Sustainable practices in the garden is not only smart it is healthier for you and your family. Utilizing the byproducts of your gardens production means not only are you helping your community by helping to keep the landfills from growing but you are using natural methods to grow your own food free of chemicals and inorganic products. Composting your garden waste will help to build a healthy soil which will help to build healthy plants that will be strong and disease resistant and provide a larger and more nutritious crop. Here are things that you can implement now to make your garden more sustainable and that will start to show a return this year.
Sustainable Gardening Ideas
Composting your kitchen scraps and lawn clippings along with other garden waste will help you to build a good source of mulch and soil amendment. Compost will build your soils structure,increase the drainage, and support microorganisms that are beneficial to your garden.
Stop using pesticides grow flowers and other plants that will attract pollinator and predator insects to your garden to help control pests and increase production. Using a pesticide is more harmful than helpful because it will kill all the good and the bad insects so that when more bad ones come along less good ones are there to discourage them.
Use only organic fertilizers in your garden such as composted manure, fish emulsion, or green cover crops. These will breakdown in the soil and provide the plants with what they need while not harming the environment.
Use rain barrels to collect water for your garden. Not only is rain water better it will help eliminate runoff that will eventually wash silt and pollutants into the local water shed. Utilizing rain water also cuts down on energy that would be needed to pump water to your home to be used in the garden.
Reuse, re-purpose, recycle what ever you can the more you keep out of the landfills the better. Try to find a use for everything turn old pales into pots. A great idea is to grow potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket as the plants grow add a little more soil till you reach the top. When it is time to harvest simple turn the pail over and shake out the plant and soil easy no dig potatoes.
When planting your garden use 4 or 5 layers of moist newspapers as a mulch then cover with wood chips. Not only will this keep down the weeds it will help retain moisture and provide food for the earthworms in your garden.
These are but a few tips you can implement this year to make your garden a little greener and a lot more sustainable.