All the best for the New Year.
Let’s get 2022 off to a great start.
The amount that we can capture as individuals will be very small. However, the UK has approximately 10,000,000 acres of private gardens. Our little gardens add up as a huge storage facility. Below are ten easy ways to save money on storage.
1. Love Your Soil
The main carbon storage for a garden is its soil. It holds more carbon if it is healthier. Do not dig deep. This releases carbon dioxide. Deep cultivation is not recommended. Instead, you can keep the soil healthy through regular composting and shallow cultivation.
2. GREENER LAWNS
Rough grass and lawns can increase soil carbon. Don’t mowing grass that isn’t cut. So that earthworms may return their borrowed carbon, let it lie. You can compost grass if you have to.
Ideal: Instead of paved areas, grass and plants trap carbon to provide wildlife food.
3. FRIENDLY FERTILIZER
Leaching into subsoil can lead to the waste of mineral fertilisers like ammonium Nitrate.
Your soil should have enough nutrients from your compost made at home. For extra nutrients, you can use by-products like bonemeal or pelleted poultry manure.
4. Go PEAT-FREE
It is more difficult to work with peat-free compost potting soil. Peat bogs can be important carbon sources and are essential for protecting wildlife habitats. Amateur gardeners will soon be prohibited from using peat composts after 2024.
5. HOTHOUSE BEDDING
Not carbon friendly to put tender bedding in May.
Artificial heat is used to raise the plants. Reduce the amount of annual tenders while increasing hardy options like sweet Williams, pansies, and foxgloves. These, such as spring wallflowers or forget-me-nots are very carbon-friendly.
6. PLANT A TREE
Major carbon stores are trees. Who has the space to plant a single tree? The best way to store carbon for small spaces is with perennials, shrubs or dwarf trees. The same goes for annuals and other temporary plants. You can plant trees in any space you have, as long as your garden isn’t crowded.
7. MAKE A COMPOST
A mix of carbon compounds makes garden compost. The earthworms will pull soil into compost when it is recycled. The compost is then converted to humus by microbes, which releases mineral nutrients. Compost is a natural product that nature can’t help but produce.
In a garden, untidiness is not an evil. It is not a vice to keep your garden tidy, trim, weed, tidy, and cut the edges. This releases carbon.
8. REDUCE PAVING
Gardens require pathways, seating, and hard standing to accommodate vehicles. However, many gardens are larger than needed and have much more decked or paved areas. The hard surface doesn’t store or trap carbon. It is possible to trap and store carbon on grass or under plant covers.
9. DO NOT BE PERNICKETY
In a garden, untidiness is not a virtue. The constant clipping, weeding and tidying of a garden releases carbon. Relax, be a good friend to the honeybees, butterflies, and have an amazing, carbon-trapping year 2022.
10. PROTECT WILDLIFE
British nature is in deep crisis. Animal losses can be caused by agriculture, urban development and carelessness as well as climate change. But, most importantly, it is because there’s not enough knowledge, concern, or understanding. The good news is that carbon-friendly gardens have a lot of nature, both below and above ground.