Sustainable Gardening E-Book

Doug Stewart

• Herausgeber: The Crowood Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: A Gardener's Guide to
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 273

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

A Gardener's Guide to Sustainable Gardening is an essential, practical guide to the design, planting and maintenance of truly regenerative and sustainable gardens. Discover a new model of thinking about our outdoor spaces, whether it's simple changes you can make in small gardens, or more challenging solutions that propose a significant departure from traditional gardening practices. This is not a rule book, but a map, guiding the willing gardener towards a better way of working with our natural world.

Leseprobe

First published in 2023 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

[email protected]

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2023

© Doug Stewart 2023

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7198 4256 6

Dedication

This book is dedicated to those who bring plants to people, and who create community gardens. Together these people create places of social inclusion, personal growth, healing, peace, and ecological regeneration.

They are the best of us.

Image credits

Claudia West/Phyto Studio, p.29, p.30 (top and bottom); Justine Dixon, p.97 (bottom), p.129; Peter Korn, p.58 (top and bottom); Sue Moss, p.101 (bottom three)

Cover design by Blue Sunflower Creative

CONTENTS

Foreword by Dr Suzanne Moss

1 Understanding Sustainability

2 It All Starts with Good Design Decisions

3 Soil: The Unseen Ecosystem

4 Plants and Planting

5 Garden Health

6 Sustainable Lawn Management

7 Principles of Pruning

8 Composts and Growing Media

9 Productive Growing

10 Garden Maintenance

11 Water in the Garden

12 Habitat Creation

Appendix: Sustainability Assessment Tool

Bibliography

Further Resources

Acknowledgements

Index

FOREWORD

Thank you for picking up this book.

The simple fact that you have done so means that you care, and that you are on the cusp of making truly transformative changes to the way you garden. These may be grand-scale structural and functional changes, or they may be small, cumulative interventions, which all have a part to play in protecting our planet and the people within it.

We are all aware that changing the way we live in the world is imperative for the safeguarding of its future. This is as true for what we do in our gardens as it is for how we manage our homes and our travel — but that does not mean it is easy. Revaluating the way we approach the development and cultivation of our garden spaces is complex, for domestic gardeners and professionals alike. Our plants, patios, pots and pergolas are established and maintained with many competing considerations and impacts — both short and long term, local and far afield. For example, where did the patio slabs come from? Have they travelled far? Who quarried the stone and were they paid a fair wage? How long will it last, and will you need to use chemicals to maintain it?

The movement towards a more sustainable way to garden is travelling faster than ever and shows no sign of slowing its pace. While there are some ‘no-brainers’, like not using peat in growing media and using less plastic, some solutions may be less obvious, more challenging or represent a significant departure from traditional gardening practices. And so they should, if we are to make a true difference.

What is needed is a clear and considered road map to guide the gardener who wants to make a change, and so this book is both welcome and timely. It encourages the gardener to think — to revaluate their spaces and their approach to them, to consider design, build and maintenance practices, and it provides practical solutions for each. I know it is going to be an inspiration and guide for me as I plan my new garden space, and I hope it is for you too.

Dr Suzanne Moss

Head of Education and Learning,Royal Horticultural Society

CHAPTER 1

UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABILITY

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein

Why Write a Book on Sustainable Gardening?

Is the very act of gardening itself not sustainable? After all, gardens are spaces where people connect with nature, they are filled with trees and shrubs, and nature abounds. Green waste is even recycled in composting areas. If, however, we peel back the veneer and take a closer look at the way gardens are managed, many of the activities are far from green. There are often monocultures of grass; maintenance uses fossil fuels and water. Gravels and other materials used in hard landscaping are mined or quarried. Some are even transported from the other side of the world. The movement of plants creates biosecurity risks. The care of gardens often involves pesticides and herbicides. These practices are far from sustainable. To delve a little deeper, we could consider just one element of a garden. For example, we could consider the humble garden bench. What stories could it tell, if only it could speak? Would it tell tales of being carefully fashioned from wood produced in a carefully managed plantation? Of skilled, well-paid artisan-joiners carefully measuring, cutting and creating? Would it proudly tell of how its sale creates wealth that is shared throughout the supply chain? Of families fed, communities brought together around schools and hospitals?

If your bench could tell its story, what tales would it tell?

