Greener GardeningWe are all being urged to garden for the planet – to maximise biodiversity and carbon sequestration in our soil. Here’s a really useful report from Avon Wildlife Trust on why this is necessary.
Many reports suggest that our urban areas are now safer refuges for wildlife than the ‘green deserts’ of our countryside. So what do we need to do? Here are some ideas and some local contacts to help you. Please bear in mind that the suggested organisations and companies don't come with personal recommendations unless stated, and others may be available.
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However, we need to remember that if we are to save our biodiversity, our food choices are even more important than what we do in our gardens. Please see our Better Food Choices page.
1. Go Peat-Free
Peat is the most carbon-rich soil we have and left alone, it naturally sequesters carbon. Digging it up releases that carbon to become carbon dioxide, our biggest greenhouse gas. Destroying bogs also means we lose one of our most important habitats for wildlife and an important flood defence.
We’re digging it up for our horticulture. Although the industry agreed a voluntary commitment to stop selling peat to ordinary consumers by 2020 and to the commercial sector by 2030, there’s no sign of that happening. Most garden centres have peat on sale.
Peat is the most carbon-rich soil we have and left alone, it naturally sequesters carbon. Digging it up releases that carbon to become carbon dioxide, our biggest greenhouse gas. Destroying bogs also means we lose one of our most important habitats for wildlife and an important flood defence.
We’re digging it up for our horticulture. Although the industry agreed a voluntary commitment to stop selling peat to ordinary consumers by 2020 and to the commercial sector by 2030, there’s no sign of that happening. Most garden centres have peat on sale.
The Riverside Garden Centre has multiple alternatives to peat, and the Better Food Company on Whiteladies Road sells peat that’s been dislodged into our river systems and filtered from them. This is Soil Association approved. If you do need to buy a peat substitute online, Dalefoot Compost comes recommended.
Bristol Waste's new Reuse Shop at Avonmouth Recycling Centre sells 100% peat-free compost made from the garden waste collected at Bristol Waste sites. It only costs £1 for 15 litres of compost but you do have to bring your own container! |
Another alternative is biochar, made by burning biomass without oxygen, leaving a very concentrated carbon that is a great addition to all soils. Carbon Gold is a Bristol based company, but other biochars are available. Biochar is not just a soil improver but can be a compost alternative.
Better still, make your own compost. There are many online guides on how to balance the nitrogen and carbon for speedy results. If you need animal manure, the Kings Weston Riding School for the Disabled will let you drive in and collect what you want for a donation - Take your own bags and shovel!
Another option if you have a little space is to make your own compost with a wormery. Worm City are based in Hampshire and their wormeries are made from recycled plastic.
When you buy potted plants, look for British grown peat-free. The Riverside Garden Centre sometimes has some of these but we need to see more. Please ask when you are there. The Better Food Company often has plants but it’s not clear that they are peat-free. If you need to buy online, there are several nurseries offering 100% organic and peat-free. Here is one and here’s another but do search online.
If you'd like to join a campaign against peat check out the Organic Trade Board's 'For Peat's Sake' campaign.
Better still, make your own compost. There are many online guides on how to balance the nitrogen and carbon for speedy results. If you need animal manure, the Kings Weston Riding School for the Disabled will let you drive in and collect what you want for a donation - Take your own bags and shovel!
Another option if you have a little space is to make your own compost with a wormery. Worm City are based in Hampshire and their wormeries are made from recycled plastic.
When you buy potted plants, look for British grown peat-free. The Riverside Garden Centre sometimes has some of these but we need to see more. Please ask when you are there. The Better Food Company often has plants but it’s not clear that they are peat-free. If you need to buy online, there are several nurseries offering 100% organic and peat-free. Here is one and here’s another but do search online.
If you'd like to join a campaign against peat check out the Organic Trade Board's 'For Peat's Sake' campaign.
2. Plant Native Wild Flower
Many of our butterflies and other insects can only breed on specific native plants and are attracted to specific flowers for food. Instead of buying showy nursery-grown plants, often imported, plant some natives. Even the seed-packs being given out by many environmental groups – with poppies, cornflowers and similar – will not provide the same benefits that Birdsfoot Trefoil, Knapweed and Scabious provide. Here’s a good guide to some of our most useful natives.
Grow Wilder on Frenchay Park Road is part of Avon Wildlife Trust and they grow a wide range of native wildflowers in peat-free soil and re-used pots. The staff there are very knowledgeable and willing to advise. They have a café that is open at weekends and have great gardens to look around. If you want online support for your garden rewilding, Plantlife will email you regular tips. |
3. Dig A Pond
Digging a pond is probably the single most useful thing you can do to encourage wildlife. There is plenty of online guidance and you can buy pond liner from the Riverside Garden Centre. If you need help, here and here are pond builders working in the Bristol area.
