Gardening in its simplistic manner is recognized as the practice of growing and cultivating the plants as a part of horticulture. Usually, gardening is a process that has a large range, starting right from the fruit orchards to the long boulevard paintings having one or more antithetic varieties of shrubs, trees, and herbaceous plants. Many of them prefer specialized gardening, which involves the participation of only one kind of plant or many numbers of antithetic plants in mixed plantings.
What is Sustainable Gardening?
Sustainable gardening embraces of more specific sustainable landscapes, sustainable landscapes design that outcome in sustainable sites. Also, it compares a disparate group of horticultural interests that aids to share the aims and objectives, which are colligated with the international posting of sustainability development and programs of 1980. This kind of gardening comprises of gardeners who are the members of the landscape and nursery enterprises and municipal industries to create a more sustainable upshot.
Photo Credit: https://bonnieplants.com/library/10-essential-practices-for-organic-and-sustainable-gardeners/
To attain sustainable gardening is not an easy job for both gardeners as well as nongardeners. To have a sustainable gardening, one needs to follow many tips and also square toed timing. One can follow the infra adverted steps to attain the sustainable gardening:
1. Choosing Organic is the Best Way
One should always prefer having less of the chemicals used in their garden as it makes the garden more ecologically sound and it also makes it much cost efficacious. If the food is being grown for the family in the garden, one should always opt for organic gardening. One can start by building up the best soil in the ground, which is quite affluent in nutrients, followed by adding natural compost, which assists in ameliorating the soil.
Lately, if one discovers the existence of insect pests or plant malady in their garden, he or she should treat it with organic solutions only.
2. Watering Less
To have a sustainable garden, one should always keep in mind that their garden can be sustainable as long as it is not 24 hours a day, seven days a week thirsty one and majorly in the areas where the water is scarce and restricted. One should always try the method of landscaping and gardening, which helps in reduction of the need of the water by the garden and, which incorporates an array of very attractive perennials and drought-tolerant shrubs.
If one wishes that he/she can collect water from any of the natural sources accessible, one can always install a water barrel in the basement of one or more of their downspouts.
3. Getting Three Seasons of Food at the Same Station
When one decides on growing fruits, vegetables and also herbs, all at once same station, it is quite easy and also satisfying. Also, by growing all the food at the same place, contributes to the sustainable development. One should keep note of what plant or herb should be grown in, which season and should make them grow accordingly.
For instance, crops that are green like lettuce and sprouts are the ones that can easily grow up in spring, but they are also the ones that can easily die up in summer because of the hot temperature. One can interplant beds with the hot weather crops like the peppers and tomatoes. Also, when it is the season of autumn, and there is a small portion of a cool down in the temperature, one can sow the crops that are of cool weather again.
This helps the gardener to have access to all the three seasons’ food from the same station.
4. Planting Perennials and Saving the Seeds
Having the perennials planted in the garden is always a marvelous way, which can get the gardener more bang for his or hers gardening buck. One should firstly find out their zone information by checking their plant tag and then choose the perennials that are adapted to their respective zones.
For once, to save money one can opt for buying the small perennials. The biggest advantage of buying small perennials is that they get bigger and bigger every year. Also, every couple of years, these perennials needs to be divided, which gives the gardener, some plants to assist in enlarging their garden.
Photo Credit: http://www.readersdigest.co.uk/home-garden/gardening-tips/low-maintenance-flower-beds-planting-perennials
One should always learn to save the seeds. One can do this quite easily by just following some few steps. Firstly, when the annual flowers when the season ends go to their seed, one should collect the seed’s dried seed-heads and also store them in a humid-free place for all winter. One can also sow these seeds in their garden in the next spring that comes.
5. Drying the Herbs
To achieve the sustainable gardening, one can always try the method of drying out the herbs. In this method, follow the step below:
- Dry out the herbs at the end of the summer season by lashing out the sprigs together such as they form quite diminutive clusters
- Tie all the small bunches together with the help of a rubber band
- Then dangle them in such a manner that their tips are lying down at a dry place, which is out of the reach of the sun
- Ensure that bunches, which are being made are quite small so that they render smooth circulation
- Later, store them in a dry place in canning jars after labeling them
You may even consider solidifying the herbs as it is a marvelous way to safeguard them
6. Making Use of a Dip Feeder
Do you the plants that look much enhanced when the dampness is being delivered to their roots instead of the overhead? To attain sustainable gardening at a much cheaper and a simpler way, one should try to make a drip feeder that can be situated underground, i.e. next to the plant.
One of the easiest and the hasty way to make a drip feeder is to make it with an old plastic soda bottle. One would require perforating some of the fissures in the bottle and then plant it in the proximity of the young plant. This soda bottle with holes will then enable a slow release of water nearer to the roots of the plant.
