Investing in the stock market or saving to fund retirement is like growing asparagus – you should always have started five years ago.

Recent economic shocks have caused many to question the wisdom of the City saying, not least because the FTSE 100 has gone nowhere over the last five years. But the facts that dividend income during that period added 20pc to total returns, many shares and sectors have done better than the blue chip index and the power of compound interest over time continue to argue against delay or remaining in deposits.

If that sounds a tad simple-minded to some self-supposed sophisticates of the blogosphere (buy silver!), then do try to remember that bumpkin Warren Buffet’s observation that investment is “simple but not easy”. So here are 10 tips to make your money grow using common or garden strategies:

1: Be patient. Don’t expect instant results from plants or your portfolio. But shares and stock market-based funds are likely to produce higher returns than bank deposits over the medium to long term. They did so in three quarters of the periods of five consecutive years during the last century, according to research by Barclays Capital.

2: Be vigilant. Little and often is the best way to water your garden and to regularly monitor the progress of your investments. Do not file and forget assets any more than you would fail to keep an eye on your herbaceous border.

3: Mix and match. No garden should be filled with only one type of flower because that would make it dull for 50 weeks a year, when that plant is not in bloom, and prone to disease. Similarly, diversification is the surest way to diminish the risk in stock markets and maximise returns.

4: Don’t be afraid to prune. Just as deadwood should be removed to stimulate new growth in plants, your portfolio will benefit from dumping dud investments.

5: Don’t be disheartened. Bad weather and economic shocks are ever-present risks for gardeners and investors but the good ones learn to live with them and thrive despite occasional setbacks.

6: Enjoy compound returns. Progress with substantial plants such as shrubs and trees may seem slow at first but, after a few years, each summer’s harvest is noticeably bigger than the last. The explanation is that 3.2pc the current yield net of basic rate tax on the FTSE 100 is worth a lot more on a portfolio of £100,000 than the same return on £1,000.

7: Avoid delay. The sooner you start gardening and investing, the sooner you will get through the dull or difficult early stages and begin to see why both are well worth the bother. That’s why investing – as mentioned at the outset is sometimes compared to growing asparagus; you should always have started five years ago.

8: Make hay while the sun shines. ‘Buy low’ is the first step to making a profit and ‘sell high’ is the second. Use your annual Capital Gains Tax (CGT) allowance to take up to £10,600 of profits this year tax-free.

9: Don’t be a fashion victim. Garden gnomes are no longer widely regarded as a good idea but followers of financial fashion suffered more than embarassment when the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) bubble burst.

10: Enjoy your garden and investments. Both can be rewarding hobbies especially now that fewer people are retiring with final salary pensions and more of us manage our own retirement funds via Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs). Both activities should also prove more intellectually stimulating and profitable than vegging out in front of the TV.