Reading Time: 4 minutes 7 Sustainable Gardening Tips In Time For Spring And Summer
When you plant and nurture your garden in a more eco-friendly and greener way, you’ll use fewer chemicals, have less waste, and you might even have fewer costs. It can add up to a win for the planet too. Creating a sustainable garden isn’t new, but it’s catching on with veteran and beginner gardeners. The idea behind this phenomenon is to minimize your impact on the earth.
If you follow sustainable gardening practices, you’ll preserve the natural resources, avoid polluting the air or earth with chemicals, and reduce your waste whenever you can.
You don’t have to make massive changes at first if you want to start sustainable gardening. You could start by doing something as simple as utilizing natural methods to kill weeds over chemical herbicides. The following sustainable gardening tips will help you do your part to get a healthier, greener, and happier planet.
Mulch the Area
Not only will mulching naturally prevent weeds from growing in the garden area, but it also helps the soil retain moisture. This is critical in areas with water restrictions. Add a two or three-inch layer of whichever mulch you choose on your garden bed and around trees or other landscaped areas.
Cocoa bean hulls, shredded bark, grass clippings, pine needles, and coir are sustainable gardening mulch materials.
Grow Native Plants
Learning how to grow this garden type includes knowing which plants you should feature. Sustainable plants are native to your location, and they’re also called indigenous.
These plants usually don’t need as much water, require less work to thrive, and do better than other perennial types because they are used to the rainfall, soil, and climate. These plants also provide shelter and food to native bird and insect populations.
Use Sustainable or Eco-Friendly Supplies
You don’t have to run out and purchase single-use gardening supplies. Instead, you should get sustainable alternatives like recycled paper towels and reusable spray bottles. Paper towels will break down if you add them to compost to help enrich it further.
The spray bottles are nice to refill with your homemade pesticides or fertilizers to apply to your plants. Essential oils make good pesticides without harming the plants, and they don’t pollute the environment as traditional pesticides or herbicides do.
Grow Edible Plants
Not only is food waste a genuine problem, but it can easily cost you hundreds each year to feed your family with fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruit. You can grow herbs indoors all year-round to help season your dishes. It’s also a good idea to see which vegetables and fruits grow natively in your location.
This will give you a good idea of which plants are less work and which ones have a better chance of surviving and thriving in your garden.
Water Less
Using less water is very important for sustainability, especially in areas with water restrictions. You could introduce xeriscaping. This gardening method reduces how much water you need to keep everything alive, and it incorporates a range of drought-resistant perennials and shrubs.
It also involves installing a rain barrel to collect rainwater to use on your garden and plants whenever you need it.
Plant Perennials
Perennials are long-lived plants, and they’re a great way to get more money out of each plant you buy. Pick out perennials that fit your USDA Zone, and you can tell if they do or not by looking at the plant tag.
Start by purchasing small perennials and allow them to get better and bigger each year they come back. Every few years, you’ll have to dig up and divide your plants, giving you more plants to place around your landscaping or in your garden.
Compost
Composting is one of the best ways to get sustainable gardening practices in place. Compost your green waste like dried leaves, grass clippings, eggshells, flower remnants, and more. This will break down and turn into a very nutrient-rich fertilizer that you can spread around your garden, put in your pots, or add to your flower beds to feed whatever you plant.
Bottom Line: Sustainable Garden Tips
These seven quick tips can get you on the right path when it comes to sustainable gardening. You can start small and quickly add more elements we talked about to eventually create a fully sustainable garden that will produce all the fruit, vegetables, and plants you need while minimizing your impact on the environment.
Erin is the mother of identical twin girls and their slightly older brother. She is a domestic engineer, and previously had a career leading customer service teams for a major HVAC company. Cleaning without harsh chemicals, and cooking easy and usually healthy meals are part of Erin's daily life. She volunteers with youth leaders, and genuinely wants to help others win. Erin has a degree in Communications, with a focus on Broadcast Journalism.