Green Gardening for a Healthy Devon
What's Wrong with Petrol Machinery?
Did you know that an average petrol powered lawn mower emits approximately the same amount of Carbon Dioxide per hour as a 100 mile car journey? Small engines used on garden machinery emit a disproportionate amount of Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Volotile Organic Compounds and Nitrogen Oxides, all contributing to atmospheric pollution.
2-Stroke engines that are found on almost all headge-trimmers and other handheld machinery burn a mixture of oil and petrol. Although modern advances in engine technology and the introduction of 4-stroke engines (that do not burn oil) on some machinery and that are found on mowers, have significantly reduced the environmental impact of small engines, pollution is still disparitively high.
Petrol machinery does however have one major advantage. It makes the job of a gardener much quicker and easier. Although they cost more to maintain than manual equipment, the increased rates that this leads to still works out cheaper than the additional hours of labour required to do the same job. How Can we Make Garden Maintenance Greener? Quite simply by not using Petrol Powered Machinery. By going back to methods used in pre-petrol machinery times, using push mowers and headge shears. What is Urban Jungle Gardens' Eco-Gardening Service? Urban Jungle Gardens' Eco-Gardening Service is quite simply gardening without the petrol and oil! We use push mowers and shears to do the work meaning that our carbon emissions for gardening work under this service are zero. Don't forget that we also compost all the waste we take away meaning that your garden waste isn't unecessarily clogging up landfill sites but rather is improving soil on farms, in parks and in gardens. What About the Van? Our van runs on diesel. Not the most environmentally sound product we know. At the last MoT Test, our van's emissions were well within the target levels set by the government.
However, for a carbon neutral gardening service, we don't think that that is good enough. That's why we include carbon offsetting in our hourly rates and waste disposal charges. How Much Does it Cost? Our Eco-Gardening Service costs exactly the same as our normal gardening service but includes our Carbon Offsetting Programme. The exception to this is waste disposal which will cost £1 extra per bag to offset carbon from transporting waste. Carbon Offsetting Programme For every 8 man hours we work in your garden, we will organise the planting of a native tree at a woodland near Sidmouth, Devon. This tree in its lifetime will offset approximately 1 tonne of Carbon Dioxide - far more than the amount produced to visit your garden for 8 hours work. In addition, for every 8 bags of waste we take away from your garden, we will organise the planting of a native tree at the same site. Again, this tree will offset far more carbon than is released into the atmosphere through transporting your garden waste. You will receive a certificate for every tree planted in your name. If this sounds like your style of gardening, then contact us to find out more and arrange a visit.