My Garden Ethos

My garden has a purpose and an underlying ethos. I believe in nature and its preservation. With this in mind, I do my very best to reflect this in my planting and maintenance. Here are a few examples:

Reduce: I make every effort to reduce waste and my carbon footprint. I refuse to use electrical items for garden maintenance. It's a little harder, but worth the effort.

• I use a hand mower / push along mower instead of any electrical one.
• I use clippers, shears, lawn shears etc, all people powered and non-electrical

Reuse: When I was digging out to lower a corner of my garden for a patio, I reused the stones unearthed to build up a flower bed in the opposite corner of the garden.

Reclaim: Now this is something I do lots of!

• The local builders merchant were going to throw away a huge chunk of metreage of decking. The reason? They had been left outdoors too long, had become unevenly discoloured and they couldn't sell them to Jo Public. I claimed them - for free!
• My circular patio was an ex display model from "last seasons" stock at the builders merchant's. As it was slightly damaged, they were going to throw it in a skip! I claimed it and all I paid was for one of their delivery drivers to delivery it to my house.
• Paving slabs, again from the builders merchant's, they had weathered and were no longer the "desirable" size. There were about 10 slabs, two of which were chipped. I wasn't so lucky with the zero price tag this time, so I offered 25% of their original cost, this was accepted and we were both happy with the arrangement.

Recycling and Upcycling: This, again, is something I do an awful lot of:

• My patio table is an old industrial "cotton reel"
• One of my garden benches is made from some old planks of wood, destined for the skip, along with two massive forraged tree stump cuttings.
• Another of my garden benches is has been made out of left over decking planks.
• My raised vegetable bed is made from reclaimed pallet collars

Animal and Insect Friendly: I want to encourage as much wildlife in as possible.
The RHS has a page, titled "Perfect For Pollinators" which you might find interesting if you'd like to make your garden perfect for the bees and butterflies.
If you want to plant for wildlife, the RSPB has a whole section dedicated to "Planting For Wildlife", I think you'll enjoy the information 

• I refuse to use any harmful chemicals or pesticides in my garden. 
• I've built "nooks" and planted in such a way that the resulting shelters harbor insects, worms etc and therefore encourages in the hedgehogs and toads etc
• My planting always consists of bee and butterfly friendly plants.
• I have insect "hotels"
• There's a large bird feeding "station" ... It's nowhere near a bird "table"

I have so much to list, check back regularly because I will have to update this post