Digging a pond is probably the single most useful thing you can do to encourage wildlife. There is plenty of online guidance and you can buy pond liner from the Riverside Garden Centre. If you need help, here and here are pond builders working in the Bristol area.
Grow Wilder and the Riverside Garden Centre sell oxygenating and pond-edge plants during some months of the year, or there are very helpful sources such as Devon Pond Plants in Totnes. If you need advice on how to manage your pond, you may find the Facebook group of Bristol Nature Network helpful.
4. Letting Your Grass Grow
Letting your grass grow gives wonderful habitat and cover for many species. The recommendation is to cut only once a year (in September). It may take a year or two before you start to see a real diversity in grasses and flowers, and a good range of insects visiting your garden, but they will definitely come. And when we have another scorching summer as in 2018 and everyone else’s lawn is dry and brown, you may just find that deep-rooted natives such as Yarrow will keep yours nice and green.
Letting your grass grow gives wonderful habitat and cover for many species. The recommendation is to cut only once a year (in September). It may take a year or two before you start to see a real diversity in grasses and flowers, and a good range of insects visiting your garden, but they will definitely come. And when we have another scorching summer as in 2018 and everyone else’s lawn is dry and brown, you may just find that deep-rooted natives such as Yarrow will keep yours nice and green.
You may find it helpful to mow a path, just so the neighbours know that the neglect is intentional!
5. Veg Seedlings
You can buy organic veg seeds from the Riverside Garden Centre and Better Food Company stock some of these (at certain times of year for BFC). Or you can get along to the monthly meetings of either Avon Organics or Bristol Seed Swap to swap your seeds with other enthusiasts.
There are various online sources of organic seeds, such as Marshalls Garden, The Organic Gardening Catalogue and Suttons, but there are even more out there if you look.
Veg seedlings can be bought from the Propagation Place at St Werburgh’s City Farm – either in person, or on line. Better Food also sell seedlings in spring and summer (but check that they’re peat free).
You can buy organic veg seeds from the Riverside Garden Centre and Better Food Company stock some of these (at certain times of year for BFC). Or you can get along to the monthly meetings of either Avon Organics or Bristol Seed Swap to swap your seeds with other enthusiasts.
There are various online sources of organic seeds, such as Marshalls Garden, The Organic Gardening Catalogue and Suttons, but there are even more out there if you look.
Veg seedlings can be bought from the Propagation Place at St Werburgh’s City Farm – either in person, or on line. Better Food also sell seedlings in spring and summer (but check that they’re peat free).
6. Cut the Chemicals
Fertilisers are manufactured using methane, one of our most potent greenhouse gases. Fertilisers will leach away to become nitrous oxide, another greenhouse gas, either in our air or in our water systems, and ammonia will combine with other air pollutants to become particulates. Nitrogen pollution in our rivers is now a very serious problem, promoting algae growth, depleting rivers of oxygen and unbalancing the natural ecology.
Just using your own compost will add nutrients and vital organic matter, making fertiliser unnecessary. But if you can’t make enough compost, natural fertiliser can be made by soaking comfrey (growing this in your garden will encourage lots of wildlife,) and by using your own compost. Supermarkets such as Waitrose in Henleaze will let you go and collect waste coffee grounds – take your own containers.
Instead of using fertiliser, whenever you have bare soil sow an organic seed green manure – eg. Mustard, Clover, Phacaelia, Buckwheat. Soil left bare will lose its carbon to wind, rain and ultraviolet and green manures will add nitrogen to your soil naturally. You can add the plants to your compost before they seed. Most will provide early / late flowers that will attract a good range of insects.
Fertilisers are manufactured using methane, one of our most potent greenhouse gases. Fertilisers will leach away to become nitrous oxide, another greenhouse gas, either in our air or in our water systems, and ammonia will combine with other air pollutants to become particulates. Nitrogen pollution in our rivers is now a very serious problem, promoting algae growth, depleting rivers of oxygen and unbalancing the natural ecology.
Just using your own compost will add nutrients and vital organic matter, making fertiliser unnecessary. But if you can’t make enough compost, natural fertiliser can be made by soaking comfrey (growing this in your garden will encourage lots of wildlife,) and by using your own compost. Supermarkets such as Waitrose in Henleaze will let you go and collect waste coffee grounds – take your own containers.
