Simple ways to make sure that your home’s outdoor and conservatory spaces are environmentally friendly
Greenifying your home is extremely simple and very often involves altering a few habits. It’s easy to change the carbon footprint of your house, simply be engaging with your environment in a different way.
From getting involved in local recycling to insulating your roof, walls, windows and doors, going green also means saving green: you’ll notice a drop in your utility bills, and a higher efficiency in the power of your house. There are plenty of simple tips to keep your home energy efficient without a total restructuring – even buying energy saving lightbulbs has an effect!
But today we’re going to put the focus on the outside of the house. Can your garden, the greenest space of all, benefit from a bit of sprucing up here and there on the energy front?
Here are five top tips for would be greenfingers…
1. Solar-powered lights
Garden lights are a wonderful addition to an outdoor space – really charming and revealing. Solar-powered lamps are excellent for long garden spaces and decking: they warm up during the day gathering the sun’s energy, and then provide a gentle glow at night. They require no wiring or connection to the house, and tend to generate a softer light than non-solar-powered bulbs.
2. Well-glazed, wooden external doors
Your insulation from inside to outside is important, and investing in quality doors is key to making sure you protect the house from draughts. Looking for effective, top-notch wooden external doors from Todd Doors will make a big difference to the look and feel of your garden – as well as helping to seal up unwanted draughts. Always make sure your measurements and hinges are in good shape.
3. Bamboo Decking
Bamboo is one of the world’s greenest wooden building materials, as it has a very quick growth period, with a life cycle of 5-8 years, it’s easily replenished and regrown, making it much more sustainable for decking, which often takes quite a bashing. You can go to specialist bamboo decking providers for the best stuff.
4. Garden waste recycling
Recycling your garden waste is important too: stray leaves, cut branches and plants and all the other extras can be collected together and picked up by your local council for recycling. Don’t forget also to compost your vegetable and fruit left-overs if you’ve got an active garden: this will save lots of time and money on buying compost, and will save you going through the food waste recycling scheme, as you can immediately put all the stuff to good use.
5. Vegetable patch
And finally, what could be more green than a vegetable patch? They often require a lot of tending and may take a bit of time to get going, but if you’re planning to be in your house for a long while, there’s nothing more satisfying than putting your own broadbeans and courgettes on the table. Use your own compost, of course – and light your path to pick veg in the evenings with your solar-powered lamps!
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