Sustainability

Sustainability in the garden covers  a whole range of subjects, in a nutshell it means using all materials thoughtfully and re-using things where possible.
When planting it’s just as easy to use something that benefits birds, butterflies  bees and other insects and therefore your garden in the long term.
 
These are some of the aspects that we like to integrate into our designs.

COMPOST BINS:
we always try and find space for at least one of these when we’re designing gardens. They can be tucked away out of sight or we’ll use one that looks nice.
You can use up lots of garden and kitchen waste and turn it into lovely compost to improve the soil in your garden. So less waste in your dustbin and less expensive soil improver to buy and lug home.

RECLAIMED MATERIALS:
You’ll have a much more unique and interesting garden by using reclaimed materials.
We’ve saved scaffold boards  from land-fill and used them as chunky decking. 
A lovely textured gate-post that had been abandoned at the back of the garden
is used as an exclamation mark in the corner of the decking.
The covered timber bench is made with decking  from one of our R.H.S. Show gardens.

ATTRACTING BENEFICIAL WILDLIFE:
Encouraging birds and insects into your garden will help to establish a natural balanced system. You’ll have fewer pests such as snails and greenfly, and a garden with bird song creates a lovely atmosphere.
You just need to supply them with food which is easily done with appropriate planting, a source of water is also important.
The hibernating insect house is made from a framework of pallets and filled with bricks, tiles plants stems etc. Make sure it’s sturdy won’t topple over.

PAVING FRONT GARDENS:
Paving front gardens has been a contributing factor to flooding in recent times.
Replacing grass and planting beds with hard paved surfaces means rainwater can’t soak into the ground as it used to.
The legislation introduced 1.10.08 means that we now have to make sure that rainwater is redirected to the natural water-table when paving front gardens, so water shouldn’t be able to flow out of your garden.