Whether you are planning a new design or just looking to encourage more wildlife to your existing garden, now is a better time than ever to be a greener gardener. A few basic changes to your gardening habits will make you a greener gardener that will benefit your garden, your mental health, and the environment in the long run.
Top Tips For Greener Gardening:
Choose plants more carefully
Choose plants more wisely. Speifically choosing plants that will supply the garden with sources of pollen, nectar, or berries. Its important that wildlife has these source throughout the year not just in the spring and summer. Our summers are also getting hotter so choose plants that are draught tolerant and require less watering.
Hedges
Consider planting a hedge rather than a boundary fence between your neighbors garden. Hedges will provide an easy way for hedgehogs, frogs, and other wildlife to pass through your garden with ease. A hedge becomes a great place for our native birds to nest and provide a valuable food source for many insects and birds. Most plants used for hedges are hard-wearing and easy to look after.
Avoid harsh chemicals
Gardening completely organically is not always the easiest but we can all reduce the amount of chemicals we use. Opt for weeding by hand, picking pests off by hand, or making homemade fertilisers.
Lawns
A lawn may look green but is it really? Lawns require a lot of water in the summer months and mowing to keep them looking green but of course this uses a lot of energy and water. Avoid watering the lawn when the weather is hot. Your lawn will go yellow or brown but it will soon recover when it rains. Instead of mowing the lawn every week, choose to mow every two weeks. Alternatively, get rid of the lawn all together. Replacing the lawn with a flowering meadow mix or clover lawn is less work for the gardener, better for pollinators, and better for the environment.
Reuse Plastics
The excessive use of plastics within gardening is a huge problem. Most growers supply plants in plastic pots for many reasons and it is hard to avoid. Most growers now supply plants in grey pots which is technically recyclable but most local councils still do not accept them. So finding ways to reuse your old plastic pots is the key. Wash plastic pots and store them for later use. You can crush your plastic pots under foot and use them at the base of large pots to aid drainage rather than adding crocks. Your pots can also be used to sow seeds for the following year.
Conserve water
Mulch your borders, use saucers on patio pots, install a drip system, install a water butt, plant drought-tolerant varieties, use a watering can, and re-using your grey water to water your plants are all great ways to save on water usage.
