Feature Sustainability

The increasing importance of sustainable gardens

As awareness of the ways in which we can all reduce our environmental impact grows, so too does the realisation that everyone can truly make a difference. The combined actions of the estimated 30 million gardeners in the UK today could create change to combat some of our most pressing issues, including climate change, diminishing biodiversity, and social challenges.

Landscape News editor Olivia McCullough has been speaking to Association members to find out how they are working to make a positive difference and to explore the perceived shift in customer demand for more sustainable gardens.

Changing relationships with outdoor spaces

There is little doubt that the COVID pandemic triggered a reassessment by the public of its relationship with outdoor spaces. According to a recent ONS survey, the pandemic forced people to interact with familiar surroundings in new ways: ‘While bedrooms have become offices, gardens – and the areas within walking distance of home – have become wildlife-watching spots and gyms. Nature has been a source of solace for many as lockdown rules have heightened our appreciation for local parks and green spaces.’

COP26 and recent flooding events have served to increase awareness of climate change and its impact on society and so we all have to make sustainability a key priority. But is this awareness reflected in a tangible shift in customer demand for gardens that have a lower environmental impact?

James Scott, MD and Principal Designer of Hertfordshire-based contractor The Garden Company, says it’s too early to call: “Enquiries we have received over the last year or so have followed one of two paths. Some clients long for a beautiful haven where they can immerse themselves in nature, relax with friends and family, and, often, share the space with wildlife. And these clients will often show an awareness, interest and desire for sustainability to be a key part of the design and build process.

“In contrast, other clients decide to extend the look and feel of their stylish homes into a ‘boutique hotel’ experience in their garden. This is where it falls to the designer and contractor to work with the client to consider making choices that are more sustainable as well as being functional and aesthetically-pleasing.”

A firm advocate of what he calls the ‘sustainable garden aesthetic’ is Ben West, Director of London-based Landscaping Solutions: “In December

Image c/o ACO credit Tom Cronin

2020 we learned that ‘The Urban Retreat’, a garden designed by Jilayne Rikards MBALI and built by us, had picked up four National Landscape Awards. The most satisfying of these for me was the award for Best Use of Recycled and Reclaimed Materials. The recognition this garden received subsequently from the Association and the wider public offers hope for the sustainable aesthetic - gardens that weather well in the British climate, blend in with their surroundings, accommodate and encourage interaction with wildlife and that their creation doesn’t damage the environment.”

What part can you play in shaping a sustainable future?

As part of its Planet-friendly Gardening campaign, the RHS has highlighted four key ways to make a difference in the garden, reducing our carbon footprint and encouraging biodiversity: • Look after the soil • Manage water • Plant for the environment • Prevent pollution

The landscape industry – designers and landscape architects, contractors and product and service suppliers – have an important part to play in the drive for sustainable gardens. Designers and landscape contractors are key influencers who have that all-important first contact with the client, encouraging them to have a good balance between hard and soft landscaping, taking advantage of local resources, encouraging biodiversity with pollinator planting, wildflower meadows, ponds, and replacing fencing with green boundaries.

Selling the concept of an environmentally sustainable garden to a client requires conviction and knowledge of the art of the possible; as James Scott explained: “A garden can become a piece of performing art when it attracts birds, bees and butterflies.”

And that’s where product and service suppliers come in. Tapping in to their knowledge, expertise and on-going research and development is essential and the resources available in person through their representatives and sales teams, and online via websites, instructional videos and downloads, are designed to inform and educate garden designers and contractors, giving them the tools to communicate sustainable choices to their clients.

The importance of topsoil selection

Andy Spetch, National Manager of British Sugar TOPSOIL, and Soil Scientist Tim O’Hare have been informing and educating the industry on topsoil selection, storage and handling for many years. Familiar faces on panels at industry events, they have worked together to develop TOPSOIL’s range of sustainable products: “All TOPSOIL products are derived from the fenland soils brought in on the beets to British Sugar factories in East Anglia” Andy explained. “I knew we had a valuable resource that would otherwise be wasted once it had been washed from the beet so I approached Tim O’Hare to design a quality topsoil using this material.” That was some 25 years ago and, over the years, TOPSOIL’s range of sustainable soils and topdressings has grown to meet an increasingly buoyant market for sustainable products.

Key to TOPSOIL’s reputational success is that they make all their technical documents, independent trials reports, current testing and analysis data, soil health and fertility microbiology, and carbon audit monitoring data freely available to download from their website. This gives specifiers and contractors all the evidence they need to reassure their clients that the topsoil they want to use is right for the job and fully sustainable. Additionally, TOPSOIL has designed a garden care guide for homeowners, which designers and contractors can download from the TOPSOIL Academy tab on the website and give to their clients once a garden scheme is complete.

GravelGuard: Sustainable products are increasingly important to clients

Requests for assistance with designing sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are increasing

Water management filtering through to customers

Water management, biodiversity and ecology conservation are dominant topics with designers and landscapers and this appears to be filtering through to homeowners and developers. Oliver Collins, Product Marketing Manager, Home & Garden, at ACO Water Management has seen a marked increase in requests for assistance with designing sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) that can collect rainwater for use as an asset rather than being treated as an issue and ACO is encouraging landscape designers and architects to ensure sustainable solutions are the top priority when delivering future projects: “We have launched a new guide for sustainable design, which offers guidance on legislative updates and outlines the opportunities to integrate SuDS into new garden projects.”

