This week’s eco tip is from subscriber-gardener-naturalist Joy. This must be the third time this subject has come up, however the otherwise very green sector of gardening and growing things is still facing challenges 🤔
If you are a gardener in spring time, you may want to get large amounts of new plants.
Firstly, the UK government has only instituted a ban on the use of peat by domestic growers. Garden centres are not allowed to sell peat. While it is great to keep peat bogs as they are and not dig them up on an industrial scale, the horticulture industry is still allowed to do so. Most plants that are sold commercially and in garden centres will be bedded in peat, meaning that the peat bogs are still being destroyed and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases.
Secondly, the resources that go into the supply of bedding plants every year are enormous, involving not just the peat and the unrecyclable plastic that they come in, but also the emissions from the business and industry involved in the whole horticultural supply chain.
There are lots of much cheaper and more sustainable ways to do this:
- Grow perennials which come back every year and often only need a small amount of maintenance – herbs like thyme and rosemary and plants like lavender are great.
- Grow from seed at home, in pots on the windowsill.
- Try joining a gardening club and supporting their plant sales.
- Collect seeds or take cuttings of your own plants and grow them yourself. More fun and satisfying is to swop with your friends and neighbours.
Please leave a comment – do you have anything to add? A link to a gardening club or a plant sale event?
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It’s great that the Wilberforce Gardeners are keeping tradition going with a plant sale. It’s going to be outside Hugh’s old house, 30 Wilberforce Road N4 on Sunday 18th May, 11.30-2.00pm. There’ll be books as well as plants, tea, cake etc.