Eco Garden
Chances are that if you're a gardener you already have some concern for the environment. After all, it's hard to ignore topics such as climate change and pollution while being so close to nature. As the supreme being overseeing the microcosm that is your garden you've no doubt been witness to how fragile ecology can be. It doesn't take much imagination to extend what happens in your garden to what happens on a global scale. In fact, depending on your gardening practices, what happens in your garden may actually be extending to a global scale!/
What is an Eco Garden? Well plainly speaking, an eco garden (or ecologically friendly garden) refers to any garden that minimizes or eliminates its waste products while still supporting plant life. If you're a real green thumb you might even be able to pick which "plant life" that may be. If you're more like me, well... I hope you like dandelions.
Tricks & Techniques of Eco Gardening
There are many different things you can do in your garden to make it better for the environment. The single most important thing is to develop the right mindset. Research things you add to your yard! Everything has an impact.
Composting
Composting can add a tremendous amount of sustainability to a yard. Grass clippings, leaves, miscellaneous garden matter, even food scraps and other biodegradable materials can be turned into great soil. Wouldn't that be nice? You may even be able to downgrade the size of your
residential garbage bin.
Water Use:Choosing plants, and increasing water retention
Ideally a garden would consist entirely of native plants and require zero water beyond the natural rainfall of your area. That wouldn't be much of a garden though. Did you know that you can significantly decrease the water used by your garden by mixing in native plants? By having native plants and ground cover (native or otherwise) you can increase your garden's capacity to hold in water and reduce evaporation. You also add mulch to bare or dry patches of earth to increase water retention. So by selectively mixing in native plants you can create a more sustainable home for your more fragile plants.
Water Use: Irrigation
If water needs artificially introduced to your garden (and chances are it will) consider how to get the most out of it. If you use sprinklers be careful not to water during the peak of the day, up to half of the water could evaporate before its any use. If you can adjust the size of the water droplets coming out of your sprinkler, opt for fat water drops, these are most likely to make it to the roots. A fine mist coming from a sprinkler used during a hot sunny day might not even make it to ground. If you can plan your garden and use drip irrigation go for it! Drip irrigation is roughly 90% efficient. Consider purchasing a rain barrel if you live in an area that has abundant water at times followed by short drought spells.
Pesticides & Herbicides
There are so many different weed and pest killers, it would be impossible to cover them all. If you'd like to minimize the impact of adding these poisons to your garden aim for a few golden rules:
- look for an alternative! lady bugs eat aphids, diatomaceous earth kills bugs, mulch can stop certain weeds, high concentration vinegar kills most plants, etc.
- choose a poison which kills ONLY a specific plant or pest, minimize "friendly fire" and the potential to create a generally toxic situation
- weigh the situation: is the "solution" worse than the problem?
I've covered 3 of the major ways to have a more environmentally friendly garden. Make your garden self-sustainable with a compost heap, use water intelligently, and seek alternatives to use of harmful chemicals. But this is just the tip of the iceberg - there's tons more. Don't forget to research any chemicals or plants you consider introducing into your garden.
Best of luck to you and your new eco garden!