How green is your garden compost?

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Diarmuid Gavin gives his top tips on preparing your sustainable garden for summer

After one of the longest and coldest winters most of us can remember, the first shoots of spring are slowly starting to emerge. And while it is still too early for the nation’s gardeners to start preparing the beds and borders in their gardens, there is plenty to be done indoors, particularly when it comes to seeding.

However despite many of us pledging to get back out and into our gardens this year, barely a third of gardeners are aware of the serious environmental issues surrounding the use of peat.[1]

Nowadays, with environmental concerns high on everyone’s agenda, choosing your compost is as important as the seeds you select.

Every year, 3 million cubic metres of peat is used in the UK for horticultural use and sales of multi-purpose compost. But the extraction of peat releases Significant amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, as well as damaging lowland raised peat bogs, which are home to many rare animals and plants. Just under half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide is emitted in the atmosphere each year as a result of peat extraction from UK sites alone; that’s comparable to the total emissions of over 100,000 homes. [2]

Fortunately there are environmentally friendly compost solutions available , and in the following video, gardening guru Diarmuid Gavin shows you how to make your garden green in every possible sense – using peat-free compost to reduce your carbon footprint and preserve our valuable peatland habitats and wildlife.

For more information visit www.direct.gov.uk/buyingcompost ( live from 8th March)

Copy this link into your browser to watch Diarmuid’s video: http://www.linkto.tv/iframe/show/uuid/dirO6G44RTM

[1] One Poll Survey, over the period 27028 Jan 2009, 2000 respondents

[2] The UK’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory records emissions of 420,000 tonnes a year for peat extraction from UK sites. However, 57% of the peat that we use in the UK is imported, mainly from the Republic of Ireland and the Baltics.

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Ornamental Grasses thrive in open positions in full sun in the herbaceous border, as a specimen plant or in containers.

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Climbers are shrubs which are adapted to growing up vertical structures, they add a vertical element to a garden and can be trained against a wall, fence or trellis, over arches and pergolas, through trees or used as ground cover.

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Biennials are herbaceous plants that complete their life-cycle in two years. Growing in the first year and flowering in the next. Some plants grown as biennials are actually short-lived perennials, they tend to be dug up after flowering because they do not perform well in their second year.

Bedding Plants are usually used to fill gaps in the borders for a temporary affect. Once flowering is complete they can be disposed of on the compost heap. They mainly consist of Half Hardy Annuals.

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Half Hardy Perennials are similar to hardy perennials in that they will also die down in autumn and grow again the following spring, however, they cannot withstand frost so they require to be protected over the winter or taken into a greenhouse.

Hardy Perennials die down each autumn and grow again the following spring so they can stay in the ground all year and only require to be split every three to five years.

Like Hardy Annuals these plants live for just one season and will die after flowering and setting seed. However, they cannot stand the cold so should be planted out after all risk of frost has passed.

Hardy Annuals are herbaceous plants that live for just one year; they will die after flowering and setting seed and should then be composted.