Or would that bench, if it could speak to the garden visitor, tell a very different story? Would it speak of illegal logging, of being fashioned by children in a dangerous factory, where life-changing injury and death is just around the corner, where the children were sold into bonded labour? Would it speak of the devastation that the illegal felling of timber has on habitat and biodiversity?

It is easy to forget that buying decisions can have profound effects throughout the supply chain. If strategies were developed to ensure that all purchases were checked off against a list of criteria to ensure principles of fairness, of prosperity for all those in the supply chain and of minimal environmental impact, then it could be argued that our gardens tell stories that we would be proud to be associated with.

The sustainable garden is filled with positive stories: of trees providing ecosystem services to people and to nature; for example, the wide number of invertebrate species supported, the provision of food for caterpillars and nectar for pollinators, or gardens that reduce the risks of flooding and that are filled with birdsong. Special places where people come and experience wellness and improved mental health.

Creating such spaces requires agility of thought. Those who manage gardens and design landscapes make a thousand decisions a day. Each one of these needs rethinking, from the application of spring feeds to the irrigation of garden areas.

Every single maintenance principle needs to be re-evaluated:

• Is it necessary?

• Does it enhance biodiversity?

• Is it regenerative?

Every single input needs to be re-evaluated:

• Is it necessary?

• What is its environmental impact?

• How does it impact on the lives of those in the supply chain?

This process will uncover inconvenient truths. Conventional thinking will be challenged. Scientific principles will be applied. Best practice will be developed.

This book is not intended to be the new rule book, for there are few universal rules that hold true in all gardens and in all situations. Rather this book has been written to be a map, to guide and to be a critical friend to challenge.

Containers have high environmental footprints, requiring manufacture, transport, growing media, feed and water.

Key garden-management principles will be considered. Concepts of ecological garden-management principles will be discussed, along with triggers for both minor and major interventions. These will include operational decisions, for example the management of specific plant health risks. Or strategic decisions, such as the replacement of clusters of pots and containers to reduce the garden’s water footprint, or the strategic movement away from short-term plantings to reduce the plastic, peat, water and carbon footprint of the garden.

Rethinking points of intervention is a critical skill for the sustainable gardener. Every action, every maintenance decision, has an impact that is far wider and more profound than might at first be thought. The removal of a weed may deny a pollinator a vital food source. The removal of a dead tree may deny habitat to bats and wild birds. This cause and effect was recognised by John Muir, the father of modern conservation, who stated: ‘When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.’

Plantings of perennials grown in border soil can be used to reduce water and growing media usage.

What is Sustainability?

It is always useful to define terms. Sustainability is no exception. Sadly, the term sustainable is often over-used as a marketing term. ‘Sustainable’ is often added as if it is a seasoning before almost any product. Marketeers tempt consumers with ‘new sustainable tumble driers’ or our ‘sustainable burgers’. The question remains: what is it about these products that makes them sustainable? The roots of sustainability lie in social justice, conservation and internationalism. In 1983 the United Nations invited the former Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, to run the New World Commission on Environment and Development. One of the key findings was that economic development at the cost of ecological health and social equity did not lead to long-lasting prosperity. When the New World Commission on Environment and Development finally reported its findings, it defined sustainable development as:

Aphids are an important part of the garden food web. Lacewings, ladybirds, rove beetles, predatory midges, parasitoid wasps and wild birds use aphids as a food source. When we remove aphids, we find them connected to everything else in the universe, to paraphrase John Muir.

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This concept can be restated to apply directly to the field of garden management:

To manage gardens and designed landscapes to fully meet our current needs, without compromising the ability of future generations to have the climate, the resources and the freedom to create and manage gardens that will fully meet their needs.

The application of the principles outlined in this statement requires the garden managers of today to carefully consider the potential impact of management decisions. Many gardens pump water from deep boreholes to satisfy their irrigation needs. The water extracted is referred to by water scientists as fossil water. Its use today may deny future generations of a water source. The nitrogen fertilizer used to green up lawn turf is the result of a chemical process, the Haber-Bosch Process, which turns gaseous nitrogen into nitrate, a form a nitrogen that can be taken up by plant roots. This single process releases 1.4 per cent of global carbon emissions. Neither of these activities can be regarded as being sustainable, and so it is necessary to rethink their use. Reducing the water footprint of a garden, or the elimination of synthetic fertilizers, has profound impacts on the management of gardens. Alternative approaches need to be identified and evaluated, and the least worst option selected.

