Green Gardening

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.

• 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.

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