Eco Tips for Garden and Home

As we've had a long discussion beginning with Christmas tree preferences and ending up with wider concerns I thought it would be a positive thing to add our tips and tricks in the spirit of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle or energy saving. Anything goes from using old nylons as plant friendly ties to building a hot bed for the garden or household tips such as wearing a jumper to turn down the thermostat 1 degree.

For example, how do you reduce the watering requirement of your garden?

We have clay soil and a south facing garden. Unfortunately the drought tolerant plants can't survive the clay soil over winter so this is something we've got to adapt to and one of the ways has been to use old bedsheets as a weed suppressant and covering it with grit for tiny beds with herbs in them. We add a generous layer of grit or gravel to pots too as it also helps prevent them from overheating, the Fuchsia showed us the benefit of this last summer when the one pot did really well but the other, un-gritted one died.

We recycle everything we can too Baa.

My garden is on clay too, but has been cultivated and manures and compost added for so many years that it is now a rich loam over clay. There are a few steep bits which are still pretty heavy, but I improve pockets of these for individual plants.

I use lots of mulches and gather leafmold from under a wall at the top of a wood every autumn - before the leaves fall so I am gathering already 1 year old rotted leaves. They have blown up the wood and are against a wall so I'm not robbing the trees of anything. These are mainly beech and oak leaves and make wonderful potting compost mixed with sharp sand and peat free compost or a bit of loam - depending what it is for.

We shred paper and put it in the compost heap. Sheets of cardboard are laid between raised beds to keep the paths weed free and also large ones are weighted down on empty beds over winter and then used on the paths or composted in spring. I use a shredder to cut up all the twiggy prunings and put these on the cardboard paths so they last a bit longer and also mulch round shrubs and the herbaceous border.

I put sheets of newspaper in the bottom of pea and bean trenches before adding the compost - making sure it is nice and wet first. I sometimes do this in the potato trenches too to retain moisture.

The hens recycle any food scraps and have a few fresh greens for afternoon tea! The new hens have shown a liking for eating the nettles which surprised me (it may have surprised them too) as the old hens won't touch them.

We don't use much in plastic bottles, but I re-use the ones people throw over the fence as mini cloches. The large ones are also useful with the neck end cut off for soaking posts in preservative - you don't need half as much and you can fill it to the desired depth.

I have also adapted a plastic bottle to fit over the end of the greenhouse gutter to catch rainwater. You cut out a square in the side of the bottle near the top to match the shape of the end of the gutter so the bottle slots on. Tape it to the side of the greenhouse and tape a piece of hose on to the neck end to direct the water into a water butt. This is for the aluminium greenhouses with the built in gutters - ours wasn't provided with a fitted down pipe so I had to experiment.

That's excellent Patbarr.

We did try the soil improvement over the years but we've found it does little else but sink and disappear LOL. I re-discovered a gravel path while digging the front garden out last year. We'd put it in, on top of rubble and found a scattering of gravel and virtually no rubble! We marked out new beds, raised them and overlaid the lot with several inches of compost. I find over planting an area has helped make the soil more friable for longer.

I like your plastic bottle and hose rain water pipe! That's definitely something to consider trying this year. The middle bit of a 2l plastic pop bottle is an excellent arm guard too.

Our hen has developed a keen taste for borage, not a great problem as we usually have a few plants but it looks odd to have a poor borage in flower and all the leaves stripped! I wonder if she feels more courageous after scoffing it? ;)

I've used some of the moulded polystyrene stuff (broken down to smaller chunks) as pot drainage and it saves on excess soil/compost too.

I use up polystyrene from any packaging and the plant modules when they break the same as you do. It is good too as it makes the pots lighter for moving about.

Your hen should be healthy - lots of Gamma Linolenic acid - anti inflammatory, lowers blood pressure and good for skin, hair (feathers) and nails.

Good point Patbarr, she is very healthy (touch wood), I'd not thought of that before.

Just thought - the oil is from the seeds, but the leaves also have anti-inflammatory and sudorific properties.