He continued: “Interestingly, we’ve also seen an increase in enquiries around our sustainable credentials as a business. In turn, this is driving how we source our raw materials and how we manufacture our products. For example, we’ve recently launched the GravelGuard Grey Eco option to our range, which helps stabilise gravel and is made from 100% recycled polypropylene.

“Beyond domestic solutions we’ve also seen an increased interest in our sustainable drainage solutions and wildlife range for commercial and public applications, as the discussion around climate change and biodiversity net gain (BNG) ramps up.”

Planting to reflect the changing climate

Creating planting schemes that actively seek to encourage biodiversity are the domain of the garden designer and contractor. But delivering a diverse palette of tree, shrub and plant species that are environmentally beneficial, aesthetically pleasing, and pest and disease resistant, is the work of our growers and nurseries. Liz Hughes, Marketing Manager of Kent-based wholesale nursery Provender Nurseries, has definitely noticed an increased demand for plants that both help the environment and reflect our changing climatic conditions: “Unsurprisingly there is more of a demand for bee- and wildlifefriendly plants and wildflower mixes, and for plants that will withstand the increasingly frequent extreme climate events we are experiencing, such as extreme summer temperatures and winter storms and flooding. Since the pandemic we’ve also seen an increase in demand for plants for community gardens.”

Provender take their environmental responsibilities very seriously, introducing their company’s Prevent, Reuse and Recycle policy, growing most of their own stock in peat-free compost and launching their own peat-free multi-purpose compost, Rosedale.

Customers do occasionally question the carbon footprint of larger specimen trees: “Large trees and specimen stock come from all over Europe. To grow sustainably in the UK the original material would come from Europe anyway and grow here at a much slower rate, which results in a much more expensive product. There may be the interest in buying sustainably but, if a designer’s client demands a big tree, environmental principles tend to go out of the window when it comes down to the price.” And Liz is not the only one questioning the sense of specifying large tree stock.

Mike Glover, Managing Director of Barcham Trees, has strong views on the subject: “There are serious environmental consequences to specifiers demanding supersized trees. As they can only be transported by lorry from Europe in low numbers, their role as an important environmental asset is hugely compromised. Hopefully specifiers will start to understand the environmental consequences of their choices and the practice will diminish.”

Designed by James Scott MBALI and built by The Garden Company

Planting schemes encouraging biodiversity are on the rise. Image c/o James Scott, The Garden Company

Barcham Trees are phasing out production of larger trees at their Ely nursery. Research commissioned by Barchams and carried out by Treeconomics in Exeter looked hard at data gathered by internationally recognised measuring systems such as i-Tree to create a carbon rating system that calculates tree species’ benefits to society through its carbon capture potential and cumulative storage capacity throughout its anticipated lifespan. All Barcham Trees stock is scored and ranked so that customers can select the best environmental option to suit the space.

On average, Barcham have grown their trees for about seven years before they are available for sale. The environmental cost of production in terms of carbon used for transport, tractor fuel, water abstraction etc. is taken into account and break even in terms of carbon storage is achieved by the time the trees reach about two years old. By the time they are sold they are already making a positive environmental contribution.

The use of Glyphosate – a contentious issue

Preventing pollution, by avoiding the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides, reducing waste, removing plastic, and using alternatives to fossil fuels, is a challenge faced by our industry and its clients. Effective weed control without the use of glyphosate is yet to be achieved. As the debate on its environmental impact continues its licence for use in the UK has been extended until 2025, whilst trials of alternative technologies are throwing up some interesting comparisons.

It would appear that alternative means of weed control, taking into account their environmental impact in terms of energy, water use and relative efficiency, are not as attractive as at first appeared. Round-up, distributed in the UK by ICL, is currently in short supply as global demand for the product increases and the manufacturer, Bayer, struggles to secure the raw materials. Accredited Contractors working in the grounds maintenance sector are monitoring the situation carefully and amending their spraying schedules to preserve stocks until regular supply returns. Some are also using mechanical means, with battery packs, to limit environmental impact. Use of glyphosate will undoubtedly continue to be contentious but, at present, no perfect alternative environmental solution to weed control in a commercial marketplace has yet to be developed.

The significant climate emergency and biodiversity crisis that is facing all of us gives the landscape industry an opportunity to create positive consequences through its garden designs, material choices and planting schemes. As James Scott at The Garden Company put it very succinctly: “Gardens and grounds that are designed, built and nurtured with sustainability at the forefront of our minds can, and should, be a big part of the solution to the environmental challenges facing us now, and in the future.”

With thanks to the following Association members for their contributions to this article:

James Scott MBALI MSGD, MD & Principal Designer, The Garden Company

thegardenco.co.uk

Ben West, Director, Landscaping Solutions

landscapingsolutionsltd.co.uk

Andy Spetch, National TOPSOIL Manager, British Sugar TOPSOIL

bstopsoil.co.uk

Tim O’Hare, Principal Consultant, Tim O’Hare Associates

toha.co.uk

Oliver Collins, Product Marketing Manager, Home & Garden, at ACO Water Management

aco.co.uk

Liz Hughes, Marketing Manager, Provender Nurseries

provendernurseries.co.uk

Mike Glover, Managing Director, Barcham Trees

barcham.co.uk

Barry Browne, ICL

icl-sf.com