How to Grow a Sustainable Garden At Home
Gardening is the art of enrichening the environment in many ways while a sustainable garden is an organic garden taken a step further. Its about using gardening practices that cause no harm to the earth and its inhabitants while attempting to actually enhance it. Therefore by practicing sustainable gardening, you practice good environmental stewardship. There are some natural methods that have worked for gardeners. So without further ado let's tune into some of the most important tricks and tips that will help you grow a sustainable garden at home.
Prevent water loss
To save water for your garden you need to have as large a rainwater tank as possible and fit tap timers to make sure you don’t over-water. Avoid watering before rain by checking the weather forecast. Also try to avoid using micro-sprays because up to 70% of water is wasted through drift and evaporation and if the soil is mulched, water will not penetrate to the soil.
It is very important to group together plants with similar watering needs and try to remove weeds regularly because they compete for water with your plants and lawns. Consider watering your garden between dusk and dawn to reduce evaporation and deliver more water to the roots of your plants. If you must water in daylight hours, do it before 10am. We also suggest to use an inverted soft drink bottle to give slow constant watering to annuals, ferns and roses. We have just the perfect tool for that:
Position irrigation systems so that water isn’t wasted on paths, patios, driveways & buildings, check and clean it every spring because an efficient irrigation system can save many thousands of liters of water in your garden each year.
You can also use greywater to water your garden. Greywater is wastewater that consists of all non-toilet water and includes wastewater from showers, baths, spas, basins, washing machines, dishwashers and kitchen sinks. The simplest way to use untreated greywater for garden watering is to collect it in a bucket or container. However, you have to do so carefully, because greywater can contain microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and chemicals. Continual reuse of untreated greywater can potentially have a negative effect for your garden. That being said, using untreated greywater for sub-surface irrigation, is a great way to reduce the risk of human or animal contact. You can do so by using our amazing automated smart water irrigation system that is also solar powered.
This kit is a system of water pumps, timers, tubes, and drippers that deliver the proper amount of water to each plant, which helps you avoid having contacts with the greywater.
Soil improvement tips
Compost is the single most important supplement you can give your garden. It’s a simple way to add nutrient-rich humus to your garden that fuels plant growth and restores vitality to depleted soil. It's also free, easy to make, and good for the environment. You can add to your compost fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, onions, citrus fruit (cut up), pizza boxes and egg cartons, vacuum cleaner dust, animal fur, pure cotton articles (cut up), grass clippings (3–4 cm layers), cut up prunings, weeds without seed heads, blood and bone, shredded newspaper as well as small amounts of wood ash.
It is very important to keep out of your compost fish, meat, cat and dog droppings, big woody prunings, bulbous weeds, weeds with runners and bleached or glossy office paper which contain harmful chemicals. Also it is worth noting that you have to build your compost in thin layers (3–10 cm) by using a diverse range of materials. Try to alternate kitchen waste (high nitrogen) and garden waste (low nitrogen) layers and don't forget to aim for a ratio of 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen (30:1). You have to build your compost in thin layers (3–10 cm) by using a diverse range of materials.
Try to alternate kitchen waste (high nitrogen) and garden waste (low nitrogen) layers and don't forget to aim for a ratio of 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen (30:1).
Vertical Gardening
Vertical gardening is a wonderful way to grow your favorite flowers and food which not only saves space, but also makes it easier to maintain and produce better crops as it helps prevent pest and disease problems. It’s beneficial to both your garden and the plants.
To be able to grow vertically you can use different types of supports, such as trellises, tripods, pyramids, wire cages or walls. The structure can be temporary, moveable, or permanent and stationary (such as the fence, wall or an arbor). Even living plants, such as sunflowers or corn, can act as trellising systems.
Growing plants in vertical container gardens allows you to grow more in smaller areas. Using vertical containers also makes maintenance easier, since problems like weeds and ground-dwelling pests, and basically become non-existent. Whether you choose to trellis vining crops, or plant vegetables in a vertical container garden, growing food vertically will give you larger harvests. Vining crops produce larger yields than bush or patio varieties, while vertical containers provide exponentially more growing space than a traditional garden plot.
As said before, there are so many important benefits of vertical gardening. Your garden will be healthier, your crops will be better, and you will spend less time weeding, feeding, spraying and watering your garden.
Habitat Gardening
Attracting native animals to your garden can add extra color and interest. It can assist pest control by attracting insect predators and can also contribute to keeping animal populations viable by providing a pathway for them to commute between bushland areas. All you have to do is provide your garden visitors with food, water and shelter. For example butterflies and bees are important pollinators for any garden, you can attract them by planting flowers. Birds are beautiful creatures that are a joy to watch in any garden. By providing prickly or dense plants such as hedges at various levels in your garden, and particularly near water sources, you can help attract your feathered visitors.
Some other wildlife-friendly practices would be about reducing the use of pesticides in the garden in order to provide birds with a safe food source, considering to replace your fences with hedges, rocks or other more natural barriers as fencing can be a hazard to many fauna species and lastly we recommend you to keep the telephone number of a wildlife rescue service in the glove box of your car.
Try to count up the number of tips and tricks you have achieved for each section then make a note of what you can do to improve your score over the next year.
Considering all of the suggestions made in this article, you can then keep working towards making your garden more environmentally sustainable: a haven for precious native flora and fauna as well as for you and your family.