The Trust is committed to understanding and taking action to reduce the impact of our activities on the environment - our footprint. We need to manage energy and water use and waste generation.
There is a lot for us to do as we manage over 200 gardens.
But it doesn’t stop there. We also look after forests, woods, fens, beaches, farmland, downs, moorland, islands, archaeological remains, castles, nature reserves, villages - for ever, for everyone.
Water
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The National Trust owns nearly 200 gardens, and we’re taking water use seriously in all of these. |
We’re looking different ways of reducing the amount of water we use.
Rainwater harvesting is a great way of conserving this precious resource as it collects water that would otherwise have drained into the ground or been lost to the air through evaporation. We can harvest huge volumes of rainwater from our roofs for use in gardens, as we have done at Clumber vineries.
We’re also experimenting with drought-resistant varieties of plants, and watering at different times of the day to reduce the amount of water that is lost to the air.
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Waste
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The majority of garden properties compost all their green waste from the gardens, and reuse the compost as a soil condition within the gardens. |
Some of our properties are now trialling composting catering waste – but we have to be very careful as the regulations are quite stringent. There are a growing number of properties using tumblers and wormeries to deal with the catering waste – and we are trying to find solutions that are both cost effective and easy to use.
Learn more about hot composting at Nymans
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Food
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The National Trust has over 100 walled kitchen gardens, all brimming with crisp vegetables and luscious fruit. |
Once the aristocrat's larder and status symbol, the kitchen garden now provides us with a pleasurable place to visit and learn about food.
Many of our kitchen gardens are used by school children, community groups and other volunteers to plant, grow and harvest vegetables, fruit and herbs. The produce is often used by the chefs in our restaurants and cafes, and sold in our shops.
We also work with the Heritage Seed Programme to maintain a library of seeds to keep alive heritage varieties - fruit and vegetables grown by our ancestors which are now difficult to find.
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