Sustainability has been further defined to include a series of pillars that uphold the core principles stated above.

Sustainability: People, Plants, Planet

The social pillar holds up or promotes concepts of fairness and respect. This includes concepts such as gender equality, gender pay gaps, human rights, the prevention of human slavery, along with striving to reduce social inequalities. This includes combating discrimination and promoting social inclusion. A further aspect of this pillar is the promotion of well-being.

The second pillar is the economic pillar, which is defined as the promotion of responsible sourcing of product, recycling of product and the sourcing of renewable raw materials. It includes the concept of fair pay and the use of renewable energy sources.

The third pillar is environmental. The key principles here are that natural habitats should be preserved, carbon and water footprint reduced, and waste properly managed.

With regard to the first pillar, the role that gardens have in promoting wellness is now widely documented. Mind, the UK mental health charity, published research claiming that over 7 million people report their mental health as benefiting from taking up gardening for the first time during the Covid-19 lockdowns. For many people, gardens became sanctuaries; the very act of gardening became important in the relief of stress and the promotion of mental health. The significant impacts of green spaces on human health have been widely documented in many studies. A consistent finding is that people benefit from being in the presence of plants. These benefits manifest as reduced stress levels, and improved mental health and well-being. Other studies have shown that increasing green infrastructure reduces anti-social behaviour. New initiatives such as green prescribing are being implemented in the UK, where, for example, those who might benefit are prescribed green therapies and are often placed within community horticultural projects as part of their recovery pathway. Gardening and nature therapy generally, are now being referred to as the Natural Health Service.

The significance of the economic pillar becomes apparent when the size and the scope of the gardening industry are considered. The RHS reports on its website that ornamental horticulture could be set to contribute £42 billion to the UK economy and create 760,000 jobs by 2030. By comparison the aerospace industry contributes £35 billion to the UK economy, according to the Office for National Statistics. Horticulture is a major UK industry. The economic pillar requires that supply chains be managed along sustainable lines, and that all those employed in the production of plants and associated products should be valued and fairly rewarded.

The environmental pillar is perhaps the one that gardeners are most familiar with, but it is equally challenging. It introduces the concepts that gardens should preserve, champion and enhance natural habitats, while also actively measuring and reducing their carbon and water footprints.

Learning from Nature

Observations of natural areas, such as wildflower-rich footpaths, reveal that nature naturally favours density of planting. Natural plant communities are filled with plants that touch and tangle, embrace and scramble, lean and support each other. Further investigation reveals that these plantings are often part of a larger whole and have clearly defined layers. These include natural ground-cover layers, herbaceous layers, shrub layers and, ultimately, small trees and ones with larger canopies. Dense plantings such as these offer significant environmental impacts. They offer a dense supply of nectar and pollen, cover for amphibious life and invertebrates, shade and seclusion for nesting birds and so have a positive impact on the natural world.

Natural plant community, colonizing a disused railway line.

This natural environment is significantly different to the principles that are often advocated within traditional gardening books, which often advocate more organised or regimented plantings. Importance is placed on accurate plant spacing to ensure that each plant has optimum light levels and space to regulate relative humidity. Plantings created to these traditional rules and principles often result in high-maintenance strategies, as the required light and space between plants encourages weeds and other spontaneous plants to compete. As many horticulturists are aware, bare soil grows weeds. Or, as Aristotle put it, ‘Horror vacui’ — nature abhors a vacuum.

Implementing the principles of the environmental pillar and considering plantings as part of the wider ecosystem could inform a different approach. Local plant communities could be surveyed to identify natural planting densities, these can then be considered along with the more formal specifications, for example the planting of herbaceous perennials at seven or nine plants per square metre. Nature would suggest the use of higher planting densities, which mimic natural layering. These plantings will shade soil, reduce evaporation of water, provide dense pollen and nectar sources, and cover. Claudia West of Phyto Studio in Virginia in the USA is one of the leading voices in the developing field of ecological plantings. West takes this concept to its logical conclusion by suggesting that the plants themselves should be our mulch. Other leading experts in this field, such as Patrick McMillan, the Garden Director at Heronswood Garden in Washington, USA, describes this approach to planting as filling every gap — ‘filling every space with useful plants that work for a living, selecting plants that not only meet our aesthetic need, but which also promote, enhance and enable biodiversity.’

