Lewis | February 13, 2015 | 0 Comments
If you’ve been reading our posts this week, you’ll know it’s Go Green Week, an environmental initiative organised by People & Planet, a student action group. This appeals to us at Oakleigh Manor, as we truly care about our environment; it plays a large part in the day-to-day running of the company. So with this in mind, we have been doing our research, racking a few brains here on site and we have compiled some advice for you to be an environmentally-friendly gardener. It’s only right we all do our part, and what better way to do so in the Great Outdoors! Some of these tips have been sourced from an article by The Telegraph, which you can read here, but an another article by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), which alternatively you can read here, contains tips of gardening in a changing climate.
Firstly, use manure instead of chemicals, as it is thought this method is better for the wildlife in your garden. In addition, why not make your own compost as well? Less food waste goes to landfill, and now you know you are an organic grower, instead of falling ill to potentially-greenwashing companies! Growing your own fruits and vegetables is something a lot of people do nowadays, but the importance of this cannot be stressed enough; if these are sourced from your very own garden, there is no need for them to be shipped from other parts of the country, or even the world. That’s a lot of carbon emissions saved. It’s also quite fun, too, and we think they taste that much better!
A tip that really caught this author’s eye is to plant ‘bee-friendly’ flowers and plants; this helps pollination, and not only this, to attract bees these plants are often very vibrant in colour, so they will also look great! A win-win scenario right there! Interestingly, it is also recommended to harvest rainwater to save on your water bills, and this was the subject of a previous blog post from this week – give it a read here if you want to save on your water bills, and I know you do…
Of course, the cream of the crop – pardon the pun – is to be more energy efficient; who could’ve seen that one coming in an environmental blog post! The Telegraph recommends certain tasks such as heating greenhouses, or mowing the lawn for example, can be done using less energy with modern technology, or by using alternative energy sources. There is so much more that one can do during their gardening activities to be more environmentally-friendly; you can find them on the links above. Love your planet, it’s the only one we have!