If you are looking to make your yard more eco-friendly, you will be delighted to know that there are lots of, often quite simple, things you can do to increase sustainability in your garden space.
The more of these ideas you adapt, the more sustainable your garden will be. Which is good news for you, and great news for the planet too! So, let’s take a look at them right now:
Go organic
One of the best things you can do, if you’re serious about gardening in a sustainable way, is to go organic.
In practice, this simply means doing away with chemical weeders and soil feeders and using natural healthy soil and mulch to enrich the nutrients in your soil, and using organic solutions to kill weeds and keep pests at bay.
Grow native
Growing native plants, flowers and trees is a really good way to make it as sustainable as possible. Native species are not only better for local wildlife including birds and bees, but they are also less likely to overtake native plants and flowers. Plus, much more likely to thrive in their environment. This means you will waste far fewer resources on plants and shrubs that will ultimately die off due to imperfect conditions anyway.
Make do and mend
One really simple thing, that will also save you money when working on your garden? Mend instead of buying new tools and accessories. For example, you could source replacement parts for your lawn mower and fix it instead of buying a new one. Or instead of buying new planters for your flowers, you could use old gumboots, buckets, food containers, and anything else you have around the house, instead.
Make your own
Mulching your yard is an excellent way to enrich the soil. It also stops weeds from becoming a big problem. If you’re serious about being more sustainable, instead of buying mulch from your local gardening store, look to your garden. Make your own by using fallen leaves, pine needles, coconut hulls, grass clippings, and anything else you may already have in your home or garden. This will save you money. Plus, ensures your garden is as local and sustainable as it can possibly be.
Ditch the lawn
One of the best things you can do for the environment is to ditch the boring old lawn. Replace it with lots of wildflowers that feed birds, bees, and butterflies. Or plant fruits and veggies that will provide you with nourishing food and help local animals to have something good to eat too.
Lawns may look good, but it doesn’t offer much nutrition to animals or humans. It also does very little to help the ecosystem. Which is why you should consider replacing at least some of it with more productive forms of greenery.
Use a water butt
Water butts are basically huge tanks that catch rainwater. By using them, you can catch your own rainwater so that you do not have to use the hose. This means that less water is being wasted overall. You also save money on the cost of water bills.
Just make sure that you only use the water in butts for gardening purposes. It may not always be safe to drink it directly due to the fact it is all-natural and has not been treated.
Plant food
It doesn’t get more sustainable than growing and eating your own food. So, if you have the space to do so, planting tomatoes, potatoes, raspberries, salad greens and anything else that will thrive in your climate is a brilliant thing to do. Especially if you have kids who will love learning about healthy food and where it comes from.
Collect seeds
Why buy seeds at the store when you can collect the ones produced by your garden, dry them and store them over the winter until they are ready to be sown again in the spring. It’s really easy to do, and it can save you money as well as being a good way of preserving specific plants for the future.
Compost
Start your own compost heap to cut down on food and garden waste and use it to feed your garden in the future.
Sustainable gardening is really no more difficult than regular gardening with the added benefit that you can save money and help out the ecosystem by making a few simple changes, too. So, what are you waiting for?
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