27 February 2025
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The RHS experts offer easy ways to help the planet and yourself in the process
1.Plant a tree
tree are brilliant at drawing down carbon from the atmosphere .
If all 30 million UK gardeners institute a medium - sized tree in their community , school , work or garden and nurtured it to maturity , they would lay in enough C equivalent to drive you more than 11 million times around our major planet .
2 . piddle the way nature intended
throw from main to rain in your garden to save carbon . apply a body of water butt containing water that go down onto your roof instead of turning on a wiretap from the main supplying , or use a watering can instead of a hosepipe . So far 6.6 million litres of water have been wassail to save on the RHS mains2rains website , equivalent to take 82,385 bathing tub – saving enough carbon equivalent to saddle 1.3 million smartphones .
3 . Go peat - free
RHS-Andrew Halstead
Peatlands are the world ’s largest carbon store on land . They provide valuable ecosystem for flora and animals and act like sponge , reducing the peril of implosion therapy . When we take peat for our gardens , carbon copy is released and home ground are damage . observe peat in peat bog – not bag – is a crucial part of the fight against climate variety . Our planet ’s one million million of Acre of peat hold more carbon than all the world ’s forests combined .
4 . Make your own compost
Carbon saving measure linked to home composting ( as opposed to buy bagged retail compost ) are tantamount to 1.85 mile ( get by average car ) saved per kg of plate compost made .
Every 1 kg of homemade compost typically saves over 0.1 kilogram fossil CO2 emission , which could save more than 5.1 kg carbon , per nurseryman , every year .
5 . Pull up a pave slab
Garden grime and perennial planting run an of import role in storing carbon . If 30 million gardener pulled up a paver and planted 1 m² of recurrent plants ( either herbaceous , shrubs or tree ) in their community , school , work or garden and set aside it to develop to maturity date , depending on the plants grown this would be equivalent to heat between 86,000 to more than one million homes for a year !
6 . plant for pollinators
Pollinators need our help . release of home ground is one of the primary reasons why we see fewer bee , butterfly and other insects visiting our garden . aid retard and reverse the decay in bee , butterflies , moths , hoverflies and other pollinators by growing a wide variety of plant life including a intermixture of native , near - native and alien plant to support pollinator diversity .
7 . acquire your own bunch of flowers
Some imported flowers have up to 10 x the carbon footprint of home or UK - grown posy . grow or buying UK - grown track bloom can save up to 7.9 kg atomic number 6 per bunch compare with buying some imported bunches .
8 . Electrify your garden
An average gasolene king prick emits 0.848 kg carbon per litre of petrol used . It ’s not only carbon copy , they utter harmful particulate and interference pollution too . If the 21 % of UK gardeners who apply power creature switched from fossil fuel to green energy electric - power tools , it would save enough carbon equivalent to drive around the planet 29,820 time .
RHS-Andrew Halstead
9 . serve map UK plant biodiversity
Consider add your garden plants to RHS My Garden online , helping to conserve and grow this important biodiversity now and for future generations . So far we have 122,000 drug user who have impart 2.4 million plants consisting of 77,600 different character of cultivated plants .
10 . eat up more domicile - grown , UK , local and seasonal fruit and veggie .
Buying locally source and home - grown green goods can save up significant amounts of glasshouse gas emission . Eat more plate - grown UK , local and seasonal yield and veggie from local source or from your own garden or parcelling . Growing at home allows you to choose not to use pesticide another plus for the major planet .
