Carbon Policy
So this is tangled and complex.
C0² emissions affect everything we do, and the moment cement arrives in a project, remember it’s 100kg CO² emitted for every 100kg cement
Then consider the sandstone and ceramic paving slabs imported from India and China. I can't imagine how much gas is emitted in that chain, let alone the abuses of labour rights underpinning their production.
I don't claim to be a hero in this. I'm always using all of the above, and clients can't always either afford the alternatives, or have enough interest in gardening to want a truly green space.
I built the nearest thing I could to it a few year back, with a huge shallow pond dominated by newts and dragonflies. No chemicals allowed. Lovely place. Here's some pics.
Even the timber used for the railings was Douglas Fir, bought cheap and machined on site.
The greenest gardens I've seen are those organic allotments, especially where Turkish families grow beautiful vines and artichokes, the patio is chipped wood, and the furniture is made of pallets.
That's the trouble: heavily engineered gardens ask for lots of intervention that not only costs time and money, but can charge a high environmental price.
So I'll pin my flags up now...
I'd rather put a scheme together where you can have a dream garden but spiders, hoverflies, ants, dragonflies, frogs, slugs, snails, moths, wasps, bees, Robins, Wrens, Blackbirds, Thrushes, Magpies, Squirrels, Foxes and maybe a badger and the ocassional Red Kite are going to swing by and do the things that they do. That means thinking differently about what a garden is for. For me it's an oasis of life, where life thrives in an increasingly hostile environment.
Now it turns out that our water companies are spreading sludge on farmland with extra PFAS and toxic bonus chemicals in the mix. Why on earth are people ranting about immigrants when our own corporations are poisoning our countryside...oh..of course. Best everyone rants about immigrants to take the spotlight off corporate greed and national abuse.
Be the change...
let me build something that harmonises as much as possible, no straight lines, minimum hard landscaping, good use of bad stuff, creative, thoughtful, responsive and make space for ponds. They're amaszing.