By using this effortless and economical method, one can have the advantage of averting the fungus entering the plants and also reduce the predicament with the leaves.
7. Watering the Tomatoes in the Perfect Manner
Tomatoes are such vegetables that are hard to grow in dry climates and also watering them with the help of an overhead sprinkler does not prove to be great for the leaves. To overcome this quandary, one needs a trash canister, which has small apertures bradawl in it and also a couple of shovels that are filled with compost. By practicing this technique, one always gets the marvelous red looking tomatoes as an outcome.
8. Use of Homemade Gardening Stones
Photo Credit: http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/foolproof-reverse-cast-stepping-stones.aspx
Usually, many people are fascinated by the beautifully painted river rocks, which have sayings and quotes on them, at the garden shop. To keep the sustainable maturity quite easy on the pocket, one can also smear those rocks at home by themselves. For doing this, one needs:
- Some flattened river rocks
- Some paint and marker pens
After having the rocks smeared, one can write anything that he or she aspires to inscribe on them, be it some quotations or the names of the vegetables that are being grown in their garden. By executing this act, not only one saves their cost of gardening but also it becomes easy for the gardener to recognize the name of the plant by just a glance at the rock.
Some paint and marker pens. After having the rocks smeared, one can write anything that he or she aspires to inscribe on them, be it some quotations or the names of the vegetables that are being grown in their garden. By executing this act, not only one saves their cost of gardening but also it becomes easy for the gardener to recognize the name of the plant by just a glance at the rock.
9. Building a Strawberry Tower
If the gardener wishes to grow a whole lot of scrumptious and lip-smacking strawberries and also safeguard space in their garden, one can always opt to build a strawberry tower. The best thing about building a strawberry tower is that it not only conserves the space but also makes a payment in the sustainable development.
The tower permits the gardener to drip the water gradually through the whole tower. One just needs to place a water bottle at the top of the tower, and the water will tip down through the whole pot to all the strawberries that are situated at the subordinate echelon.
10. Reusing the Materials
To accomplish the sustainable gardening program, one should always believe in reusing the materials in the garden. To reclaim the resources, one can make use of old plastic bags to round up all the leftovers of soap. One can make use of rubber bands to tie the bags so as to tighten and hang them nearby of the hose.
Also, the amalgamation of slightly rasping bags and the soap helps in scrubbing off the garden filth. One can also make row covers with the help of tomato cages, old rebar, and the used blankets. For the stepping stones in the garden, one can make use of chunks of concrete.
11. Recycling the Resources
Recycling the available supplies in the garden is one of the most favorable ways to accomplish sustainable development. For recycling rationale:
- One can recycle the drink goblets, which assist the user in cultivating the tomatoes from the kernels.
- When they are ready to be resettled, one can easily confiscate the bottom inch from each and every cup and then plant the seeds directly in the ground. By doing so, the cutworms are being prevented from making a meal out of the transplants in the garden.
- One can also make the use of heavy due metal sign casings and place them in the raised cradles. This plays as a sustaining role for the bed covers in the early of the spring season.
Photo Credit: http://www.livinggreenwithbaby.com/simple-recycling-ideas-garden/
The old pantyhose usually acts as a cohort to the gardener. One can make the garden ties out of the pantyhose and then use them to bag the cantaloupes that grow on the trellises, which aid the melons to have an extra support while growing.
To make the fencing for the garden, one can always prefer the most economical way with the help of scrap wood. Also, the veggie lattice can be made with the use of fallen branches and the saplings. When one adopts these ideas, he not saves his money but also saves himself from more of time consumption.
- When one aspires to get a cold frame in late winter, one can prop the old portholes against the straw bales.
- If one seems to smell danger of frost, he or she can make use of old bean pole and jab them into the ends of the beds, followed by throwing off old sheets on them and using stones or bricks to hold down the edges.
All of the tips mentioned above to recycle the available supplies in the garden make a large contribution to the attainment of sustainable development.
12. Zero-Waste Gardening
Gardening is a process that should be done with zero percent wastage. Starting with the use of fertilizers, they cost too much for a normal person to afford them. One can use the saved urine and dilute to use them as a fertilizer. Obviously, the smell stinks but it is very beneficial to the plants and they grow marvelously as never before.
While chopping or peeling the veggies, there is a lot of waste that is being collected.
- One should always try to save the excess bits of the veggies that can prove to be perfect in making the soup stock, like onion skins, stems of leafy greens, carrot ends, and various such things.
- One should store all of these materials in the freezer, and when they have a good amount of trash being collected, he or she can make a new fresh batch of veggie stock, which relegates the veggie bits to the compost pile after the draining of the stock is being done.
