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When plant-loving renter Lucy Dalgleish realised she couldn't afford a place with a garden, she opted for a city flat with a large south-facing balcony which, to the delight of her Instagram followers, she is slowly transforming into an urban utopia of florals and veggies.

Lucy says it helps to be a bit "sneaky"

Beechgrove's Kirsty Wilson went for a nosy around the 26-year-old's horticultural hideaway and found out how Lucy manages to propagate her love of flora on a budget.

Most students are not lucky enough to have access to their own green spaces but Lucy proves, if it's something you feel strongly about, where there's a will there's a way.

Horticultural thriftiness

Lucy acknowledges she has had to find ways around what can sometimes be a costly business:

"I've always done house plants, but plants are quite expensive if you're going to go for the hipster new variety of plants so I have to get creative from where I source them from."

"I have to go to supermarkets, I often get tiny wee piddly things... that grow quite fast so, rather than buying an expensive big plant, start small and grow them up!"

Lucy also has plants that are gifts from other plant-loving friends, "My tomatoes were a gift, my pal was able to grow them from seed in her flat and she had far too many."

She has also found a healthy plant swapping community in Glasgow, "It involves more of a community... it's properly cracking."

Recycled materials

Making good use of her limited space Lucy admits that "every single space has something in it" - and she has come up with some novel container ideas to avoid costly ceramic planters and recycle old materials.

"The Glasgow streets are very giving", says Lucy

"If you want to be a container gardener it's a lot of expense and ceramics are really expensive so more or less everything can be a pot if you drill a hole in it."

As well as an old cauldron gifted to her by her Gran, she has old tomato tins and even a toilet planter!

"My partner has taken out the toilet cistern and cracked the back of it so it drains. If you've not got that much money you've got to be creative and a wee bit sneaky."