Simple Ways to Make Your Garden More Eco-Friendly
The 2022 Consumer Insight report by PWC showed that most people are now influenced by social factors like the environmentally-friendly status of products and companies when making purchasing decisions. The report showed that 85% of us have shifted our purchase behaviour towards being more sustainable.
This intent extends to all aspects of our lives, from the cars we drive to rejecting excessive supermarket packaging. And our gardens are certainly not left out!
There are so many ways that you can change your gardening habits to be more eco-friendly, and this includes your purchasing decisions as well as your garden design and maintenance behaviours. Here are some simple suggestions.
Decrease water run-off
Flooding destroys wildlife habitats and pollutes our rivers and waterways; concreting over our outside spaces is a massive contributor to flooding. Break up your outdoor surfaces like concrete and patios to provide areas for drainage. Wherever possible, create more permeable surfaces. This can mean creating more flowerbeds and borders, even raised ones. Gravel and stones or decking with a water-permeable membrane underneath are much better options than paved or concreted garden surfaces.
Include grasses and other herbaceous perennials, a mix of bushes, shrubs and trees with bushy and broad foliage. The multilayered canopies created can reduce summer heat and also make sure that water infiltration is graduated both above the ground and below the ground through complex root systems.
Grow your own food
Homegrown food doesn’t need to be transported from source to supermarket, and there’s also a reduced need for herbicides and pesticides than in commercial farming. If we all grew our own fruit and veg, carbon emissions and pollution would be greatly reduced.
Reduce waste
Growing your own also contributes to a reduction in waste. Continue this trend by ensuring you compost and collect rainwater.
Encourage biodiversity
Your garden isn’t just for you. Create habitats for wildlife by growing plants with varied flowering and fruiting periods to attract pollinators and wildlife throughout the seasons. You can also create bug sanctuaries, like bug hotels and hedgehog houses and leave a pile of wood for stag beetles to nest in.
Stop buying commercial fertilisers
Use natural leaf mould, which you can make by bagging up fallen autumn leaves and allowing them to rot. You can also create your own plant food by soaking weeds and grass clippings in water.
Choose your garden products wisely
Because of the consumer focus on sustainability, you’ll find a range of product manufacturers whose entire USP is that their materials are sustainably and ethically sourced. From recycled plastics to bamboo and metal, there are options for everyone. And, your garden flooring matters, too. We pride ourselves on being an eco-conscious brand, and our composite decking uses only end-of-life hardwood flour and recycled HDPE plastics.
We’ve saved the equivalent of 176 million plastic milk bottles and over 1.8 billion plastic bottle tops from landfill by using them to make luxury composite products. Discover more about our eco-friendly credentials here.
