Birkheads Achieves a Green Business Gold Award

This is a new page to our website but not a new idea to us as the garden has been created over the last 25 years from land that was farmland then had coal extracted by open cast mining methods. We started with our aim being to operate in an environmentally friendly way without visitors being aware that we were doing so. Now we are hoping to encourage others to do the same, so if you’re not already trying to save the planet for future generations have a go, it can be quite a challenge and every little helps.

Most of the gardens have been created using recycled materials, paving, slates, wood etc. Garden features and sculptures are made from mainly recycled metal and driftwood, others have had a past life in some other place. Our car parking area was made with a gravel surface so that water drains through it back into the earth. Any paved areas have been created by laying on recycled hardcore with a dry concrete mix, this allows water back into the earth.

Compostable Waste

• Kitchen waste is put in a Wormery and Coffee grounds are a great slug deterrent.The liquid from the wormery is use to feed potted herb plants.
  Spent compost is used in every planting hole, added to the borders, used for container planting or used for mulching.
• We are reducing the amount of peat in compost gradually until we get it right, the total change to coir was a disaster a few of years ago.
• We’ve completed a Well-being Garden with Veg & Herbs for health, it has raised beds made from recycled wood & filled with the contents of our compost bins. Result -lots of organic veg. We're adding a fruit bed this winter as we have so much compost available.
• We have plenty of willow wands available for weaving every year in November. Collection only.
• Contact by email October-March please.

Water Saving Tips

• FORGET about hanging baskets or use water retaining granules.
• PLANTING We have been planting bare root trees here since 1990. To avoid having to discard our precious top soil, we dig a deep hole, place plenty of moist humus rich material (old wet shredded woollens, cotton or paper) in the bottom and refill with soil. It stays there indefinitely keeping moisture at the plants roots where its needed. All were planted during winter months, watered once and have grown well. (Only 1 casualty out of approx 180 trees.)
• GRASS don’t feed it, you’ll just have to cut and water it more often. Let lawns grow longer during dry spells and they will recover within 6 or 7 days of the first shower of rain.
• MULCH borders with grass cuttings, leave a space around plant stems to avoid burning.
  Since 1993 we have used landscape fabric covered with gravel or other mulch to retain moisture. This has proved very successful and we only need to water once when new plants are planted as long as we prepare as above for trees.
• WATERING regularly makes the roots come to the surface looking for even more water, if you don’t water roots grow towards the moist soil deep down. This also applies to grass. We have only watered once in ten years.
  
  We have a low use irrigation system in the nursery which means that we only water occasionally for a few minutes late at night, the water goes directly into the pots with little or no waste as any surplus works its way back into the garden below then back into the earth with no evaporation.

Eco Tourism - Recycle, Reduce, Reuse

• Re using customers carrier bags has proved very successful, we’re into our tenth year of doing this and have only bought 2 lots of new carriers in this time.
  We recycle aluminium cans & plastic bottles from the drinks cooler, (to which we have fitted a timer so that it only switches on early morning for two hours a day during the summer.)
• All of our waste is sorted into recyclable /reusable. Cardboard, printer cartridges, plastic
• Toys, clothes, books etc go to charity shops.
• Our Macmillan Coffee morning was a great success with a secondhand garden book stall. Cardboard Boxes are reused for customers to carry away plants, we hope that they will recycle again.
• We re-use anything we possibly can, paper that’s only been used on one side is used as telephone pads and drawing paper for grandchildren then shredded and added to the compost heaps.
• Customers may return black 2 litre pots for re use but only if the plants have originated here as we use a specific type for good working practices. Sorry, other sizes are of no use.

Using Local Products

• Scones etc sold in the coffee shop are mostly bought from local suppliers to save additional travel and support the local economy.
• Our coffee beans & herbal teas are supplied locally by Pumphreys, this year we have added Fair Trade products to the menu.

Green Transport

We can be reached by public transport. Take the x30 & x31 (every 30 minutes from Gateshead/ Newcastle) and alight at the Tanfield Railway, use the Bowes Railway Cycle Path to Birkheads Lane, turn right and we’re about 200 yds on the right. (Approx 15 minutes from bus stop to garden gate) Cyclists welcome, enter along our drive and park bikes in the yard instead of going further on to the car park.

AIMS for 2011

BEELINE, We had a small cast of bees take up residence in an empty hive last summer,how lucky we are! Mick is brushing up on his beekeeping skills again and we already had the equipment. The colony is getting stronger and our visitors are able to see them coming and going at quite close range without being in the flight path.

RECYCLE- EVEN MORE

We have a freecycle area in the nursery with things we no longer need or use for visitors to take away. There is often a pile of logs in the car park for anyone who has a log burner and the transport to take them away. We're planning to have a sort of Green Veg Box system this year where we'll pass on surplus home grown organic vegetables We've added a ladybird box and some more bird boxes this winter. Yet another composting bay has been built. It all goes back into the garden.

WORMERIES

We've bought another wormery for the coffee shop it will stand in the nursery, please feel free to lift the lid and see what is going on in there. We've had a wormery outside our kitchen door now for 6 year and in that time they have digested every scrap of food waste and lots of junk mail. Its like the magic soup stone in reverse, I keep putting waste into it and the level stays the same. The worms digest the food, turn it into liquid and we have an old milk container under the tap which is then used as plant food about every 6 weeks. No need to handle worms or even see them as they go down into the food where its warm & cosy for them. It has a lockable lid so that there is no smell and vermin can't get into it. There is no dashing down to the compost heap in the snow with a smelly box of stuff that no one wants to empty, I just clear into it after every meal. I'm so impressed that we are now selling them from the shop and we held a wormery andd composting course for green holiday accomodation providers last month. See our links page for the article in the Journal Go Green supplement.