You have some good tips here, been thinking of making a tread with the same question, glad you Baa :o)). Can understand the hen, borage taste wonderful (my favorite herb, specially a good borage tea mmhhh… tasty).

First of all I am concerned with water and ways to reuse it.
Bevare you might find it revolting (well at leas the mother in law does LOL)
I reuse a the folowing… well lets call it liquids,
Lets overs from coke, coffe, the, juice, water leftover from cocking (from potatoes, eggs and so on) and lots of other stuff.
When it rains I get hold of buckets and place them strategically, this and my dogs water bowl leftovers (he gets fresh water several times a day so there no reson to trough it away) are mixed with the liquids so it can dilutes the “mixture”.
I have a buckets just out side the kitchen window so it is easy. I do not belive the planst are harmed, they look happy to me.

I'm guessing many have done this but it hasn't been mentioned yet. Three years ago we replaced all the bulbs (except one or two reading lamps) in our house with the energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs.
http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/article_view.asp?ArticleID=4

I've only saved "grey" water from washing up and bathing when we have had severe droughts in summer, and as you say, Zest, it can look rather horrible.

Because we are hardly ever short of water in the north of England we do take it for granted. But I do have four large water butts fitted to the greenhouse, also one from the house roof, one from the garage and two from the hen hut, so I use those first for watering the plants and sometimes fill the pond up by attaching a hose to the nearest one. I've also got a pipe directly to the small pond from the gutter of my son's workshop, so every time it rains it fills the pond up and the overflow runs into a bog garden.

We've replaced as many lights as we can with energy saving ones and only have one or two strip lights that we can't change. I've also just had the house cavity wall insulated and that has made a huge difference - although we haven't had a very cold winter to really test it out. I've been able to turn the heating down and turn the radiator thermostats down too. The house also stays warm for ages after the heating has switched off, and instead of feeling chilly before it comes on in the morning the house still feels aired. So I'm hoping the bills will be lower, but it is difficult to compare with the prices going up so frequently. I'll have to get technical and compare the amount we have used. We've also got the loft insulated and the slates sealed with that spray on insulation stuff (it's an old house) so we are nice and cosy.

I think the government is encouraging the energy companies to keep the prices high to make people be more economical with fuel. They aren't doing much to get them to reduce their prices even though the wholesale prices have been coming down for a few months now. - Sorry I'm getting political again. It doesn't take much to get us going on environmental issues does it?

We use the energy saving bulbs as much as we can too. Never thought of saving water though ..... we don't even have to pay for the cold water ...... what you don't have to pay for you tend to use rather carelessly ;-) We've never had a drought last longer than 3 weeks .... really don't know the meaning of the word. lol

Pat I thougt it was interesting that you use cardboard to keep the paths weed free .... I'm wondering if I could use newpapers for the same purpose. I don't know how fast it breaks down here since it doesn't get nearly as warm here. We're drowning in newspapers ..... can't get them to the recycle bin quick enough. I've often thought about putting shredded newspapers in the compost bin - but never ventured to do it .... I'm always worried it won't break down. I put all vegetable and fruit scraps in it though, as well as eggshells and coffee grinds. I've been thinking about whether I could at least put the newspapers from the birdcage in the compost bin ..... feels like a waist to throw it away in a plastic bag. How small do you need to shred it? I don't have a paper shredder.

Rannveig, I sometimes use newspapers for the paths too, if you make sure they are nice and moist and lay the nice and thick they don't blow away and last for quite a while. They can be a bit slippy to walk on so I usually put a layer of shredded twigs - or bark chippings on top. They make a good weed suppressing cover under the shrubs too with a covering of something a bit more ornamental on top. You don't need as much of the mulch either so it is quite economical. They rot down in a season and there are usually lots of worms underneath.

