5 eco-friendly gardening tips

If you’ve been gardening up a storm, keep in mind that you can have a lush garden without harming the environment. Your eco-friendly lifestyle can and should extend to your gardening habits.

How, you ask?

By taking our eco-friendly gardening advice, naturally. And starting with small steps.

Read on for five sustainable gardening tips:

1. Use natural pesticides

Most pesticides are laden with chemicals that are harmful for the environment. Opt for natural alternatives instead to prevent pests from running riot over your garden. Try a garlic and chilli mixture, or put petroleum jelly around your plant pots so pests can’t climb up on them.

Another slightly unusual (but tried and tested) tactic is to use a good old can of beer. Yep, that’s right. Spray a mix of flat beer and salt around your garden to keep bugs and slugs at bay.

If you do buy straight up pesticides, try and make sure they’re 100% organic with low toxicity levels.

2. Plant your own veg and herbs

There’s no better feeling than growing and eating your own produce. You’ll feel like a proud parent as you watch those babies bloom… before you consume them, of course.

Not only does growing your own vegetables have the feel-good factor, you’ll also be reducing your carbon emissions by not buying produce that often takes a lot of energy to produce.

Now, you don’t need a massive garden to grow your own veg – you can even do a pretty good job with a little balcony space.

Growing herbs is a good first step. They’re fairly low maintenance, and they attract bees which helps to deal with harmful pests.

3. Set up your own compost

Now, this is a lot less complex than it sounds. If you learn how to make your own compost, it’s a great step towards sustainable gardening.

Not only can you easily discard without adding to landfill waste, your plants also get to enjoy the fresh nutrient-rich soil produced by your compost. Win-win.

4. Limit your water usage

Being careful with your water usage when gardening makes a world of difference. And it’s actually not that difficult either. Try the below to be more water-wise:

• Opt for more drought-resistant plants. Popular ones include lavender, verbena, oleander, poppies, and sage.
• Sure, sprinklers are fun. But they tend to waste quite a bit of water. Use timed ones if you do get them, otherwise a watering hose aimed directly at your soil works really well.
• You could also install a rain barrel or water butt to feed your plants with good old rainwater. Make use of our legendary British weather.
• Mulch away. Mulching leads to more moisture being absorbed into the soil, and it provides nutrients and prevents weeds.

5. Choose native plants

If your garden is proving high maintenance but looks oh-so-pretty, there are great gardening services in London that can help keep it trim.

If you want a garden you can easily maintain yourself, select native plants. It’s a lot less work to care for plants that thrive in their local habitat. It’s also considerably more eco-friendly as they’re naturally suited to the environment.

Want help with your garden plans or maintenance? Find trusted and local gardeners in London with Airtasker.