In today’s environmentally conscious era, sustainable gardening is a practical way for homeowners like you to minimize environmental impact while nurturing the natural world.
Using less water, reducing chemicals, and encouraging biodiversity, sustainable gardening helps you create resilient and thriving landscapes that harmonize with nature.
Learn more about sustainable gardening for your eco-friendly landscape. This blog will cover planning a sustainable garden, nurturing healthy soil, water-wise gardening practices, and natural pest control.
Planning an Eco-Friendly Garden
To effectively start sustainable gardening, you must begin with a plan. Many different pieces go into having an earth-friendly garden. Here are the considerations to think about as you plan your garden:
- Evaluating which areas are sunny and which are in full shade. You must consider how the light changes as the day progresses in your proposed garden. Do some areas get morning sun while other areas get afternoon sun?
- Take a soil test. You can get a soil testing kit from your university extension or buy one at your favorite garden center. Start by taking different soil samples around the yard where your future garden will be located.
- When you get your test results, determine what soil amendments are needed to correct the pH and the missing nutrients.
- Consider drainage and water availability in your garden. Will you use soaker hoses that hook up to your house’s outdoor spigot? Or will you be using drip irrigation?
Also, are there any areas where there is ponding in your garden when it rains? You want to fix poor yard drainage before you start planting.
Read more: Using Native Plants for Local Ecosystem Support
- Make a list of plants you want to put in your garden—vegetables, flowers, and fruits, keeping in mind the plants’ light needs and irrigation needs. You may want to add fruit trees at one end of your garden for a mini-orchard.
- Designing a sustainable garden layout. You want to maximize your space for sustainable gardening with native plants, companion planting, and pollinator-friendly flowers.
Companion planting has been around for years because pairing plants together is a common sense method for attracting beneficial insects, like pollinators while repelling other destructive pests.
For example, basil and tomatoes work well together because the basil will repel thrips and confuses the tomato hornworm moths. And you can cut basil to mix with your tomatoes when making spaghetti sauce.
You can find a companion planting guide at Almanac.com to see which plants pair well with others—in the garden and the kitchen.
Nurturing Healthy Soil
As mentioned above, test your soil to see what’s needed before adding fertilizer and other soil amendments.
If you send your soil test through your university extension, your results will include the missing nutrients and what type of fertilizer will help regulate the ground. Always follow the directions on the back of your fertilizer bag. Too much of a good thing will burn your plants.
Don’t forget about fresh compost—gardener’s gold. Fruit and vegetable scraps, shredded newspapers, and coffee grounds are just three ingredients you can put in your compost bin.
If you maintain your compost bin by stirring the scraps, you’ll end up with compost—a rich, dark hummus similar to the soil in a forest. Mix this compost into the garden soil to add nutrients, moisture, and minerals.
If you don’t have a compost bin, you can buy organic compost and aged manure online to mix with your garden soil.
If you have a compost bin, continue to put in browns that are carbon-rich into your compost, including
- Dry leaves
- Plant stalks and twigs
- Shredded newspaper, brown paper bags, and other non-glossy, uncolored paper
- Shredded cardboard without a wax coating, tape, or glue
- Unprocessed wood chips.
You’ll also need nitrogen-rich materials that are greens, such as
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Grass clippings and yard trimmings, as long as they don’t have a disease or fungus
- Coffee grounds and paper filters
- Paper teabags without the staples
- Crushed eggshells.
You don’t need to wait for soil test results to put compost into your garden. This soil amendment improves all soils.
Don’t forget to add mulch to your garden plot. Mulch regulates soil temperatures, protects roots during hot summer days, and retains moisture. You don’t want to use bark mulch or pine needles in your garden.
Instead, use hay, straw, leaves, and other finer mulches, according to a FamilyHandyman.com article, “5 Best Mulches for Vegetable Gardens.”
Water-Wise Sustainable Gardening Practices
While mulch helps the soil retain moisture, there could be days or weeks when your area gets no water. How will you keep your garden plants alive?
One way to incorporate water-wise sustainable gardening practices is to install drip irrigation into your garden. Drip irrigation delivers large drops of water right at the roots so the plants get the water they need without any water waste.
If you don’t want to add drip irrigation to your garden, use soaker hoses that emit water droplets at the ground level. Again, this targeted watering system conserves water while caring for your plants’ needs.
You can also set up rain barrels at the end of your downspouts. Then, use the rainwater to irrigate your plants.
Natural Pest Control Strategies
Did you know that there are beneficial insects, such as parasitic wasps? There are also nasty bugs, such as aphids, earwigs, and Japanese beetles. Beneficial wasps control the harmful insects in your garden, such as
- Ants
- Aphids
- Cabbage loopers
- Cabbage worms
- Caterpillars
- Leaf miners
- Scale
- Tomato hornworms
- Whiteflies.
How can you invite parasitic wasps into your garden? Plant Queen Anne’s Lace, cilantro, dill, and fennel. Also, add a variety of flowering trees and shrubs to your garden and landscape that beneficial wasps feed on.
Maintaining a Sustainable Garden
So you prepped your eco-friendly garden, planted companion plants, added mulch, and a drip irrigation system.
Now you need to maintain your sustainable garden. Garden maintenance does take physical labor, but you can count it toward exercise. Here’s what you’ll need to focus on
- While weeding your garden, check your plants for disease or insect damage
- Practice selective pruning that takes in the tree or shrub’s natural beauty and growth pattern
- Fertilize and mulch your garden at the right time and in the right amount
- Address plant issues right away
- Educate yourself on sustainable gardening through your extension or local garden workshops.
How Brinly’s Garden Attachments Help You with Sustainable Gardening
At Brinly, we have ground-engaging equipment that helps get your garden started. Our fertilizer spreaders put down compost and fertilizer in your garden plot, and our lawn sweeper collects dry leaves that can be used as garden mulch.
Our tow-behind carts carry all your gardening essentials, such as fertilizer bags, shovels, mulch, and plants.
Practice sustainable gardening with Brinly’s lawn and garden attachments. Buy yours today online. If you have any questions about your Brinly lawn and garden product, contact our customer service today by dialing 877-728-8224 or filling out our contact form.
Sources:
Almanac.com, Companion Planting Chart and Guide for Vegetable Gardens.
EarthEasy.com, Drip Irrigation vs. Soaker Hoses: Which is Better?
EPA.gov, Composting at Home.
FamilyHandyman.com, 5 Best Mulches for Vegetable Gardens.
GardeningKnowHow.com, Parasitic Wasp Info—using Parasitic Wasps in Gardens.