My paper shredder is just a little domestic one for the unwanted mail, so there isn't too much for the compost heap to cope with. I mix it in with the vegetable waste and keep adding a layer of the hen-hut cleanings which is dust free pine shavings - and hen poo which gets the heap heating up very quickly. If I put newspaper in the compost I just tear it up into smaller pieces and it rots down OK. I've got seven compost heaps in various parts of the garden, so nothing much gets wasted. The only tricky things to get rid of (if I don't have a bonfire) are the larger pieces of tree prunings which won't go through the big outdoor shredder. I have heard of people using the big shredders to cut up newspaper, but I haven't tried it. I don't think mine would be sharp enough. We have a re-cycling bin for paper anyway, so any I can't use goes in that.

The local dumpit site takes metal, builders rubble, wood, plastic, glass, garden green waste etc. and clothing, so we go there with everything else. We also have a local charity shop which I take old clothes and household goods to, so not much ends up in the dustbin at all.

There is a trial going on in some parts of the country putting a bar code on people's dustbins and to weigh how much rubbish they throw away each week and then to charge them based on how much they are disposing of. It will probably end up with lots of fly tipping or disputes when neighbours sneak their rubbish into their next door's dustbin. - Should be interesting.

Pat there has been a discussion of that here as well. Not sure how it's supposed to work - if they'll weigh it or what. One idea was that people who recycle a lot could apply for a "green" bin which would be emptied less frequently and therefore they wouldn't be charged as much. I'd be interested in getting one of those since ours is never full when it's emptied out. We take the branches that are too thick for our shredder to the dupsite - they have a bigger shredder there that could shred just about anything I think ...... it's about the same they also take the plastic, glass, metal etc.

I don`t think we ever had a water shortness, it just seems such a waste of resorses to trough the liquids away.
Been wanting to chance my bulbs to energy efficient ones, but they are so expensive for me to buy. Instead I never let any lights burnig is they are not used, and never leave anything
on stand-by.
Will defenetly try the news paper thing :o)))

Patbarr; I think it is a good idea to weigh peoples waste, but oh my I think they will have to lock it at night :o))

We use mostly energy saving light bulbs too. Like a lot of others I've a tendency to make ordinary light bulbs blow but these last a lot longer.

I don't reuse bath water as I often use dead sea salts to soften the water. Being in one of the drier counties we're never certain if we're going to be slapped with a hose pipe ban or not, we do have a water butt though and would like more, it's easy enough to maneuver the duck pool near to a border so we can use that if the need rises, unless of course they slap a hose pipe ban on duck pools as well.

Today I was looking for another energy provider and found loads that now do "green tariffs" some aren't a lot more than the normal energy but that's using a comparison engine so who knows what the real cost would be.

I'm going to sow some veggie seeds over the weekend (trying to remind myself where good intentions lead to) and commit to growing more food again.

I forgot to mention that my water butts are re-cycled bulk fruit juice containers from The Tank Exchange and hold 55 gallons they have a hole for the down pipe and a tap fitted and are very strong.

I just happened upon this great thread. What a lot of good ideas. I confess I have never tried the newspaper or cardboard idea in my garden, though I really want to now that I have read about your applications. We have a slug problem here, and my only hesitancy would be that cardboard would be another hiding spot for these monsters (8 inches long, some of them). Do you find slugs hiding with the worms underneath?

We also use the fluorescent bulbs in our lamps and light fixtures. They are more expensive, but they do last longer, and my indoor ficus tree really likes the additional light. Our energy source for heat is propane gas, which also heats the hot water. Where we live, we are fortunate to have curbside recycling along with our garbage pick up. There are four bins we put out every two weeks - glass, tins, newspaper, and other paper/cardboard. The county is discussing having a large all in one wheely bin delivered to each house for all recyclables without them having to be sorted first. This would be convenient, though they would only pick up every 3 weeks, and it would likely be overflowing at that point. Those who don't recycle pay a surcharge to have their garbage picked up.

We live in a very rainy area, so water usage is not a problem and we do have our own well. But, in the interest of using less water, I have decided to turn the front lawns to moss this year, since they are all headed that way anyway. Less watering and mowing, and less moles to have to deal with. When we do get a mole, I recycle the catbox droppings down the tunnel to encourage them to relocate - it works! How's that for an odd bit of recycling?

