It’s easy to assume that everything in the garden is green, but that is not always the case. Whilst the focus is often on encouraging your garden to be a haven for birds, wildlife and insects by planting for pollinators, many outdoor practices, quite frankly, could be greener.
Solar Power For Garden Lighting
Who doesn’t love garden lighting? There is nothing better than spending an evening with friends under soft, twinkling lights with good food and conversation.
Still, it’s hard to relax in this idyllic setting if you start thinking about how environmentally damaging it can be to use non-renewable resources like coal-generated electricity.
Why not use a solar powered generator to provide your outdoor illumination? With many handy ports and outlets, a solar-powered generator can also support garden tools, so you can ditch non-environmentally friendly fuels and fumes.
It can even power your laptop if you take the office outside. And don’t forget all those festive illuminations at Christmas time!
Weed-Free Gardening
Rather than reach for that toxic plant spray to zap a weed as soon as it appears, why not try weed-free gardening? There are lots of environmentally friendly ways to deter weeds.
Most store-bought pesticides contain glyphosate, which is terrible for weeds. But as it turns out in research, it’s also pretty bad for everything around it, including people.
Weed-free gardening lets you skip the chemical fertilizers and pesticides altogether. You can start by planting small plants and perennial groundcovers in flowerbeds to choke out weeds. Mass planting of flowering plants can also shade the soil, reducing water and moisture loss from evaporation.
For both efficient and beautiful groundcover, you can plant catmint, yarrow or stonecrop. If weeds do appear, take the old-fashioned route and pull them out rather than spraying.
Harvesting Rainwater
If you are going to make use of the sun to charge your solar-powered generator, then why not also capitalize on the rain from the sky? Harvesting rainwater is not a new idea, but it’s amazing how many people still don’t do it.
Rainwater harvesting means collecting rainwater for reuse. You can collect it in barrels around your garden or home, reducing your reliance on mains water and lowering your bills.
In the UK, the average household uses around 330 liters of water per day, according to data from the Energy Saving Trust. Compare this to 1960, when the average was just 165 liters per day.
If you can’t bear the thought of missing your daily shower, make a dent in your household’s water usage by harvesting rainwater to water the plants. You can even use harvested rainwater to flush the toilets and do the laundry.
Final Thoughts
There is more to being a green gardener than most people realize. One of the most overlooked resources can be your garden or yard, where you can harvest rainwater, solar power and wind energy for free.
Even in a small way, this will help the planet and small can be mighty if everyone does it. Harvesting natural energy will also reduce your household’s reliance on expensive power companies.
