Thanks to wishihadadonkey at HUKD

If you want to inspire your children to learn about food and how they can grow their own, then you should take a look at this RHS Grow Your Own For Kids book that's on sale with The Book People for £4.99 rather than £12.99.

• Click HERE to flick through the pages of RHS Grow Your Own For Kids

You can't beat going out into the garden, picking food that you've grown yourself and then eating it - it tastes better than anything you can buy in the supermarket, is cheaper and provides a great sense of satisfaction too.

My granddad had the greenest fingers of anyone I know, he taught my mum how to grow things and she passed that love on to me when I was little - I had a little patch of garden all to myself and I grew quick-growing things in it, it was awesome.

Between the Royal Horticultural Society and Blue Peter's gardener Chris Collins (I remember when the Blue Peter gardener was Percy Thrower!) your young gardener will be shown everything from planting, growing and picking their own fruit and veg through to making a scarecrow - making your own scarecrow sounds like lots of fun to me.

Unless you're going to spend over £25 you'll have to pay a single item delivery charge of £1.95 - I wonder if there are instructions for growing a money tree in the RHS Grow Your Own For Kids book...?

Happy growing your own!

Amazon are selling this rather cute Yeominis Starting Gardening carry kit bag, with bits and pieces, for £4.99 instead of £12.99.

• Click HERE to dig up this deal

I've always loved gardening.

My grandad was an avid, and very professional, gardener; he taught my mum and she's passed on her green-fingered knowledge to me.

There's something wonderful about being able to work in the garden growing things, tidying up things and just generally making your outdoor space look the way you want it to - it's a great way to switch off from the madness of 'normal' life.

This Yeominis Starting Gardening carry kit bag is suitable for young gardeners aged three to seven years and has been designed to get pre-school and primary school children outdoors and interested in gardening.

It includes a multi-coloured garden bag with lots of handy pockets, a bright yellow metal watering can, matching yellow metal hand trowel and fork set and a gardening book for children.

Thanks to Homebaked at HUKD

It all started with an after-lunch conversation a few weeks ago. Having munched our way through a delicious salad, with new potatoes and spoonfuls of gorgeous roasted courgettes, my host mentioned that nearly everything had been grown in their vegetable patch.

"Oooh how did you manage to get an allotment" I asked, knowing two things. That their tiny back garden was entirely decked over, and that the waiting lists for allotments around here stretched to lifetimes.

"We didn't", my host replied. Her husband and a friend had joined with others through a scheme that matched you up with people who had land. They'd joined about 18 months ago, and this was their first really successful harvest.

I've written a bit on PlayPennies about growing your own food. You can read more about this in Save money with your garden for example. It is a great way to cut back on the food bills, especially if you are worried about what goes into your food. Growing your own organic vegetables, fruits and herbs is far cheaper than buying them, although it takes a lot more time!

Mail Order Express are selling this rather cute In the Night Garden gardening set for £4.99, instead of £19.99.

• Click HERE to dig up this deal

Gardening runs in my family; my granddad was an avid gardener and I loved messing around in his potting shed.

My mum also has incredibly green fingers and every year we can look forward to home-grown strawberries, potatoes, carrots, runner beans and beetroot to name just a few of the things she grows.

I remember being really chuffed when she gave me a little patch of garden, to have as my own mini allotment, when I was about five.

It's not just me, all kids love to help out in the garden but it can be tricky for them trying to get to grips with big grown-up tools.

This little In the Night Garden gardening set is perfectly sized for allowing little ones to get their hands dirty.

It comes with a trowel, rake, gloves, seeds, planters, apron, spinner game and a gardening bag.

Everything is brightly coloured and features everyone's favourite In the Night Garden characters.

If you use this code before midnight tomorrow (Thursday 21 July) then you'll get free delivery too: FREE2011

Thanks to lucerysmum at HUKD

This lovely Chad Valley Six Piece Children's Gardening Set from Argos is less than half price at £2.99, down from £7.99.

• Grow your green fingers with a six piece children's gardening set

Okay, so I don't have a green finger within a mile of me, but my dad can spend hours and days in his garden, and dinners at my parents usually include a beautiful fresh salad directly from the garden. I think this set is gorgeous, and I can just see my daughter pottering about in the garden with her grandfather, and with any luck she can single-handedly reduce our grocery bill.

The set includes a green watering can, green and blue gloves and a metal pot, with three flowery plant markers.

The watering can is (H)26, (W)10, (D)20cm, the metal pot is (H)10.4, (W)12cm and the plant markers are (H)18, (W)15.5cm.

The Chad Valley Six Piece Children's Gardening set is made of galvanized metal, cotton fabric and wood, and it's all supplied fully assembled and has a two year manufacturer's guarantee, which is pretty good for children's toys.

Although the description says this set is for children 6 years and over, a five star reviewer said her 4-year old loved it. She says, “This little pack is excellent for little ones who want to get involved in the garden. Although it says for 6 years and over my 4 year old loves it. Can't believe how cheap it was for the quality."

I love it and think it's the perfect timing with Spring just around the corner, and such a great price too.

Thanks to Shadow1 at HUKD

GardenBargains is an online gardening club. Just the sort of thing I need to help me grow food for the family! This discount code gives you half price membership, plus £20 of seeds.

Click here to seed your garden with the help of GardenBargains

• Discount: 50% plus free seed collection worth £20
• Applies to: Club Membership
• Discount Code: Click on link above
• Expires: 15/08/2010

With rising food prices I'm increasingly tempted to grow my own. There's also something really appealing about being able to pull your own food out of the ground. I'd also quite like to fill my garden with some lovely flowers too. Always nice to see a bit of colour when you look out the window!