That is a novel mole deterrent Galega, I will have to tell my friend who has lots of problems with them.

I haven't noticed any more slugs under the cardboard that I use for paths, but there are lots if I lay cardboard on the beds as a winter mulch, so I just turn it over and dispose of them. I do usually put some shredded bark over the cardboard paths though as it can be slippy when wet.

There is a lot of talk about the number of plastic carrier bags we use and I have tackled that problem by buying two woven polyester bags which fold up into little pockets. I keep them in my bag or pocket and don't need to use the plastic carriers from the supermarket - unless of course I buy more than two bag fulls. I bought them from Lakeland about three years ago and they are still going strong. I have gone over the seams with the sewing machine to strengthen them recently and they are just like new. They hold lots and are much stronger than plastic too. I think I will buy some more if they still sell them.

Hi there,
We moved from London to Ireland almost two years ago. The stores (Tesco etc) do not provide plastic bags - everyone here takes a shopping bag with them - the stores do provide their boxes if you wish to take them away.
I heard from one of the locals that prior to this change there were always plastic bags littering the streets and fields. Since I have been here I have only seen ONE plastic bag stuck in a tree!

We recycle everything, either on our land or at the recycling centre where all recycled items are free of charge (anything in a plastic bin bag is charged for - a brilliant deterrent!)

It does amaze me when I think of all the recyclables that I used to put into a bin bag in London - makes me feel quite ashamed of myself!
Sue

PS - There is NO water shortage here...it rains all the time (The only reason that you would want to collect it is to keep it off the land - to make it less muddy!)

The use of bin bags has always puzzled me - for use in the bin anyway. I know some places don't have a dustbin emptying service and have to put out bags. They are quite handy for taking stuff to the dumpit site, but I always empty them out and bring them home to use again. There is a silly trend around here to have beautifully clean dustbins and people pay a cleaning company to spray out their bin and put something scenty in it as soon as it has been emptied, and they are usually the ones who use dustbin liners as well. Perhaps I'm a bit of a scruff, but I give mine a hose down if it gets something stuck in it and give it a sprinkle of disinfectant occasionally. It has a close fitting lid so you can't smell it when you walk past and I've planted a Sarcococca shrub next to it and that perfumes the whole garden at this time of the year.

There is a person on our street who puts all their garden waste into bin bags and then throws the lot over the railings down a wooded banking. It makes me furious. If they just tipped the garden prunings they would rot down, but instead there are heaps of plastic bags making the place look an eyesore. I can feel a rant coming on!!! I hate litter. We were cleaning up for the Yorkshire in Bloom judging last year and had spent hours the day before picking up litter and cigarette ends from the town centre, and on the day of the judging kept going over it again all morning. I eventually had to go home for a cup of tea as I would have physically attacked the next person I saw dropping a cigarette end on the floor.

I think they should charge for carrier bags here too. People always used to use their own shopping bags or baskets. Morrisons supermarkets used to put all their cardboard boxes by the checkouts for you to take your shopping home in, but that stopped when they got more well known.

We had a lovely holiday in Ireland near the Burren a few years ago and experienced a few very wet days along with lovely sunshine. I've just got a picture in mind of your garden with an umbrella over it.

A friend in the UK sent me this information about ways to encourage our garden helpers by providing shelter with rustic materials:


http://tinyurl.com/334k3f

Yuska

I've been to Tatton Park show, but didn't see this. I have made the one for lace wings by putting rolled up corrugated cardboard in a pop bottle and I bought a butterfly shaped wooden block with holes bored into it for the solitary bees etc. The link has some really good ideas in it and looks attractive too with the different textures and layers. Some nice herbs around it too. Thank you. I'll try to scrounge some pallets and construct one at the community garden. I can probably find a corner in my garden at home too.

I've just had an idea - We could nail the pallets together so they won't move and put some boards on top with an overhang to make a table out of it. The insects will have extra shelter and we will have somewhere to put our cups of tea down.