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Sustainable Gardening Ideas – Two

August 29, 2020 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

I hope you enjoyed last weeks post about sustainable gardening, here’s a few more ideas to help you. Small steps and we will get there, reducing our carbon footprint and making gardens a more welcoming habitat for all those birds , bees and butterflies that are struggling and endangered.

Sustainable Gardening Ideas - Two-Echinacea Green Envy and purple Agastache Black Adder flower, both good for bees and insects.,

Echinacea Green Envy and Agastache Black Adder, from Hampton Court Garden Show.

How to use less plastic in your garden:

A difficult one, mainly because of plastic plant pots. There doesn’t seem to be any viable alternative at the moment. I guess growing some of your own plants and re-using plat pots is a good thing to do. It would at least, reduce a few pots in the system, and of course growing your own is a wonderful thing to do in so many ways. Many people have learned this during lock-down.

Plastic plant labels are cheap and compost comes in plastic bags. The best answer seems to be re-using all these items.

Plant labels can be scrubbed with pan-scourers to remove the ink or pencil.

Compost bags are useful, turned inside-out, they’re black and the garish colours are hidden. I store things in them, like leaves, for leaf-mould. I’ve lined a metal basket with a bag to contain the compost, turning it into a plant container.

Ordering loose compost on-line for delivery, a minimum of a cubic metre is usually required.  Its’s surprising how much you need when spreading it 3-4in deep as a mulch. Even better, you could order more and share it with neighbours.

The benefits of plants with single flowers:

Plants that help the wildlife in our gardens is a huge topic, so I’ll return to it in future posts.

This time it’s about single flowers, I don’t mean planting them individually! I’m talking about those flowers with a single row of petals, making the pollen and nectar is easy to get to, rather than flowers with a frilly ruff. Although, don’t discount flowers with frills because there are so many beautiful ones. Just make sure there are enough single ones in your garden, preferably all year round.

Purple and lilac flowers of Asters

A variety of Asters/ Symphiotrychum at Sissinghurst., so lovely for late summer.

Have you noticed a slight autumn chill in the mornings?

The next post is about what to do in the garden in September, when autumn will have to be mentioned. Meanwhile, let’s enjoy the last days of Summer.

More about sustainable gardening in this post.

Look after yourselves and enjoy your garden.

Jill

all photos; Jill Anderson.

Related posts:

Planting your garden ~ Part 2 Fabulous Front Gardens Grow Your Own Cutting Garden. Three Simple Ways To Garden Sustainably

Related posts:

Planting your garden ~ Part 2 Fabulous Front Gardens Grow Your Own Cutting Garden. Three Simple Ways To Garden Sustainably
Filed Under: Blog, Plants, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: encouraging wildlife into your garden, reslient gardening, sustainable gardening, the benifits of single flowers

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Hello, I’m Jill Anderson.
This is where you’ll find good, solid information about gardening, growing fruit & vegetables and how to keep it all looking good.
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The healing, calming power of nature in one photo. The healing, calming power of nature in one photo.
These wonderful autumn colours won’t be around for much longer. But that’s ok, because now is what matters, & their fleeting beauty makes them even more precious.
It’s easy to see how being among trees & nature is so beneficial for our health & wellbeing. 
Have a great Sunday.
Savouring all the autumn colour, & doesn’t it lo Savouring all the autumn colour, & doesn’t it look spectacular with this bold front door.
Today has been hard work, after a lovely time last week in Norfolk. The north coast there is spectacular. Realising these last few months, that there are so many beautiful places here. 
Have a nice evening.
Charming glasshouse at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. Vis Charming glasshouse at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. Visiting to see the Anish Kapoor sculptures, which are amazing, but unprepared for the beauty of the grounds & garden. 
Such a treat, worth coming to Norfolk for this alone!
Hope you’re keeping well, & managing to smile some of the time. x
P.S. more of Houghton Hall & Anish Kapoor on my stories
We stopped off on the way home to pick blackberrie We stopped off on the way home to pick blackberries, after coffee & cake, sitting in the churchyard - the cafe was full, & the churchyard is a quiet, peaceful spot..... as you’d expect.
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One little advantage of lockdown is walking so much more, rather than using the car. Though it shouldn’t have taken something as momentous as this, for me to change bad habits 🙁
Hope you’re weekend is going well.
My hazel arch, a bit lopsided 🙄 using wood from My hazel arch, a bit lopsided 🙄 using wood from a random clump of hazel on the garden. Now looking much better covered in winter squash plants, so you can’t see just how ramshackle it is. I like to think it has a certain home-spun charm .

Great for small space gardening, imagine how much room you need to grow these without vertical supports.

I’ve got 2 Uchiki kuri, lovely nutty flavour.
1 Turks turban, for its flamboyant shape & colours, though it also tastes good.
One unknown, grown by my grandsons in their homeschooled science lesson.
Close-ups of the squash over on my stories.
Stay cool my friends x
I wanted to show you this lovely lily ( Lilium reg I wanted to show you this lovely lily ( Lilium regale) which is flowering right outside our bedroom window. 
It gets sun for about 4 hours only, you can order the bulbs now for planting in September. It’ll reappear every year & waft delicious scent around your garden, or through your windows.
Have a very happy Monday x
It’s British Flower Week, there’s a lot to be It’s British Flower Week, there’s a lot to be said for fabulous seasonal flowers that haven’t travelled thousands of miles ...... & are wonderful for biodiversity
A bit of rain, nice long days (it’s almost mid-s A bit of rain, nice long days (it’s almost mid-summer!) & it’s, mostly, all growing nicely.

Spinach, courgettes & garlic in shot here. 
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday x
Hope is a decision I’ve thought long & hard abou Hope is a decision
I’ve thought long & hard about how to view the tumult in the world we’re living in now. 
The only thing that works for me, is to choose hope.

It’s a tall order, but avoiding mainstream news & speculation helps avoid the anxiety, that’s often waiting in the wings.

One day soon there’ll be grandchildren clambering over this again.
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