The Need for Greener Gardens
Go to organic, companion planting, gardens for wildlife, lawns, tools, compost, farmers, fences or links.
Every little bit of greenery on our planet helps clean the air, contributes to our oxygen supply, helps prevent soil erosion and ultimately improves our quality of life.
Whether you have just a balcony or a forest behind your home, preserving and promoting the diversity of the area and maintaining it chemical-free will enhance your life and keep you, your family and the insects and animals in the area safe from harmful toxins.
In the UK, the rate at which green fields disappear under bricks, concrete and roads stands at 21 sq.miles of countryside each year.
Let's preserve the green areas we have and make them more fertile and attractive for wildlife.
Green Gardens
Growing your own helps to keep you fit, provides you with healthy organic fruit and vegetables, and reduces the distance your food travels to your plate.
Go organic in your garden. Demand is high for organic foods. Save money by growing your own!
Not sure how much pesticide you are using? Want to get some fresh air? Why not make more use of your garden by planting some seeds and saplings the good old fashioned way.
Make it fun for your kids and they will enjoy being involved.
Going Organic
Nowadays the demand for organic produce is out-stripping the supply. The growth rate in 2007 has not kept up with that of 2006 only because the Asda's and Sainsbury's of the country cannot get enough! So grow your own now. You never know, in a few years' time you might be selling excess to your extended family and neighbours!
Use non-toxic products in your garden for all the jobs in your garden where products are needed. Don’t use herbicides or pesticides – they usually kill more than you bargain for, and some leave toxic residues. Practise organic gardening!
Here are some tips on creating an organic garden for your home:
- Organic gardening begins with your soil. Healthy soil breeds healthy plants which can fend off weeds, pests and diseases without chemical treatment. Have your soil tested in early spring; home testing kits are also available at most garden supply centres. These tests will tell you where your soil is deficient and what organic ingredients your lawn needs.
- Use natural insect repellents instead of chemical pesticides. Boric acid has proven to be an effective organic pesticide (keep away from kids and pets).
- For eco-pest control, how about breeding your own ladybirds
to eat the greenfly larvae and aphids? - Save this document: Organic Fungal Control. It is Green Harvest's strategies to combat disease problems with organic remedies.
- Practice Companion Planting as shown below.
- Use a shovel or hoe to turn over and break up soil. Digging is an important part of conditioning your soil:
- It allows roots to reach deep, unimpeded by stones and clumps of hard earth.
- It adds to good drainage and air circulation in the soil.
- It works compost and other organic material into the soil.
- Digging discourages harmful root feeding insects.
Companion Planting
Companion planting, or companion gardening is the practice of planting two complementary plants in close proximity to each other. Some herbs or onions give off chemicals and micro-nutrients that the other plant needs or that keeps insects away.
Companion planting is the cornerstone of organic gardening. There are many plants that repel insects and provide natural protection for other plants that are susceptible. Here we can see onions planted alongside carrots – the smell of the onions repels carrot fly.
French marigolds repel certain insects that are attracted to tomatoes and potatoes. You should plant them throughout your garden.
- Interplant potatoes and collards to reduce flea beetle damage.
- Garlic repels the larvae of many harmful insects and can be planted with anything else except onions.
- Onions repel many species of insects and should be dispersed throughout the garden.
But some plants are bad for each other too. Avoid planting broccoli and cauliflower close to each other as well as other varieties of plants that are closely related.
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Companion Plants
| Try: | with: | for: |
| Borage | Pumpkins, squash, cucumbers and a variety of plants. | Squash Bug and other insect control. Note, a disadvantage is they spread everywhere. |
| Basil | Peppers, Tomatoes, Marigold | Keeps flies and mosquitos away |
| Garlic, Chives | Roses, tomatoes and a wide variety of flowers and vegetables. | Wards off aphids and other insects and pests. |
| Mint | Cabbage and Broccoli | Deters Cabbage moths |
| Marigold | A wide variety of flowers and vegetables. | Wards off insects. They are also used in Organic Insect sprays. |
| Nasturtium | Pumpkins, Squash, and a wide variety of vegetables. | Deters Cucumber Beetles, Squash Bugs, Aphids, and more. And, they are edible! |
| Rosemary | Cabbage and Broccoli | Deters Cabbage moths |
| Sage | Carrots | Wards off Carrot Fly |
| Thyme | Cabbage | Deters cabbage worm |
Gardens for Wildlife
Here are some tips on creating a more sustainable garden that encourages wildlife and insects.