The problem for me and for a lot of people I suspect is that, quite simply, I don't even know where to start. While GardenBargains sells seeds, plants, tools and so forth, it also provides advice and help on gardening from experts.

Annual membership costs £20, but at the moment you can get that for £10 a year. Click through using the link above, and then click on the Buy Now button at the bottom of the page. When you look in your basket you'll see that a £10 discount has been automatically discounted from your bill, and the Club Seed Collection added at no extra cost.

Members receive a 10% discount, an online magazine, gardening help and advice, and special member only offers.

Thanks to hotscot at HUKD!

Until a few years ago I couldn’t see the point of living the ‘good life’. Grow my own food? Mix up my own cleaning products? Therein lay the way of madness as far as I was concerned. And my friends who were into DIY everything were clearly crackers.

Now I know the truth. I was the one who was nutty as a fruitcake! Making stuff yourself is often better for kiddies, plus – and here’s the big secret my mates weren’t letting me in on – it is actually a lot of fun. And in the process, cheaper too.

I haven’t gone the whole hog. I’ve started only with the cleaning products. Partly this has come from my sister. She has a number of skin sensitivities, and so does my nephew. Her knowledge of toxins in the average home is far superior to my own. And most of these come from cleaning products.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not about to go all Felicity Kendall, with a pig sty in the back garden and a loom in the front room. But while I was having fun mixing up concoctions with vinegar, lemon juice, teatree oil, eucalyptus oil and so forth,  I realised I was cleaning the whole house every month and only spending a few quid. There’s got to be something in this homemade lark then, hasn’t there?

It isn’t possible to cover everything you can make yourself in one short article. Instead I’ve focussed on a few inspirational ideas, all supplied by PlayPennies parents, to whet your appetite and start you off.

The Yummiest

I’ve never even thought about growing my own food. We’ve more of a very large patio than a garden. But there’s lots that you can grow in pots and bags. Amou started out her cucumbers and tomatoes just under two months ago in the conservatory. “The cucumbers are huge now! There’s no way we can eat all of them ourselves. I’m looking at ways to do pickles and chutneys.”

I’ve been the lucky recipient of my next door neighbour’s massive spinach haul this year. It has been a bumper crop. Spinach leaves freeze quite well too, and I’ve found that they are just as easy to use from frozen in most recipes.

All of these vegetables were grown from seed, and without very much attention needed to help them grow. If that’s still not tempting you, here’s what mum Angela had to eat for lunch straight from her garden. “Broccoli, kohrabi, beet tops, pea pods and spinach with quinoa. Yummy! And beyond healthy. I`m still vibrating from all the good vitamins.”

And the cost? Apart from the seeds and time for tending, nothing at all.

Clean the house

Last week I took a look at some of the ways you can cut costs on doing the laundry. That prompted a number of readers to get in touch with more ideas. Lisa has a tip she picked up in Australia. “Methylated sprits to clean the floor! No, really, most Aussies do this, the floor is clean and dries in about a second.”

Like me you probably think she’s telling porkies. But I checked it out on Google Australia and there’s page after page of Aussie mum’s talking about doing a ‘metho mop’. If that sounds a bit smelly for you, some mum’s recommend adding about 25ml of eucalyptus oil.

I also found this recipe on an Australian timber flooring website.

“Wash the floor with an almost dry sponge mop using a mixture of a ½ cup of white vinegar or methylated spirits to a half a bucket of cold water - they help cut through floor waxes without harming the finish.”

Playtime

One of my very earliest memories – I can’t even have been 4 as we were still living in the farmhouse – is of my mum making play dough on the kitchen table. I’d forgotten all about this until mum Nicki mentioned her recipe for homemade play dough. I remember how it was all that much more fun to play with, than the plasticky shop bought stuff at nursery, simply because we’d helped make it.

It also tasted a lot better but I don’t think mum meant us to eat it! Nicki has kindly shared her recipe with us:

Playdough

2 cups plain flour
4 tablespoonsw cream of tartar
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 cup salt
2 cups boiled water
Food colouring

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Put boiled water from the jug in a separate bowl and add food colouring to the water. Then mix the water with the dry ingredients until it congeals into a play dough mixture.

For baby

Nicki also discovered this DIY tip, when her youngest son got nappy rash from shop bought wipes. I haven’t worked out a proper cost for it, but roughly speaking if you’re already buying the oil and the lotion (and I got given so much of both that we’re still using it now – son is 5), then it will really only be the cost of the paper towels. Use a really absorbent brand, like Plenty. Also, check out the Bounty pack you got at hospital (if they still hand them out!). I got a plastic Pampers wipes container in mine.

1 roll paper towels (must be a good quality brand that will retain shape when wet)
2 cups warm water
Squirt baby oil
2 tablespoons baby lotion
2 tablespoons baby bath

Tear paper towels and place into wipes container. Mix wet ingredients and pour over the top of the paper towels.

Next week: that fantastic summer food, Ice Cream! Send us your tips for saving money on this frozen treat – either buying it or making your own.

Now here's a cunning way to keep your littlies entertainted over the Easter holidays. Put them to work in the garden! To help with your master plan, Dotcomgiftshop have a range of gardening tools especially for kids, at really brilliant prices.

• Click here to check out the range

These super cute gardening gloves are just £2.95 while the colour co-ordinating garden fork is just £1.95. The items also come in blue, and you get co-ordinating trowels, spades and even a garden rake, a wheelbarrow and a garden brush for cleaning up when the hard work is done!

Dotcomgiftshop are currently offering free delivery on all orders placed over the Easter weekend. The offer applies to UK mainland deliveries only and ends at midnight on Monday April 5th.