All About Home and Garden

You may be asking yourself the question: "Why do I need an eco-friendly garden?"

By maintaining an eco-friendly garden, you'll be contributing in a very real way to improving the environment and reducing the damage caused by modern living. Simple changes on a small level can result in marked differences to the health of the planet, slowing down 'The Greenhouse Effect' and improving the environment for future generations.

An eco-friendly garden employs a few simple solutions to make a real impact on our individual carbon footprint. Here are 5 relatively simple home solutions you can put in place right now.

1. Create a compost heap

Recycled garden and kitchen waste is the perfect recipe for creating your own compost heap! Simply start a pile in a sunny or semi-shaded area of your garden. Over the course of the year, nature will have created the ingredients for some rich compost ready to use as fertilizer across your garden or allotment. This is a great way to save money and help the environment.

Furthermore, it will provide great satisfaction knowing you're taking part in the natural recycling process of your garden!

2. Install solar lighting

It's not as expensive as you think to use solar light to power your garden technology. Of course the first use for solar power that springs to mind is using it for lighting. As the sun goes down, what could be prettier than looking around the garden and seeing soft lighting across your landscape, provided for free and without damage to the environment?

Solar lights are simple and cheap and they have enough power to illuminate trees, plants, rocks or pathways.

3. Use organic, environmentally friendly pest control

There are many ways of dealing with pests in the garden without resorting to dangerous chemicals. The main culprit of woe to gardeners are slugs. However, there are many ways of dealing with slugs without the risks associated with using slug pellets.

Slug pellets are very harmful to other wildlife, birds and cats.

We recommend trying a simple solution using beer. That's right - the beer you drink! For some reason, slugs love it as much as we do. Dig a shallow hole, sink a pot of beer into it and hey presto - the slugs are attracted to it and dive right in.

Another simple solution is to encourage other wildlife with a pond and some frogs - frogs love a good slug meal! We also recommend using plants that attract help from insects such as ladybirds, as well as trees that attract birds, both of which will help see the pests off.

4. Use water wisely

This tip can be summed up in 2 simple words: 'water butt'.

Investing a small amount of money in a water butt is an easy, hassle-free way to save water and benefit the environment. A water butt is simply a large barrel-like container that collects rain water via a nearby drainpipe, which you can then use to water your garden and replenish ponds.

Simply use the tap on the side of the butt to fill your watering cans and share it across the garden. A simple yet effective way to avoid excessive use of tap water for your plants across the summer, not to mention perfect for those hosepipe bans too!

5. Grow your own vegetables

We are told constantly that we must eat our '5 a day' of fruit and vegetables. This isn't difficult in itself, but it can soon become expensive to buy volumes of fruit and veg which can so easily be grown at home.

You don't need a big garden with lots of land to grow your own. You can buy simple growbags or hanging baskets for your wall. Fruit and vegetables that you grow your own taste much better and have no nasty pesticides or fertilizers added that harm you and the environment.

Furthermore, you can rest assured that the nutritious food you're providing for your family hasn't travelled half way around the world, further damaging the environment.

With a small investment, a little careful planning and a minimum of effort, you could easily begin putting the above 5 simple tips into action today. Consider making some small changes in how you use your garden and be confident you're making a significant impact on the health of the environment.

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