Gardening: 12 New Year resolutions
Let’s make 2019 the year of the eco-friendly garden and help protect the planet,
1 Fix flooding
Where ground is covered with concrete or paving, water
will run off and may flood your garden. Lawns, borders or a quick-draining gravel garden will reduce the risk. If a high water table is caused by an underground seam of clay or rocks, you could consider installing land drains to help drain water away from the house. Instead of a patio, try a raised deck.
2 Encourage wildlife
Even a small garden can be a nature reserve if you
include nectar-rich flowers,
which are a magnet for
butterflies and bees. You can also create eco-friendly features to encourage birds into your garden, such as planting trees and shrubs with edible berries, and setting up birdhouses and birdbaths. Provide suitable wildlife habitats, too, like an area of long grass,
a wildflower patch or a pile of logs.
3 Plant tough
If you’re on a water meter, you’ll know how expensive keeping the garden lush can be. Choose plants from Mediterranean countries that can cope with dry conditions. These include succulents and plants with narrow, spiky leaves, such as phormiums and cordylines, that resist drying winds.
4 Watch water
Install a water butt so you can collect rainwater. Choose a model with a lid to prevent dirt and leaves from polluting the water. Collect ‘grey’ water from baths, sinks and the washing machine, too. To keep the water
smelling sweet, you’ll need Hozelock Water Butt Treatment, which prevents scum and keeps water slimeand algae-free. Don’t use grey water directly on salad plants.
5 Condition soil
Covering bare soil with
a 3-10cm layer of mulch can
reduce water evaporation by
up to 70%. Biodegradable materials like leaf mould, garden compost, spent hops or spent mushroom compost condition soil and keep down weeds. Mulches also protect plant roots from extreme temperatures and promote
beneficial soil organisms.
Garden
6 organically
Grow your garden naturally. Use muck to feed the soil, and it will feed the plants. Ditch chemical weedkillers and synthetic fertilisers. To protect plants from pests and disease, choose those best suited to the growing conditions, keep them well watered and hoe out weeds.
7 Be imaginative
Reusing household items is both thrifty and good for the environment. Strong, timber boxes make great plant stands or seat bases; newspaper is useful for shading greenhouse plants and making pots for growing veg and bedding plants – they decompose when you put the plants in the ground.
8 Grow your own
If you’re really serious about cutting back on your carbon footprint and food miles, try growing your own food. You don’t need a huge plot to do so – tomatoes, potatoes and salad leaves
can be grown in containers on a patio. Or try growing aubergines, purple climbing beans and peas. It’s been suggested that eating purple fruit and veg can have a
beneficial effect on our
overall health and weight.
9 Get composting
Invest in a well-insulated
compost bin with a fitted lid or you’ll need to cover the compost heap with tarpaulin to keep off rain and build up heat. Layer dry ‘brown’ matter with ‘green’ leafy matter to about 1m high. Cover and turn the compost every week or so. To speed up the rotting process, sprinkle dry layers with nitrogen-rich feed.
10 Avoid peat
Peat has formed over millennia in the sterile, acidic, waterlogged conditions of bogs and fens. It is depleting, which is killing the wildlife that depends on it. It’s also a massive carbon sink, so when we dig it up, we’re adding to our carbon footprint.
11 Recycle
your pots
Reuse old plastic pots or check whether your local plant centre will take them off your hands. It doesn’t just save materials, it saves the energy used to manufacture new ones. Broken ceramic or terracotta pots make good crocks for drainage.
12 Give back
Raise money for charities like Greenfingers (greenfingerscharity.org.uk), which creates inspiring gardens for children who spend time in UK hospices. Through the National Garden
Scheme (ngs.org.uk), 3,500 private gardens in England and Wales open their gates to visitors to raise money for nursing and health charities.