Green Living Tips  >  Garden

Garden

Water saving tips in your garden

1. Avoid watering plants little and often as this will encourage shallow rooting. Instead occasional but thorough watering will make plants more resilient to periods of drought.

2. Watering over the leaves of a plant is wasteful as a high proportion evaporates. Water around the base of the plant

3. Water late in the day to avoid moisture loss through evaporation.

4. Avoid wasting water by using a watering can or a hose fitted with a trigger attachment as sprinklers are wasteful.

5. Recycle bath, washing up and shower water on established plants but avoiding water that is heavily loaded with detergents.

6. Stop the competition for water by removing weeds.

7. Collect rain water in a water butt

8. Spike lawns and fork flower beds. This will keep soil well drained in the wet winter months.


Grow your own

An alternative to get fresh and tasty fruit and vegetables is to grow your own. This will also reduce the food miles, benefit the environment and improve your health. Gardening is also a form of enjoyable exercise available to everybody.

You can do this in your garden but if it is too small or if you do not have one, you can always get an allotment. Allotments provide not only food, but fresh air, exercise, a place to chill out, some where to observe nature and the chance to meet people and make new friends.

For more information about allotments in Peterborough visit www.peterborough.gov.uk or to find your nearest allotment click here.

To successfully grow your own, you can choose to use organic compost which is environmentally friendly and produced from natural recycled materials. For a local supplier visit the Bettaland website.