4 Ways to Make Your New Gardening Hobby More Eco-friendly
Hearth welcomes Jess from The Green Creative to share her tips on how to make your new gardening hobby more eco-friendly. Jess is a writer and communicator with a love of all things eco. She works with change makers, foodies, and ethical brands to share their stories, never compromising on authenticity.
Many of us have taken to the nurturing of plants to give us a focus amongst the uncertainty of numerous lockdowns. We don’t instantly assume that our new plant-focused hobby actually harms the environment – but, if you’re not careful, your next potted plant might be more damaging than you think. This is easily, and sometimes even cheaply, rectified. Read on to find out how to make your gardening hobby more eco-friendly.
USE PEAT-FREE COMPOST
What on earth is Peat? It’s an accumulation of partially decayed plant and organic matter, commonly used by gardeners to provide nutrients to their plants. Peatlands are the world’s largest on-land carbon store, and provide a crucial habitat for plants and wildlife. Area for area, they store more carbon than a rainforest!
When peat is extracted from a bog, the water drains out, meaning the ecosystem is destroyed and the carbon is released back into the atmosphere. Peatlands take thousands of years to form, meaning this extraction is irreversible and results in long-term damage to the environment.
The solution? Check for peat-free compost – and don’t be fooled by claims of ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘organic.’ This doesn’t necessarily mean they’re peat free.
Peat-free compost still gives your plants exactly what they need to grow (my thriving tomatoes are proof) but make sure you follow the instructions on the pack, as many have differing levels of nutrients and water retention levels.
GROW NATIVE PLANTS
Native plants are those that have grown and evolved naturally in the region. Many plants available to buy from nurseries are not native, meaning the local wildlife and insects will not be able to use them as a habitat. They can also compete with the native plants, overtaking them and eventually killing them.
As well as being beneficial to wildlife, growing native plants can result in far less water being used to keep them alive – they’ll have adapted to the local water levels and won’t need anything extra. A bonus? They (should) last year after year, as they won’t get surprised by the UK’s awful long winters.
This means more money in your pocket (more plants, anyone?) as you will need to water them less, buy less fertiliser, and hopefully buy less plants as they’ll be thriving in their native climate.
HAVE ACCESS TO A GARDEN WITH GRASS? LET IT GO WILD!
It might seem tempting to partake in the unspoken competition of ‘who has the neatest lawn’ but this provides little benefit to anyone else apart from your beady-eyed neighbour. If you don’t want to feel like you’re stepping out into a section of the Amazon jungle, let only a small section of your garden go wild.
It will become its own mini ecosystem, being a perfect home for precious bees and other insects. We all know about how important bees are to our own survival, and the threat that excessive urbanisation is having on their population. And remember, don’t use astroturf if you can avoid it – it can’t be recycled, and is no different to having plastic rubbish littering your garden permanently.
CHOOSE ECO-FRIENDLY FERTILISER
Don’t be pulled in by so-called speedy synthetic fertilisers that promise to make your plants shoot to the sky and look as if they’ve come straight from a heavily photoshopped picture. Organic fertilisers work slowly, and are better for the soil as they do not deplete it of its nutrients, increasing the fungal and bacterial activity of the soil.
The fast action of synthetic fertilisers mean that the plants get a huge hit of nutrients, followed by a sharp decline, leading to a constant cycle of highs and lows. This weakens the plant over time as its digestive tract gets used to easily absorbed nutrients.
Many synthetic feeds are also derived from fossil fuels, and when they run into water sources they can cause algae blooms, which can starve fish and other underwater organisms of oxygen.
Organic might be slightly pricier, but it’s so much better for the earth, and because they’re slow at breaking down, more of the nutrients are absorbed rather than washed away.
DON’T FRET
If you follow the tips set out here, you can continue to enjoy the therapeutic nature of tending to an eco garden. Even if you only follow one tip, you’re doing your bit, and that is enough.
The key point here to take away is: don’t fret. Make small changes when or if you can, and be mindful with everything you do.
Have you taken up gardening as a hobby during lockdown?
