Environmental & Sustainable Gardening

Explore
all the things you
can do, with this
comprehensive
RHS guide

Or start off by taking a
look at a couple of
individual areas:

POLLINATORS
POLLINATORS

It is difficult to overstate how essential pollinators are to life in general.
We can all make a contribution to supporting pollinators by growing in our garden, allotment or window box plants that will provide them with the pollen and nectar they need.

Browse through the lists of plants for pollinators recommended by the RHS:

Try to have some flowers in bloom throughout the year.

Is it best to have native plants, rather than non-native or exotic ones?
They can all have useful parts to play

Members may recall the talk that Darren Lerigo gave at our January meeting last year:
"Helping the Honey Bee"

Many cultivars of roses and dahlias, for instance, are useless to pollinators, as the many tightly packed petals of their blooms deny access to any pollen or nectar that there may be. Only the open-flowered varieties, with the centre of the flower exposed, are good for pollinators.
But don't dig up all those beautiful flowers - just make sure that you have loads more of other plants that are of use to pollinators.

WATER USE
WATER USE

Our use of water has a tremendous impact on the environment.

Perhaps the most important thing we can do to lessen the strain on the supplies of tap water that we tend to take for granted, is to collect rainwater for use in the garden.
In our area, where the tap water is has a quite high lime content, we need rain water for acid-loving plants, such as camellias and rhododendrons, but it is good for all plants - after all, that is the water all plants depend on in nature.
Harvesting Rainwater

It may seem the wrong time of the year to think of storing rainwater - after all, there's plenty of it about. However, when there is a drought, demand for water butts will soar and they may be difficult to find - also there will be no rain to collect. So now is the time to be putting in some rainwater storage.
Don't only think of diverting water coming down the house's downpipes. It's surprising just how much rainwater you can collect from the roofs of sheds and greenhouses.

Using water as efficiently as we can is good for the environment, but it is also good for our plants:

Members!

Have you got any ideas or
useful tips on sustainable &
environmental gardening?

We’d love to hear about them…

…just click here for the

MEMBERS’ AREA *

where you can share them
with other members.

* You will need the password
that was sent to all members.

I can't find the password