Design Secrets for a Stylish & Sustainable Garden

Words & pictures: Sarah Morgan from The Garden Creative

We are all so aware of the global climate crisis and what a huge impact climate change is having on our natural world that it is easy to feel helpless and overwhelmed by the amount of changes we all need to make. There is however one great place to start and it is righthere in our own gardens and outside spaces. My design secrets will not only help you to garden more sustainably, but will also support local communities and charities and mean that you can get out and about and support your local businesses.

Buy Locally Grown Plants

There are many local plant sellers at farmers’ markets and car boot sales. Talk to them about the plants and buy ones that are right for your garden and soil. Rather than buying seasonal display plants from large chain stores, buy herbs, bulbs and plants raised from cuttings from local stallholders. The carbon footprint of these plants is tiny in comparison to their shipped cousins. Use local nurseries as opposed to large garden centres. Here native plants are often grown and experienced plants-people can offer valuable advice.

Use Reclaimed Objects

Make a pledge not to buy any new containers for your plants. Re-use plastic trays from the kitchen as seed trays (just remember to make a few holes in the bottom), and search local salvage yards for old clay pots, metal buckets and stone troughs. These will last for years to come and add an authentic feel to the garden. If you want to make more of a statement consider using reclaimed antique wrought iron gates and shutters that you can repurpose as trellis, or turn a large pot into a water feature by adding a pump.

Grow Edible Plants

You can grow these from seed or buy locally-grown plants from school or church fairs and local community gardens or seed swaps. Grow them between other flowering plants or in large containers.

Fresh herbs and salads are easy to grow, in a re-purposed colander or old terracotta pot, all year round on a sunny windowsill or outside from April. Having a fruit tree in your garden will give you a fresh supply of fruit. If you look into how to store the fruit, it can last for many months.

Create a focal point in the garden by planting a beautiful tree which will help filter pollution in the air as well as host thousands of insects, feed birds, bats and provide shelter and shade. If you have space to plant a large tree that will live for many generations then embrace this wonderful opportunity to make a huge difference to the planet. Large trees filter more pollution and neutralise more carbon than many other plants put together.

For smaller gardens try trees that will provide year-round interest for wildlife as well as for you, Rowan, Crabapple and Hawthorn are all great.

Plant Naturally

Create naturalistic planting schemes in your garden by planting many different species of plants, lots of nectar-rich flowers for the whole year, and grasses to fill gaps and provide habitat for insects and mammals.

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Perennials are plants that come back every year, so choose these over annuals that will only last until the cold weather comes. Flowers that are good for pollinators are usually single, rather than double; white, yellow or purple in colour and contain many small flowers full of nectar, Foxgloves, Cow parsley, Verbena, Centranthus, Scabious, Vipers Bugloss among many.

In the Winter heavily scented flowers attract insects when there are not so many about. These usually belong to Shrubs and climbers like Ivy, Winter flowering Jasmine, Sarcococca (Sweet box), Viburnham bonatense ‘Dawn’ and Daphne odora. Plant a few of these for beautiful fragrance and they will provide a great green backdrop for the rest of the year to more colourful perennials and bulbs.

Recycle and Re-use

Build a compost heap to put your garden waste into and make use of your green bin which the council turns into compost. Keep old patio slabs, bricks and stones to make piles for slowworms and lizards, and pile up old woody branches to make a habitat for insects. Re-purpose old ceramics and metal containers, there are lots of ideas online for re-using to help the environment and the wildlife.

Best Bee-friendly Plants

Spring: Daffodils, Bluebells, Crocus, Primroses.
Summer: Daisies, Lavender, Comfrey, Dahlia,
Bergamot, Sunflowers, Thyme.
Autumn: Verbena bonariensis, Japanese
anemones, Salvias, Asters, Sedum.
Winter: Hellebores, Snowdrops, Winter
aconites, Winter heathers, Mahonia