Household > The Grass Is Always Greener On The Eco Side

The Grass Is Always Greener on the Eco Side

Eco Gardening

It’s that time of year again where the flowers are blossoming and the grass is growing. So why not be kind to the World, as well as your garden this spring time?

Home Composting

Rather than throwing your left over’s in the bin to go to landfill why not compost them? Composting is becoming a popular practice. Start with purchasing a composting bin, there are different variations of these, sizes, types etc. Some councils offer discounted compost bins, contact your local council to find out more. Make sure you have an equal balance of ‘greens’ and ‘browns’ in your composting bin for the process to work better. An example of a well-balanced bin can be found below:

Green – this includes vegetable peelings, fruit waste, teabags, plant pruning’s and grass cuttings. Greens rot quickly and can provide important nitrogen and moisture for the compost.

Brown – this includes cardboard egg boxes, scrunched up paper and fallen leaves. Browns are slower to rot. They provide fibre and carbon and also allow important air pockets to form in the mixture.

Minerals can be included to help the composting process. These can be found in eggshells.

Make sure there is air getting in to the compost bin. This can be helped by using a garden fork or similar equipment to mix the contents and provide air.

Composting can take any time between weeks up to a year, depending on the contents, air supply, weather and other factors.

After this time compost will have produced in the bottom of the compost bin. This is then ready to be used in your garden.

To view our own factsheet on Composting click here.

An alternative to a composting bin is a Wormery. Wormeries work in a similar way to composting bins but with the aid of worms to speed up the composting process.

For more info see the links below.

Wormery 

Wiggly Wigglers 

Green Gardener 

Wormery Store 


Water

Try to reduce water usage and wastage by using a water butt. Water butts store rainwater, which can then be used for a variety of uses, such as water for plants and water for washing your car. This saves using up water from taps in the home. A great way of re-using natural resources.

Flowers

Most gardens will already have flowers, but if yours doesn’t why not liven up your garden with some. Not only will your garden look nicer but if the flowers are looked after you could bunch them together and give them to someone as a gift, this saves on the CO2 used to fly flowers to the UK for shops and supermarkets to sell on. As well as saving money!


Home grown fruit and vegetables

Growing your own fruit and vegetables has many benefits for the environment, as well as yourself and your families health and wellbeing. Home grown fruit and vegetables are Organic and free from chemicals regularly used on other fruit and vegetables, which not only damage the environment but are not pleasant to know they are in your food. Growing your own gives you the satisfaction of knowing exactly what is in your food, where they came from, having fresh produce and it is cheaper. Other benefits include saving on CO2 gases, as your fruit and vegetables will be grown in your garden, or at an allotment close to your home this saves on the CO2 which is used by purchased fruit and vegetables being delivered to stores.

Fun for children – it will be a learning experience for your children. They will learn gardening skills, and how to look after/grow produce. It will get them outdoors, away from the TVs and games consoles. They can take what they have grown to school in their lunchboxes or use them for making meals. It also saves on costly school and shop lunches and provides a nice, healthy change from take-aways!

Guardian Article

 

If you don’t have a garden or allotment and therefore have nowhere to grown your own fruit and vegetables, why not buy Organic products?

Products

By Nature 

Nigel's Eco Store 

Organic Catalog 

 
 
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