How Green are Green Fingers?

Gardening turns out to be very eco un-friendly... The Independent

According to an article in this morning's Independent, gardening is not very environmentally friendly but I think that it depends on your approach.  This is my approach to minimising the negative effects of gardening:

Compost

I keep a compost heap for garden waste and vegetable trimmings which reduces the amount of waste being carted to a landfill site and produces a compost suitable for use as a soil improver.  Personally, I find it too coarse for use as a potting compost so I use a commercial peat-free compost for potting and other general purpose uses. I have successfully grown  potatoes in bags with a mixture of the peat-free compost and earth.  

Pesticides

I prefer to avoid pesticides due to their general nastiness.  Slugs are one of the biggest pests in my garden but the traditional blue slug pellets are one of the worst things you can use in your garden.  They poison the slugs then get into the food chain affecting birds and hedgehogs.  They are also toxic to pets and children. I have tried yeast traps with only limited success.  The best method I have found to control slugs is nematode worms which are naturally occurring in soil. Increasing their concentration reduces slug numbers early in the season. Another regular pest is the caterpillar, especially on brassicas, but they can be limited by using netting then picking them off if they become a problem.

 Herbicides

There is no real need for herbicides in gardening as weeds can be pulled out by hand or with a trowel if the roots are deeper.

The Lawn

Keeping the grass short and green can be energy and water intensive, especially if it is a large area and you have a ride on petrol mower. If the grass is left to grow longer it helps the soil to retain moisture therefore it can tolerate dry weather for longer without turning yellow. I never cut it on the shortest setting and allow at least two or three weeks between mowing. The weather is rarely dry long enough in the West of Scotland for it to turn yellow, but if it does it is not a problem as it will turn green again when the rain returns.

Watering

Our climate reduces the need for watering but when necessary I limit watering to the productive parts of the garden, i.e. the vegetable patch and potato sacks. If the soil below the surface is moist I will generally leave it another day. When watering, I use a can and target the water to where it is most needed, hence minimising waste.

Produce

By using part of the garden to grow food, we are reducing the environmental impact of food grown further afield then  transported which hopefully offsets some of the negative impacts of maintaining the garden. Also the fact that we will eat the produce is a good reason to avoid chemicals.

Space for Nature

We also leave some of the garden for nature, a bit overgrown with a scattering of wild flowers which is great for butterflies, spiders and bumble bees.

This is some of what we do in the garden to hopefully achieve a balance; it certainly addresses some of the issues raised in the Independent article. I don't know whether it is carbon neutral, positive or negative and it may not all be best practice from either a horticultural or ecological perspective but I don't think it is the worst.

What do you do to reduce the environmental impact of your garden? What can we do to mitigate our actions? Does the provision of habitat for birds and bees outweigh the carbon cost? Have you tried to calculate a carbon footprint for your garden? I'd love to hear from you.