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'Green' Gardens Top of the Plots - Survey
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| High levels of interest in “green” gardening are revealed in a survey on the eve of one of the world’s most famous flower shows.
More than half of those interviewed (53%) were keen to find out more about attracting wildlife to their garden, the study carried out for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds shows.
Over three-quarters (78%) of the interviewees already encourage birds and wildlife into their gardens by using bird feeders, planting wildlife-friendly flowers and shrubs and providing a bird bath.
Nearly half (47%) compost organic waste, over a third (35%) re-use household products in the garden, over a quarter (28%) use peat free composts and over a third (35%) collect rain water for flowering plants.
The RSPB Real Rubbish Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show (May 24-28) aims to be one of the greenest gardens ever built at the show and shows how a garden can be designed to attract birds and wildlife whilst still being stylish and chic.
Bryan Bland of the RSPB said: “We’ve always known that wildlife gardening was popular, but this survey proves that more and more people want to make room for wildlife.
“We get thousands of calls each year from gardeners wanting to do the right thing and we provide lots of information about how to make gardens better for birds and wildlife.
“We believe our garden at Chelsea sets a new standard for wildlife gardening, it is full of great ideas that can be easily adopted by gardeners everywhere.”
Produced by award-winning designer Claire Whitehouse, the Real Rubbish Garden will also incorporate a long list of features aimed at encouraging gardeners to “go green” and to use rubbish as a resource.
Other elements of the garden will include using peat free growing media, conserving energy and saving water.
Bryan Bland added: “Our garden will showcase some great ideas of just what can be done with everyday things we often throw away.
“It’s amazing what can be reused or recycled, and how reclaimed materials can be incorporated to produce a stylish modern garden.
“Once the show is over as much of the garden as possible is going to be reused somewhere. Even the soil used in our garden has been dug up from the other show gardens on site.”
The survey was carried out among 1,710 adults between May 6 and 13.
By Amanda Brown, PA Environment Correspondent |
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