Dense plant communities offer a wide range of ecosystem services.

Retraining Our Eyes

Managing gardens along sustainable principles and applying concepts such as layered ecological plantings will naturally give our gardens a different aesthetic, which will be challenging to some visitors. Those who come to a garden expecting to see perfect lawns, which are freshly mown and striped, will be challenged by that lawn being filled with wildflowers. Part of the role of the garden owner or manager is to gently challenge, to explain, to interpret what the visitor sees.

The visitor who is appalled that the lawn is filled with weeds may assume that this is the result of funding cuts, or that the staff are lazy and no longer care. Eyes can be retrained through education. Tilden, the father of modern interpretation, proposed that the purpose of interpretation is to share our passions with those of the visitor. Reviewing the ecosystem services that a formal lawn provides, against the aesthetic advantages and the ecosystem services that an ecological lawn filled with wildflowers provides, can explain the underlying motivation. The eyes of the visitor can then be retrained, from seeking assurance for viewing the anticipated striped grass, to viewing the dozens of bumblebees working the flowers.

This retraining of eyes is fundamental if people are to understand and to care about sustainably managed gardens. Explanations that the greenflies on the roses have been deliberately left to provide a food source for blue tits and provides a more natural experience for the visitor is another example of how eyes, and hearts, can be changed.

A key challenge in this process is that often the most significantly biodiverse areas of gardens are the very spaces that lack aesthetic charm. Areas of hard standing, filled with weeds, surrounded by nettles and brambles, are often important sites for moths, butterflies, insects and wild birds. The challenge is to create areas that offer rich habitat, food and water sources, with the visual appeal that the visitor requires. Creating multifunctional spaces that meet both of these requirements is one of the most significant challenges for those involved in garden and landscape design.

The sustainable gardener can keep abreast of this new thinking through visits to leading gardens, through watching YouTube videos and channels from reliable sources, through following stories on Instagram and attending meetings, seminars and conferences. These practices allow the curation of knowledge.

The implantation of the key concepts discussed results in the development of concepts such as best practice, which should inform all aspects of a garden’s management. It includes the design of new garden areas, the application of new water-management strategies or the measurement of nectar provision from different wildflowers to inform species’ selection. Organisations such as the Botanical Gardens, Plantlife, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Royal Horticultural Society, Plant Network or the Hardy Plant Society are useful sources of reliable information.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Sir Isaac Newton stated, ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants’. The sustainable gardening movement stands on the shoulders of many organisations that pioneered new approaches to gardening.

The organic gardening movement introduced many to the fundamental importance of soil health. Following the publication of seminal works, such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, it highlighted the impacts of synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

The wildlife gardening movement embraces many of the characteristics and principles of sustainable gardening. Sustainable gardening, however, takes this concept further to include the wider impacts that plants and gardens have on the local environment and on people. It also asks the gardener to consider the environmental impact of every input to the garden. These impacts can be far away, where the product is sourced, mined and manufactured. They can also be significant close by.

Permaculture, which is described by its founders as being to produce ‘consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for the provision of local needs’, tends to focus on productive growing spaces, rather than the wider creation of a range of habitat types and the well-being of all people in the supply chain.

The sustainable gardening movement has taken the essence of many differing approaches to garden management and reviewed them against the three pillars of sustainability. The aim of sustainable gardening is to build on their pioneering work and take it further.

Ten Key Questions

The ‘Questions’ list provides an opportunity to apply some of the principles discussed and to establish a benchmark of sustainability.

The New Way to Garden

The new way to garden involves:

• Making a large number of small decisions.

• Measuring and evaluating.

• Researching and implementing best practice.

There are few definitive answers or rules that can be applied in every garden, as every garden is uniquely connected to its own ecosystem. In the absence of definitive rules, the sustainable gardener requires a tool to allow them to critically evaluate the impacts of every input and every intervention to allow the making of a million appropriate decisions.

This book proposes a new way of thinking. The new way to garden.

Questions

✓ ✗

1. Are inputs to the garden evaluated to maximise the impact of people in the supply chain?

2. Are inputs to the garden evaluated to minimise their negative environmental footprint?

3. Are inputs, such as water, measured to establish a water footprint?

4. Are human-powered tools favoured over fossil fuel-powered tools?

5. Is the garden designed to create a range of habitats?

6. Does the garden have a measurable impact on the local environment?

7. Are plants sourced and grown locally to reduce their carbon footprint?

8. Is rainwater harvested?

9. Do hard surfaces drain sustainably to avoid the risk of flooding to neighbouring properties?

10. Is all timber used from renewable, certified, well-managed woodlands?

The new way to garden; a new model to inform sustainable decision-making.

