Probably the two biggest trends in the country currently are sustainability and wellbeing. Let’s take a look at how gardening is playing its part in these areas.
Sustainability
The Royal Horticultural Society has been very active in this area in demonstrating how our choice of plants can reduce the amount of energy used in plant production. For example, we use more perennials with a life of several years compared with say ‘half hardy’ annuals which are produced early in the year by growing in heated glasshouses, thus using more heating oil. Increasingly, the use of some of our favourite annuals such as begonias, geraniums and petunias are becoming confined to patio containers.
Another example of sustainability is ‘planting for pollinators’, where we plan our garden plantings to encourage the numbers of beneficial insects such as bees and butterflies which are essential to propagate many of our food crops both in the garden and farmer’s fields.
It is important then that we choose various plants to flower for as long as possible when these insects are active. The plants produce pollen and nectar, essential for insects’ nutrition.
Wellbeing
This is a word that came into prominence at the peak of the Covid pandemic when many of us were confined to our homes and those of us lucky to have a garden, whether working or just relaxing on the patio felt the benefit to our mental health.
Many people also got bitten by the gardening bug, gaining a new hobby and as things have turned out, it has helped with the cost of living by growing vegetables and fruit for home consumption.
See you next month!
