Want to make your garden even more green? There are a number of different ways you can make your garden more environmentally friendly, whether it’s big or small and no matter what your level of experience, there is plenty that you can do to make a difference, and your local wildlife will certainly thank you for it!
Grow your own food
Not only is this a fun and rewarding enterprise, it is cost effective and environmentally friendly too. Growing your own food will reduce the environmental impact associated with food import and transportation which contributes significantly towards pollution. There is a whole, exciting range of fruit and vegetables that can be grown here in the UK.
For anyone new to vegetable gardening, you can start with the easier to grow produce such as beetroot, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, strawberries, apples and raspberries. Using garden netting will help protect your crops from pests and is a brilliant alternative to using pesticides which can harm the environment as well as your health.
Add a water feature
Adding a natural water feature to your garden not only looks wonderful and adds a sense of tranquility, but it can make a difference to local wildlife by providing a home for insects and amphibians and water for birds to bathe in and drink. If your garden isn’t big enough for a pond you could go for a lovely garden fountain or a humble birdbath. Water features also contribute towards the purity of air by removing pollutants.
Plant a tree
The role that trees play in the environment cannot be underestimated. Planting a tree in your garden, will not only look beautiful as the seasons change, but it will dramatically improve air quality, purity and circulation.
This is particularly beneficial in parts of the country where the air is more likely to be polluted such as more urban areas. Trees will also help protect other plants by providing shade which can be helpful in the summer. Trees with thick branches also play an excellent role in noise reduction which can be a handy filter for any unwanted external noise.
Go wild
While there can be that temptation to preen your garden and make it neat and tidy, by letting nature take its course and allowing some sections of it to become overgrown, you can help attract and sustain local wildlife. Other ways to support your local wildlife is to fill your garden with native plants and wildflowers. Not only are they easy to grow and maintain, they are also more resistant to pests than non-native varieties.
This well help create the perfect environment for bees and butterflies whose numbers have been in decline across the UK for some time. Butterflies are not only beautiful and enchanting creatures, they are also important environmental bio-indicators, declining numbers are signs of a lack of bio-diversity in the ecosystem. Therefore, the more natural spaces in the environment the better.
Get worm friendly
Wriggle your way to sustainability by investing in a worm farm. There is a whole host of environmentally friendly benefits to having a worm farm in your garden. You can recycle your own food waste by using it as worm food, worms will break down organic materials and turn it into nutrient packed compost which you can use in your garden to help keep your soil healthy and promote healthy plant growth. You can also save money on expensive fertilizers this way at the same time as helping the planet.
Post written by: Lucy Wyndham
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