- Consider allowing a portion of your yard to return to its native state. When landscaping, try to integrate native wild flowers, shrubs and grasses.
- You don't want seeds from introduced plants escaping into the winds. Native grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees will need less watering are more likely to attract native birds, butterflies and other insects, and maybe even some threatened species.
- Choose plants which are well adapted to your garden's soil and situation and therefore do not need lots of fertilisers or extra watering to survive.
- Plant wildflowers and meadow flowers if you have room.
- Use mixed grasses or herbs such as chamomile for your lawn.
- Plant plenty of bushes, shrubs and trees which bear berries or other fruits for the birds. Rosehips are useful to the birds and colourful too.
- Plant herbs and flowers which insects such as bees and hoverflies love. Open pollinators are best.
- Feed the birds. You can also help with nesting sites. A pile of old logs in a corner can provide a great habitat for birds and insects.
- If you have the space, put in a wildlife pond.
Lawns
Some tips for a more eco-friendly lawn:
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Gardening Tools
Use manual garden tools instead of powered ones. Ditch that leaf blower! Even find an old rotary lawn mower!
Consider mowing your yard with an old-fashioned push mower, instead of a gas mower. Today’s reel mowers are lightweight, easy to handle, and produce no pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions.
Compost It!
Compost, made from rotted organic material, is the best all around soil conditioner available. It improves the physical and biological condition of the soil, providing beneficial micro-organisms, excellent drainage and both major and minor plant nutrients.
About one-third of your rubbish is made up of things that will rot away naturally in the garden - this is called organic or biodegradable waste.
Create rich soil by composting your organic waste (fruit and vegetable matter, garden scraps and lawn clippings), which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers.
Keep a compost heap - or better, two! A good compost to fertilise the soil and recycle waste is an organic gardening essential.
When it has rotted down, put it on the garden and it will help plants grow.
So make use of that dark corner of your back garden:
- Smells? That shows it's working!
- Worms? The more the better! Not just a source for the avid fisherman, but they get he compost working. Now I've opened a real can of worms!
To find out more on how you can start vermicomposting click here. It's kids' play!
For everything you need to know (if you dare!) about Composting, click here.
Compost Tips
It is important to get the carbon to nitrogen ratio right (C : N). Carbon is in tougher, drier materials , like straw, hay, plant stems and is highest of all in sawdust and wood chips. Nitrogen is found in soft, green, sappy growth, like grass cuttings. Mix the different materials up as much as you can. The easiest
way to do that is to make layers, don't make thick layers
of any one material, especially not fresh grass cuttings as
they quickly reduce to a slimy mess. Small amounts of soil
help to introduce beneficial bacteria, a thin dusting (not
more) throughout is a good idea. |
For further advice on home composting please click here.
Landowners and Farmers
Landowners and farmers, you've got this far, so you must be interested in making some changes. Set-aside encourages the planting of meadows, so select steep fields or locations less efficient to farm conventionally and set it aside! Replace fences with hedgerows and reduce all that spraying. And if you have already gone organic, why not go a little further: find a firm that can convert tractors to take biofuels (oilseed rape).
Please visit the DEFRA farming section.
Our farming page has got much more to get your pitch fork into!
Green Fences
Plant a Hedge
Why not plant a living hedge instead of a fence? Or plant a hedge inside your existing fence, then when it matures, you can remove the fence.
Bamboo Fences
Bamboo makes a beautiful fence, and because it grows so quickly (as much as 1 ft a day or more, depending on the species), it absorbs more CO2 than, say, a rosebush. Most homeowners have to restrict its growth, lest it get out of control.
Do this, however, and you reduce bamboo's capacity as a carbon sink. Only large-scale plantings, which absorb CO2 faster than they release it, can favorably tip the scales. How big is your garden?
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Gardening Links
The Soil Association has a host of organic gardening and farming articles and is very active in educating, promoting and advising in the field.
For a great, complete UK gardening shopping guide, click here.
Looking for an organic gardening resource with loads of links, well apart from GreenQuest!, just click here.
For a great, book for kids showing how everything is linked to the earth, click here.
Arborvetum retail 100% ethical garden furniture.
For a good organic food guide, click here.
For an article on how agriculture is affected by global warming, click here.
Wiggly Wigglers has a wealth of information on ponds, birds, worms and composting.