FIVE easy steps to more sustainable gardening
Have a positive impact on the planet and improve the health of your garden by gardening more sustainably. Here are a few easy steps to get you started.
1. make your own compost
By composting your garden waste and kitchen scraps at home, you will be creating lots of lovely nutritious compost for your plants. That saves you time as you won’t need to make lots of trips to the recycling centre, but it will also save you trips to the garden centre to buy compost (which mostly comes in plastic bags!). You have many options, here are a couple:
Set up a multi-bay system or buy a smaller Dalek-style compost bin, whatever is right for your size of garden.
Invest in a worm bin to turn your kitchen scraps into nutritious organic matter.
Want to know more about composting? Check out Charles Dowding’s information and YouTube videos.
2. FEED YOUR PLANTS NATURALLY
Don’t reach for the big bottles of chemical feeds you buy at garden centres. Instead you can try:
Mulching the soil around your flowers and shrubs – which means regularly adding a layer of compost on top of the soil*. For veg beds, you could use some well-rotted farmyard manure. Not only does a mulch help to feed your plants, it also helps to retain water and suppress weed growth.
Make your own plant feeds. Grow comfrey and use the leaves to make a liquid fertiliser called ‘comfrey tea’ for your tomatoes (and for your flowers and veg). You could add a few nettle leaves into the mix.
Use the liquid and compost from your worm bin as a nutritious plant feed.
*Not all plants need mulching, for example, some Mediterranean plants and native wildflowers don’t need – or like – a nutritious soil.
3. SAVE WATER
We do get a lot of rainfall here in the west coast of Scotland, but we should still invest in collecting rainwater to use in our garden during dry spells. Scottish Water, who supply our homes with our water, is one of the largest electricity users in Scotland. We can play a part in easing that burden by being more water conscious in the garden as well as in the home. You can save water by:
Collecting rainwater using a water butt. A full water butt will come in very handy for watering your plants during weeks of dry weather.
Use a watering can or carefully use a hose, instead of a sprinkler, to avoid waste.
Only water plants when they need it.
Mulching your plants, which helps to conserve water in the soil.
4. leave some leaves this winter
Leaving a few piles of leaves in discreet spots around your garden will create habitats for wildlife. Leaf piles or little pockets of leaves give creatures like spiders, frogs and ladybirds somewhere to rest over winter. By leaving leaves, you are encouraging a healthy garden ecosystem – many of these creatures will enjoy feasting on other garden residents, like slugs and greenfly, the following summer. And, once the leaves break down, they create leaf mould, which is a light and fluffy substance that will improve your soil. Again, more free organic matter to make your garden healthier.
Rake the leaves of the grass and leave small piles in discreet places in your garden, such as behind some shrubs or trees.
Leave some of the leaves which fall in your flower borders. They’ll protect the soil from erosion over winter and will eventually break down and add to the soil.
Larger gardens could build a leaf mould bay, alongside their compost bays. Leaves take longer to break down, so will need their own bay.
Smaller gardens can collect leaves in hessian sacks and store them until they break down.
5. plants for pollinators
Bees, butterflies, moths and overflies are not only pretty, they are also incredibly busy insects whose need for nectar and pollen keeps our flowers blooming and our food crops producing. As these insects go from flower to flower, they carry pollen with them and leave it on the next flower, which helps them to create seeds or fruit like apples and pears. Sadly, our number of pollinators in the UK is in decline and gardeners can help by choosing plants which provide food for them through the seasons. You can make your garden a place for pollinators, by including a range of plants from early spring through to late autumn. Not all flowers are good for pollinators, and an easy guide is to look for the RHS perfect for pollinators symbol.
Some easy-to-grow plants to consider are:
Lungworts (pulmonaria), bluebells (hyacynthoides x intermedia), foxgloves (digitalis), yarrow (achillea), hawthorn (crateagus), lavender, thistles such as Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’, Anise hyssop (Agastache), and common ivy (Hedera helix).
