Gardening tips 2025: Best eco-friendly gardening tips

Sophie Mei Lan asked the staff at Appletree Community Garden in Wakefield.

Transcript

00:00We're here today at Apple Tree Community Garden. What would you say your best gardening tips are?

00:07Make your own compost. It's really really easy to do. You don't have to have a particularly big

00:12space but you can save a lot of money and you're also then recycling and you can use all the kitchen

00:18you know like vegetable cutting stuff like that as well. That would be one key tip. Second one

00:23would be collect rainwater, get a water bucket and reuse that. So I'm trying to think about all the

00:28things that help not just with the gardening but also help the planet as well. So kind of practical

00:33things and then grow what you enjoy. Experiment with it because not everything takes but try and grow

00:40from seed because it's wonderful to see things grow on the windowsill and just see what can come from

00:44that. Nothing. You can just relax and enjoy or you can get stuck in and get your fork and do a bit of

00:50what I'm doing right now. It's dead hedging. What is dead hedging? Dead hedging is a new thing we've

00:56started that Matt the coordinator discovered and it's basically it's a large bug hotel that we make

01:05and it's made out of dead materials and you can use it as a barrier, as a fence. It's great for the

01:10wildlife. They love to dip into it and live in it. The actual materials that you use will break down

01:17and compost so it's a great way to you know get rid of our bracken and our bits of wood and things that

01:23get in the way you know just piles of it. We've got a structure out in the car park. It acts as a bit

01:28of a barrier too which is nice. Shade if you want a bit of windbreak. What are your best gardening tips?

01:37I think my best gardening tip would be to grow herbs because they're beautiful and they smell great some of

01:46them and you can use them in cooking and they don't need a lot of looking after. So if you can have them

01:52in small spaces you can let them grow big and wild in bigger gardens. I think they're a brilliant addition to any garden.