The Burpee Europe team just love to have a garden that is teeming with wildlife from earthworms, slow worms and soil loving microbes, to hedgehogs, birds and pollinating bees and butterflies. All of these creatures should be made to feel welcome! But how do you gain a biodiverse and eco friendly garden whilst also still growing a great crop of veg and fruit too?
We know that natural biodiversity can help with the problem of climate change, and we certainly should all know by now how important looking after bees and other pollinators is for the planet and, indeed, our survival. However this does not necessarily mean that you can’t grow veg and fruit too.
Some of the most basic tips are easily overlooked when it comes to making small changes in order to create a more sustainable garden. Setting out water butts or buckets to catch rainfall with which to water your plants and planting at least one tree, to store carbon dioxide, are two of the more obvious ways.
But should you be using a greenhouse to grow all your lovely edibles? Well, when you consider that eating foods you have grown yourself helps to reduce carbon emissions and also pesticide use, there are definitely more pros to cons. When you also take on board the fact that many more ‘exotics’ can be grown in a greenhouse, especially with new breeding techniques, and that it can be used for fruits and vegetables, split into warmer and colder seasonal crops, then a glasshouse has to be our friend.
To make your greenhouse more eco-friendly, you should:
- Try to not use plastic at all, but if you do have old pots and planters, reuse them over and over again.
- Collect and use rainwater for watering your plants
- If you need extra energy in your greenhouse, use solar panels
- If you need to heat a greenhouse in the winter try making a Hotbed from composted materials.
- Try to grow varieties which are happy in a cold greenhouse such as Aubergine ‘Violet Knight’, Okra ‘Bhut Bhindi’
And to bring lovely creepy crawlies and any other wildlife into your garden?
- Grow blight resistant tomato varieties which can be grown outdoors such as Tomato ‘Cocktail Crush’, Tomato ‘Crimson Crush’, Tomato ‘Rose Crush’
- Grow flowers that pollinators love such as Sunflower ‘Tiger Eye’, Verbascum ‘Snowy Spires’, Echinacea ‘Sun Dress’
- Veggies such as cucumbers, squash, courgettes, tomatoes and peppers are all loved by bees and butterflies too. As too are many herbs.
- Build a simple bug hotel from recycled bamboo sticks tied together, this is fun for the whole family to do too!