Case Study: Sprint Mill Garden

Sprint Mill Garden in Cumbria is managed using ecological and sustainable principles. The garden includes woodland, natural meadow plantings and productive growing spaces. Owner Edward Acland defines their approach to garden management as ‘Guardening’. Gardeners are the ultimate guardians of the environment and so the creation of habitat, and gardening using human-powered tools and equipment, are at the heart of this principle.

Sprint Mill is open by appointment. It is described by the National Garden Scheme as an: ‘Unorthodox organically run garden, the wild and natural alongside provision of owners’ fruit, vegetables and firewood. Idyllic riverside setting, 5 acres to explore including a wooded riverbank with hand-crafted seats. Large vegetable and soft fruit area, following no dig and permaculture principles. Hand tools prevail.’

Sprint Mill Garden, Cumbria.

Garden owner, Edward Acland, demonstrating a human-powered compost shredder.

The ‘Wrekin Root Cutter’, which is still in use as a compost shredder.

A productive, no-dig garden, run on permaculture principles.

Sprint Mill, an 1840s felting mill, the windows boast 968 panes of glass. The mill is set on the banks of the river Sprint.

The river Sprint, which supports a wide range of species.

Rethink

The toolkit starts with the process of rethinking or reviewing new developments or interventions. This process involves asking a series of questions. The answers, while personal and only appropriate to the garden in question, should be recorded to allow later review and critical analysis.

Examples of the range of rethink questions include:

• What is the aim of this intervention?

• What is the latest thinking with regard to this intervention?

• What are the negative environmental impacts?

• What are the positive impacts?

• Is the overall result of this impact net positive?

An example of rethinking may be the planned actions and interventions required when blackfly is spotted on the extension growth on some shrubs. Training and lived experience suggest that a spray is required, perhaps a benign, organic product. Rethinking involves questioning and ranking possible responses. The aim of the intervention is not necessarily to kill the blackfly, it is to ensure plant health. Are the numbers of blackflies present, a critical risk to plant health? The next stage in rethinking is to investigate how other gardens or lead organisations are tackling this problem, if indeed it is a problem. Is monitoring sufficient? What are the negative impacts of intervention? Would the removal of the blackfles remove an important food source for wild birds at a time of the year when they are feeding young? What are the positive impacts of control, will flowering be enhanced? Is the overall control of blackflies that are not causing a significant plant health risk, but which remove a vital food source within the garden food chain, net positive?

The same thought process could be applied to a proposed new patio area. What is the aim of the area: to allow people to congregate, to create an alfresco dining area, to be able to find a spot to unwind with a glass of wine? What is the lowest impact way of creating an area to meet these needs? Can repurposed or recycled materials be used? Can the garden furniture be recycled or repurposed? Can the paving be laid with small gaps to allow water to percolate when there is a rainfall event to prevent run off or overwhelming drains? What is the minimum reasonable size of the paved area? Can paving be replaced with gravel or with plantings to soften the surface and add ecosystem services? What are the negative environmental impacts of the space – perhaps clusters of containers that require growing media and water, or the use of cement and the associated carbon release? What are the positive impacts? The edges of the paved area provide ecosystem services, the permeable surface will reduce flood risk, the materials are reused/repurposed/recycled. Other positive impacts relate to the people using the space and the creation of a market for repurposed materials.

When rethinking, the most interesting and profound answers often come from the questions we have not asked.

Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want…

The American politician and businessman Donald Rumsfeld is famous for stating:

As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

It is the unknown unknowns that are a challenge to rethinking. To the person who knows only of the existence of paving and gravel as ways of creating hard surfacing, decking is an unknown unknown. Rethinking allows the discovery of unknown unknowns. To illustrate this point, the plantings around the new Hillside Centre for Horticultural Science at RHS Garden Wisley, include a model wildlife garden. In early late spring and early summer this garden is a sea of colour, with wildflowers of every description. The wildflowers in turn attract a wide range of wildlife, including many species of bumblebee, damsel fly and butterfly. During a visit the author overheard visitors making a variety of comments, including, ‘this is it’, ‘this is what I want my garden to be’, ‘this could be my best garden’, ‘I didn’t know you could make gardens like this’. We are often limited by the boundaries of our knowledge and lived experience. Rethinking can be a revolutionary act.

