In the process of planning for our Environmental Learning Centre, our Environmental Consultant has informed us that the energy required to heat our greenhouse and keep houseplants thriving through the British Winter, is enormous - more than double the amount for our indoor classroom.

While we take many steps to reduce this wherever possible, including through heat retardant screens, and constant monitoring of the temperature; due to the environments of their original homes, these plants still require a constant temperature and humidity level that is unsustainable.

Our environment-first approach extends to all of our work, and energy usage is no exception, even when our decision making might seem unpopular at first.

The UK’s demand for tropical houseplants supports a supply chain operated largely by companies based internationally that have no consideration for the environment. These specimens are often packed in plastic, grown in peat, filled with fertilisers and covered in insecticides. While this combination allows the plants to look strikingly beautiful, they also ‘force’ plants to perform in a manner they never would in nature. Aside from the environmental concerns of this approach, it also encourages consumers to expect a level of flawlessness that they will never be able to maintain - allowing the buyer to become disappointed in a purported ‘failure’ of green fingers, and usually encouraging them to purchase more. All plants lose leaves intermittently, (this is a normal process) and what we’ve found is that the desire for this unsustainable perfection means the houseplant industry is very wasteful.

There is no plant that is truly a ‘houseplant,’ but rather plants that have been re-appropriated. Walworth Garden will now therefore re-double our focus on in-house propagated species, grown in organic and peat-free compost, and reject further support of the unsustainable options purported in mainstream and commercial gardening.

How can you support us in this decision? Simple. Just choose the plants that have ‘WG’ written on them in white pen and you can be sure they are sustainable. You will not only be supporting our charitable work where all surpluses are reinvested into our community, but also the environment at large - the rejection of peat depletion, excess energy usage, artificial fertilisers and pesticides.

Plants that can survive without additional heat over the British Winter can still be found in our geodesic dome.

Any questions? Please get in touch:

oli@walworthgarden.org.uk