Instead of using fertiliser, whenever you have bare soil sow an organic seed green manure – eg. Mustard, Clover, Phacaelia, Buckwheat. Soil left bare will lose its carbon to wind, rain and ultraviolet and green manures will add nitrogen to your soil naturally. You can add the plants to your compost before they seed. Most will provide early / late flowers that will attract a good range of insects.
7. Encourage Insects of All Sorts
Most of us are now familiar with the idea of building bug motels or leaving piles of twigs, branches or fir cones in undisturbed corners. You can buy hives for solitary bees, ladybird homes, butterfly houses and feeders or you can make your own and have a lot of fun finding useful bits while out walking. Here are instructions for DIY solitary bee hotels. If you need wood for bigger constructions, try the Bristol Wood Recycling Project.
There’s an enormous amount of help on this Avon Wildlife Trust page.
Most of us are now familiar with the idea of building bug motels or leaving piles of twigs, branches or fir cones in undisturbed corners. You can buy hives for solitary bees, ladybird homes, butterfly houses and feeders or you can make your own and have a lot of fun finding useful bits while out walking. Here are instructions for DIY solitary bee hotels. If you need wood for bigger constructions, try the Bristol Wood Recycling Project.
There’s an enormous amount of help on this Avon Wildlife Trust page.
8. Take Part in Wildlife Monitoring Events
There are many national events now where we are all encouraged to record the number of bees, butterflies and birds that we see. But you can do this on your own, any time, by downloading the iNaturalist app and photographing what you see. If you can’t identify the species yourself, others will help and it adds to your personal record as well as providing important data for the country.
There are many national events now where we are all encouraged to record the number of bees, butterflies and birds that we see. But you can do this on your own, any time, by downloading the iNaturalist app and photographing what you see. If you can’t identify the species yourself, others will help and it adds to your personal record as well as providing important data for the country.
9. Fencing, Bike Shelters, Bin Covers and Other Constructions
Bins and bikes in the front garden can be unsightly and you may prefer to cover yours. The Bristol Wood Recycling Project may have useful material for you, and you may want to look for inspiration at Stanley Park in Easton where an Avon Wildlife Trust project encouraged everyone to build their shelters with green, insect-friendly roofs. |
10. Pots and Tools
What to do with all those plant pots, most of them black plastic? There is, as yet, no answer to this – most can’t be recycled. The only answer is to avoid as much as possible and buy from sources such as Grow Wilder that re-use theirs.
Gardening tools are expensive and generally full of carbon-intensive steel and treated wood, so it pays to look after them. Please look at our Sharing and Repairing (Circular Economy) page for help with this, and you may want to look at that page for ideas on how to buy second hand or share. If you do have tools that you no longer need, please also consider those options. If your redundant tools that need repair, here are some other alternatives.
What to do with all those plant pots, most of them black plastic? There is, as yet, no answer to this – most can’t be recycled. The only answer is to avoid as much as possible and buy from sources such as Grow Wilder that re-use theirs.
Gardening tools are expensive and generally full of carbon-intensive steel and treated wood, so it pays to look after them. Please look at our Sharing and Repairing (Circular Economy) page for help with this, and you may want to look at that page for ideas on how to buy second hand or share. If you do have tools that you no longer need, please also consider those options. If your redundant tools that need repair, here are some other alternatives.
11. Share Your Garden
Do you have more garden space than you can manage? Or are you in search of space to grow more food or plants to help our biodiversity crisis? Lend and Tend is a scheme which matches would-be gardeners with landowners. We do not have personal experience of this scheme but this might be a solution for many of you who are keen to get growing. We would love to hear about you experiences if you choose to investigate.
There is a new shared allotment project starting to Stoke Bishop. To find out more email merivers@hotmail.com.
There is a new shared allotment project starting to Stoke Bishop. To find out more email merivers@hotmail.com.
12. How to get an allotment
An allotment is a wonderful way to make sure you get a regular – and cheap! – supply of fresh fruit and vegetables. You pay a small rent and might qualify for a discount.
There are thousands of allotment plots in Bristol, spread around 112 sites. Of those sites, 18 aren't run by Bristol City Council, but anyone can apply to them.
Details of how to apply for allotments run by Bristol City Council are here. A list of every site in Bristol is here.
An allotment is a wonderful way to make sure you get a regular – and cheap! – supply of fresh fruit and vegetables. You pay a small rent and might qualify for a discount.
There are thousands of allotment plots in Bristol, spread around 112 sites. Of those sites, 18 aren't run by Bristol City Council, but anyone can apply to them.
Details of how to apply for allotments run by Bristol City Council are here. A list of every site in Bristol is here.
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