Seven easy ways to be an even more environmentally friendly gardener

In my previous blog I wrote up seven easy things you can do in your garden for the planet. From buying peat free compost to not using any chemicals and making your garden accessible for hedgehogs, you can read all about it here.

Of course you can do more, so below are another seven things that are pretty easy and will make a difference for wildlife and to your carbon footprint.

1. Make your own compost

Every garden benefits from compost, but if it comes bagged (peat free of course!) it first of all requires the production of a non-recyclable plastic bag. Transport, of both the bagged compost as well as the waste from your home and garden that you could turn into your own compost, also adds to CO2 emissions.

There are many ways to compost at home, from making your own bins out of pallets (free!) to buying a wormery or a hotbin (about £200). If you can, have open compost bins as they give you both compost and offer a refuge and feeding area for creatures such as hedgehogs, beetles, toads, bats, birds, bees, small mammals and even slow-worms. It depends how much space you have, but try to squeeze two bins in, so you have one where you add fresh waste and the other is just doing its thing. Don’t expect to get it right straight away, but be rest assured that in the end all organic kitchen and garden waste composts down. (But not your secateurs and garlic press if you accidentally put those in!)

There are many types of compost bins. You can make an open compost bin with pallets that would otherwise be discarded or buy one, open or closed.

2. Grow your own

No matter how small a garden you have, you can grow a little bit of your own fruit, vegetables or herbs. As apple and pear trees are crafted onto rootstocks that determine the eventual size of the tree, you can easily incorporate a small tree in your flower borders. Herbs like oregano grow well in a border as does rosemary and many other edibles. I also quite like the sight of rhubarb in a flower border. It’s a bit like growing an edible Gunnera manicata. If you have space for pots, consider growing some mint or even a few tomatoes or chilli plants. Always grow what you like and eat a lot!

Two fan trained pear trees produced two crates of pears. A third tree planted in between the two trees is still too young to produce. Both trees are about 2 meters wide and high and about 40cm wide.

3. Make a wildlife pond

With the loss of many natural ponds, ponds in gardens have become vital for wildlife like amphibians, dragon flies and also as a source of water for hedgehogs and birds. You can build your own pond with a liner or buy a preformed pond. Your pond doesn’t have to be big to make a difference. Even a container filled with water and aquatic plants will add more diversity to your garden. Just make sure any creatures can easily go in and out as you don’t want a hedgehog to drown in it. Also remember that open water is always a danger for small children. If you have young (grand)children maybe consider making a bog garden and have a birdbath and a saucer with water for hedgehogs rather than a pond.

4. Grow your own cutflowers

Cutflowers are often flown around the world or have at least travelled quite a bit before they arrive in your house. They are sprayed with many chemicals and come wrapped in plastic. You can easily grow your own in your flowerborder. Think roses, tulips, dahlias, peonies, but also shrubs like forsythia and hypernicum. Maybe have a small bed dedicated to annuals like cornflowers, nigella and sweetpeas. It’s easy and a lot of fun.

5. Plant a native hedge

With nearly every garden fence that is being erected, more and more habitat gets fragmented. If you have a choice, plant a mixed native hedge instead of building a fence. A mixed native hedge is cheaper than a fence. It may take a bit longer to grow, but it won’t need replacing in 15 years and isn’t going to fall over in a storm. If one of the plants dies, you just put a new one in, or more likely, its neighbours will fill up the space. With species like Hawthorn, Dog Rose, Bird Cherry, Blackthorn, Field Maple and Hazel you will attract a diverse range of wildlife including many birds and pollinators.

Native hedges are easily established by planting a mix of bare root hedgeplants in winter. RSPB has approved certain mixes which you can buy in their shop

6. Collect rainwater

This may not be a big moneysaver, but there are many other reasons to install water butts. It is definitely better to use rainwater to fill up your wildlife ponds as it doesn’t have any chlorine. A water butt next to a shed is often closer to where you need your water than your outside tap, if you are lucky to have one. Most of all, the water from your water butts hasn’t required any energy to be made safe to drink, you don’t feel guilty to use any (or a lot ) of it and any hosepipe bans are not applicable to saved rainwater. Water butts are of course made of plastic, but they do last a long, long time. I have some that are 20 years old and still good.

7. Plant more native plants and provide for pollinators

A bumblebee can only fly 40 minutes without needing food. Some bumblebees are active until November and others already come out of hibernation in February. You can help pollinators such as bumblebees, as well as other pollinating insects to ensure that there are plenty of flowers that are useful to them. So plant some early flowering plants like hellebore as well as some late flowering ones like Hylotelephium spectabile, and have some flowering in between like Geranium Rozanne.

Double flowers are pretty, but they are often of little benefit for insects. Also many bred flowers have little nectar. Therefore native and single flowers often have the edge over non-natives and hybrid flowers.