How To Be A Sustainable Gardener
By taking these practices into consideration, your garden will be green in more ways than one!
Quite a few fads have come and gone since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but one that is still going strong is gardening. In the craziness of running out of toilet paper and only socializing via computer, many took to growing their own food or turning their home into their own personal botanical getaway. With the negative effects of fossil fuels, pollution, and poor management of resources looming over the world in the form of climate change, practicing sustainable gardening has never been more important. Let’s focus on the sustainability Dos and Don’ts when it comes to cultivating your garden.
When people think “environment”, they often think of plants, hence the terms “going green” and “green living” referring to environmentally friendly and sustainable practices. However, simply growing a plant does not mean you are helping the environment. After all, deforestation to create crop fields happens to be a big contributor to habitat destruction. Though your home garden is unlikely to create that level of harm, if everyone who gardens does not follow sustainable practices, it adds up. Likewise, if everyone intentionally keeps their practices “green”, it can be a great help to the world!
Starting off with a big gardening Don’t, it’s important to not overwater. Not only can overwatering drown your plants, but water is a precious resource. Many on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. Places all over the world are facing severe droughts because of rising global temperatures. But do not fret, there are ways to keep your plants healthy without wasting this precious resource.
Obviously, you can monitor how much water you use and limit it to the amount your plants need, but there’s a host of other ways to save water. Another simple measure to take is caring for your soil by adding compost and mulch to flower beds, which help retain moisture. Better yet, you can create your own compost using food scraps. This saves you money from buying commercial compost and prevents waste. You can also collect rainwater or reuse greywater (lightly used water from bathing, washing clothes, etc.) using a water diverter to irrigate your garden.
Water management is an important component of keeping your garden sustainable, but there are many other common practices that hurt the environment. Using pesticides and harsh chemicals and discouraging pollinators can be detrimental. People typically don’t like to have a bunch of bugs hanging around, but the fact is, they’re essential to the ecosystem. Instead of spraying round-up on your flowers and produce, cover them with a fine mesh net. Better yet, attract the good bugs by planting some plants that support pollinators.
Speaking of being intentional about your plant choices, planting native plants is a huge gardening Do! Native plants like to naturally grow where you live, so they don’t require as much maintenance in terms of water, fertilizer, and temperature control. Better yet, they support pollinators but have natural defenses against pesky bugs and harmful weeds. There is also little to no risk of these plants becoming invasive and harming the native ecosystem.
There is a host of ways to be a sustainable gardener, ranging from simple practices like planting some trees and letting your lawn grow to more complex ones like composting and diverting your greywater. Of course, if you can take it all on to have a completely sustainable and environmentally friendly garden, then go for it. But it can also be a little overwhelming to do everything perfectly, so pick a couple to start with and build your way up if needed. The earth, the people, and your precious plants will thank you for having a “green” garden.