High-density plantings of wildflowers at RHS Garden Wisley, showcasing a more sustainable approach to garden management.

Higher density plantings allow plants to intertwine, as they would in nature.

Areas of still water with aquatic plants provide habitat for damsel flies.

Wildflowers offer the opportunity to re-wild gardens.

Reduce and Reuse

The second part of the toolkit involves evaluating all inputs to identify if materials can be reduced or reused.

Examples of the range of rethink questions include:

• Is this a material that can be sourced or grown within the garden?

• Can other materials be reused or repurposed to provide this function?

• Can the environmental impacts of sourcing this material be reduced?

• Can the quantities of materials and inputs be reduced?

• Are there alternatives with lower carbon and water footprints?

This part of the process develops a layered approach to the sustainable thought process.

A simple example could be the requirements to provide plant supports for the cultivation of peas and beans within a productive growing space. Garden canes that are grown and shipped from China are often a first choice for beans, with plastic netting supported by canes used for peas. Applying the principles of reduce and reuse would question this approach. Could prunings be used to provide pea sticks and beanpoles? If not, could small areas be planted with hazel to provide this material from within the garden?

A further example could relate to the practice of mulching. Mulches are used to reduce weed growth and to maintain moisture levels in the soil. From a sustainability perspective they also provide habitat and a food source for microorganisms, which decompose and break down the mulch into humic substances. These substances bind with mineral particles in the soil, causing the formation of soil crumbs, which are a vital component of a healthy soil.

Mulch made from wheat straw. Chopped Miscanthus would produce a similar product, which would be topped up annually.

It, therefore, would not be appropriate to consider reduce and reuse in this instance. However, these mulching materials are often bought in. They can arrive on pallets, with plastic pallet wrap, in plastic sacks, delivered by a transportation system that releases large quantities of carbon. When one delves further into the collection of organic material, its processing and handling also involves the release of carbon. The reduce and reuse concept is very applicable to these situations. For example, all of the carbon release and plastic use could be eliminated if the mulch was produced within the garden. Miscanthus is a fast-growing grass, which is often used as a biofuel. If space allowed within the garden, a stand of Miscanthus could be grown for cutting and shredding to produce high-quality, garden-grown mulch.

Miscanthus, a fast-growing grass, adds colour, volume and movement to plantings. It can be used to create garden-grown mulches.

Regenerate

At their best, sustainable gardens offer regenerative services. These services can include the creation of habitat, with a resulting increase in biodiversity, along with the regenerative effects that these spaces have on communities and the wellness and mental health of those who engage with such spaces.

Examples of the range of regenerative questions include:

• Does the garden support the creation of priority habitats identified in the UK biodiversity action plan?

• Does the garden support priority species identified in the UK biodiversity action plan?

• Does the garden sequester carbon?

• Does the purchase of goods and services offer regeneration in other communities?

• Does the garden engage with citizen science projects as part of its regenerative mission?

A key aspect of a sustainable garden is the measurable impact that it has on the wider world. These impacts can be considered as being either direct or indirect. Direct regenerative impacts would include, for example, the application of mulches to soil to regenerate the soil ecosystem, or the cultivation of plants that provide habitat and berries to produce food for wild birds and small mammals. Hard-landscaping surfaces can be used to divert water into bog gardens, which can help with the regeneration of this habitat type. The indirect regenerative impacts could include the social and economic impacts of our buying decisions. When considering the materials for a new driveway or hardstanding area, initial thoughts may consider rethinking the purpose of such areas and the reduction and reuse of materials. It may, however, be that to match existing surfaces a material such as Indian sandstone is considered. There are obvious sustainability challenges with this material, including the impacts of quarries on the environment in India, the environmental footprint of shipping the sandstone and its wider carbon footprint. Other significant concerns could include the reported fact that one-fifth of the workforce in India’s quarries are children, some as young as six years old. Bonded labour, where people are forced to work to pay off a debt, is rife. Sustainable suppliers such as Marshalls have responded to these serious social issues by launching product lines such as ‘fairstone’, where they audit the supply chain, do not tolerate child labour and ensure that the stone itself is of high quality with the minimum environmental impact.