- One should always aim at zero wastage while gardening. If the cooked meal is left overnight, one can serve them to animals the next morning. When one cleans the coop, he or she should make sure that the manure goes straight into the compost pile.
- One should also assure that none of the brushes or the clippings are burned out. Instead, they should be shredded and used as a mulch or should be composted.
13. Saving Water Waste
Saving the water, being a global issue when done by the gardeners contributes a lot in the sustainable gardening process. It has been discovered by scientists that when one performs mulching, either from the store bought mulch or the chipped up leftovers of the trees, there is a huge requirement to save water after the process. To save water from the mulching process, one can make use of downed pine cones.
One can make use of small ditches between the plant rows so that the water is funneled right away to the plants. Also, in the case where barrels don’t prove to be much advantageous, one can make use of cistern under their house, which is helpful in catching much of the rainwater.
14. Energy Conservation
One should know the facts related to conserving energy at a large scale when one aims to attain sustainable gardening. Not only at home but also everywhere possible, one should learn to save energy. Below are a few tips that one should:
- Avoid taking the monotonous drives to the gym and turning on the exercise equipment for a couple of hours and instead, should try aerobic gardening. It is well said that aerobic gardening a day helps the gardener maintain a good figure.
- Stay away from turning on his car for a couple of weeks in a row just by working from home and eating the veggies and fruits that are accessible in the garden.
- Contribute to the conservation of solar heat by enclosing two parallel raised cradles with the hoop style covers in the spring season.
- Ensure that that the beds are surrounded on both the sides and also down the center with a two-foot wide brick walkway.
- Cover this whole area with the help of another larger hoop house through the winter season. The heat that is being absorbed by the bricks used helps in keeping the greenhouse warm for a much longer time.
- Witness the change in the growth of the plants in the garden when they weed with hand or with the use of a hoe and hence minimizing the use of machines.
The plants tend to grow better because of the network of goodness that allows the soil’s surface to flourish in an amazing manner.
15. Mosquitoes Repellent Herbs
Are you tired of the mosquitoes that regularly keep bugging you in the garden or on the deck? Naturally, there are some herbs available, which can naturally repel not only the mosquitoes but also the catnip, lemongrass, and many other assortment worms. One can plant one or more of the herbs together in the garden, which eventually leads to the reduction of bugs in the garden.
One can also place them in a pot and then let them grow on their patio or the deck and ensure to keep them away from the places or the areas where one likes to spend his/her time. As a beneficiary result, the herbs are advantageous for many other purposes also. One can harvest them and in return, it renders the gardener food and much more provisions.
This not only proves to be a much healthier substitute to spurting the mosquito repugnant everywhere in the backyard but also confirms for the better of the garden and the gardener. Learn more about backyard gardening by accessing our another post.
16. Permeable Paving
Holey tarmac in the most simplistic manner is the assortment of sustainable equipment and the modus operandi that come with a base and a sub base, consenting to the movement of the stormwater through the surface. The use of leaky paves stones not only reduces the runoff but also efficaciously traps the suspended solids and then sieves the noxious wastes that are dug out from the water.
There are some of the many leaky paving supplies that almost come into view as like two peas in a pod from the obtainable non-porous goods but still their environmental effects are quite qualitatively antithetic. No matter what kind of previous supply it is, either pervious concrete, paving stones and concrete, porous asphalt, or the plastic based pavers, all these materials allow the storm water to infiltrate and percolate the surface quarters.
Photo Credit: http://www.gulfcoastpavers.com/products/permeable-pavers/
As the machinery has advanced a lot in the contemporary years, the leaky tarmacs can also be used in looking after the cut-off points (watersheds) also. In the already existing built up areas and the towns, redevelopment and reconstruction are one of the best prospects for putting into practice the stormwater management methods. The infiltration capacity of the soil is the most important step in the design consideration to settle on the profundity of the base rock for storm water cargo space.
The Verdict
In the midst of the spring season lies the amazingly perfect time to start planting all kinds of flowers, veggies and herbs. No matter whether you a fresher or expertise to gardening, one should always take into account that the best thing about gardening is to get a recompense for yourself in a way to spend more time al fresco or making the most of the indoor cargo space.
Although gardening is a process, which brings lots of fun at the same time, it proves to be quite challenging also because it’s a restrained fine art and science as many of the plants need delicately balanced conditions to flourish. After all, cultivating one’s food is a huge step towards the sustainable standard of living.
The gardening as mentioned above tips would prove to be quite economical and will fetch you the best results in the garden. We hope you will try the above mentioned creative and beneficial designs for your garden.
Is there is anything missing? One can always drop their suggestions and comments in the below-given box. It would be our pleasure to hear from you. We would try our level best to reach you as soon as possible.
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