Anya the Garden Fairy: Dirty Hands, Happy Mind

Anya Lautenbach is a mum, a columnist, and a money-saving gardener. Anya returns to the podcast promote her new book, The Money-Saving Gardener: Create Your Dream Garden at a Fraction of the Cost.

As we all face a cost-of-living crisis, The Money-Saving Gardener is packed with tips and tricks to help gardeners keep costs down without compromising on style or impact. With creative advice on everything cost saving, from how to consciously buy and waste less, repurpose what you have and find, make the most of so-called garden "waste", to how to boost your plant collection with easy-to-follow seed-saving and propagation tips throughout the seasons.

The Money-Saving Gardener encourages patience when gardening to avoid waste, and urges those with a new garden to take time to get to know their plot so they don’t rip out any hidden horticultural treasures.

Anya, reveals her favourite hardworking plants and shrubs to grow, that are not only beautiful but give the best long-term value for money, while also supporting wildlife and helping the planet.

Her lifetime of budget gardening began in Poland where she grew up surrounded by resourceful family and friends who were passionate about nature and, through necessity, never wasted anything. She was taught self-sufficiency by her mother and shown how to collect seed and propagate plants at the age of 12. “Growing your own food and flowers wasn’t a choice – it was a necessity to survive and stay sane,” Anya writes. 

Those practical skills enabled Anya to grow and create her own beautiful garden in the UK, all on a tiny budget. She started to share her tips and personal gardening journey with others in lively posts across her social media platforms, and a loyal following of gardeners of all ages and abilities quickly blossomed.

Advocating the mental health benefits of gardening, Anya believes getting your bare hands into soil is something everyone should experience. Taking cuttings and the positivity she gains from seeing their first roots grow, has given her strength throughout her life, particularly in times of family grief and her own ADHD ‘superpower’ diagnosis.

She says: “A passion for propagation has helped me enormously on my journey, and I have never stopped propagating since I left home over two decades ago...I know by sharing my knowledge I can make gardening and propagating more accessible, helping people to create the garden of their dreams at a fraction of the cost of going out and buying what they need.”

Order The Money-Saving Gardener HERE!

Anya grew up in Poland surrounded by people who were passionate about nature and simple pleasures which is now her chosen way of life. She loves to prioritize mental health discussions and bring the future of our planet to the forefront of conversations on and off social media. Anya is also very passionate about raising awareness about neurodivergence and in particular ADHD, dyslexia, and autism; she's been diagnosed with ADHD and traits of autism in adulthood and one of her sons is dyslexic. Follow along with her on Instagram where she is the most active in sharing tips & tricks: https://instagram.com/anya_thegarden_fairy

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