GARDENING

ENERGY SAVING IDEAS FOR GARDENING

ECO AND ECONOMICAL GARDENING TIPS

Grow your own food (zero food miles!).
Avoid products containing peat (extraction from peat bogs releases carbon dioxide!).
Choose plants that don’t need lots of water.
Collect rainwater in a water butt to use on the garden or fill a pond.
Line a trench with newspaper before planting, to hold extra moisture for growing plants.
Use a broom to sweep leaves, rather than a powered blower (better for insects too!).

NEW PLANTS FOR FREE!

Save seeds for later use, and make the most of self-sown plants.
Grow new plants from cuttings, or layer an existing plant.
Exchange plants, seeds & cuttings with other gardeners.
Buy fewer canes to support plants; if you can, use thicker twigs from prunings or small cut branches (e.g. raspberry canes).

GARDEN OR OTHER WASTE

Make your own compost from grass cuttings, weeds & thin twigs, including vegetable waste from the kitchen. Mix up well.
Make leaf mould from fallen leaves to add to compost later (they take longer to rot).
Use a wormery to compost non-meat food waste & provide rich compost for the garden.
(Or a bokashi box* will take meat waste too!)
Avoid putting too much in your brown (garden waste) bin. (Transporting it causes carbon emissions!)
Crushed egg shells discourage slugs & snails from nibbling seedlings.
Make plant labels from waste plastic, e.g. yoghurt pots.
Use unwanted metal or plastic pots for plants.

* Uses fermentation by specialist bacteria

Hydrangea grown from a cutting.

Download the leaflet
(Print double-sided, flipping on the short edge and then cut in half to make 2 leaflets.)

TO ENCOURAGE WILDLIFE IN YOUR GARDEN !!!NEW!!!
Find out about ways to help wildlife in your garden here.