Brits with green fingers are waging a war on waste, turning their cherished gardens into eco-friendly havens.
With the UK’s carbon footprint averaging a hefty six tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per head, Howarth Timber experts are urging gardeners to go green with a simple action that will also help them save some serious money.
Howarth Timber’s very own garden guru, Emily Green, advised gardeners to keep their grass cuttings to create compost, reports the Mirror.
One of the simplest yet most effective ways to boost your garden’s eco-credentials is by saving those grass cuttings and fallen leaves.
Composting your garden waste is a cinch, according to Emily, who advised: “Don’t throw away grass clippings, leaves, plant trimmings and waste food such as potato peelings and coffee grains use them to create wonderfully rich and nourishing compost for your garden.”
She added: “Not only is it environment friendly, it’s a free source of compost that’s there whenever you need it.”
Emily also swears by repurposing a medley of old household items to enhance garden eco-friendliness, asserting: “Old bricks, broken pots, cardboard boxes, plastic milk bottles these can all be put to good use in your eco-friendly garden.”
She further advised: “Break up old bricks and chipped or broken crockery to make crocks that you can use in other containers. Laying cardboard on soil can suppress weeds. Plastic bottles cut in half and cardboard toilet roll tubes make great little cloches for growing from seeds.”
Her enthusiasm is evident as she proclaimed: “The list of things you can recycle and put to work in your eco garden is endless!”
Touching upon the water usage, Emily reveals an ingenious tip for collecting rainwater, recommending gardeners “connect the water butt to your guttering to collect rainwater from your roof,” thereby creating an organic reservoir while easing the burden on local water resources.
For irrigation strategies, she suggests: “Water in the mornings and evenings because avoiding the warmer hours of the day will reduce evaporation. Another good way to be more efficient with water is to use drip irrigation or a soaker hose.”
She elaborated on an effective watering system, explaining: “A soaker hose is a porous hose that is buried under the soil that lets water soak out to water the soil. This is great for eco gardening as it cuts down on surface evaporation plus it gives you better results when growing plants and vegetables.”
