Green Gardening

April 2, 2010

Give your garden a green makeup this summer; saving you money and cutting down on waste.

Keeping your garden looking great can come at a cost, here are some ideas to keep your garden “green”:

According to the Energy Saving Trust using sprinklers to water your garden can use up to 18 litres of water per minute, more water than a typical family of four will use in a day.
Fit your hosepipe with a trigger gun to reduce the amount of water you use.
When possible use a watering can to significantly cut water waste
Water in the evening or early morning to extend the length of time before the soil dries out and therefore allowing the water to reach right down to the roots
Giving your plants a good soaking once or twice a week is much better than watering a little, more often.
Buy a water butt and collect rainwater to water the garden. As well as being “greener” it is also more beneficial to the plants.
To find out more about setting up a water butt visit the Waterwise website.

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Make your own compost, once you’ve got your bin, home compost is essentially free
Use compost as mulch to help preserve moisture, replenish nutrients and keep weeds down. Spread a 5 centimetre layer around the base of your plants
Mix fine compost with an equal amount of sharp sand and brush into your lawn after forking thoroughly
Don’t use compost around soft-stemmed plants and wait until young plants are more established
Take a look at our Composting pages for more information on how you can recycle your kitchen and garden waste
Try not to use harmful pesticides and herbicides by using organic controls
Bury some plastic containers around the garden, fill with beer and place a loose cover over the top. Slugs will be attracted to the beer and drown. Replace the beer every few days.
Lay a piece of cardboard, thick newspaper or old carpet over weeds to smother them.
Certain plants can repel pests, plant them at the same time as the edible crops to prevent pests getting a foothold:
- Planting marigolds and garlic in with your roses and tomatoes to deter aphids.
- Grow carrots and leeks together to drive away each other’s pests.
- Plant nasturtium with cabbages; the nasturtiums will attract the caterpillars and leave the cabbages alone.
- Grow dill to attract aphid-eating hoverflies
Don’t be too fussy about weeds; if they are not taking over and don’t look too bad then leave them, remove the flower heads to stop them producing weeds.