Earth Conscious Gardening Ideas: How To Make Your Garden Earth Friendly
You don't have to be a “tree hugger” to want to do something to help the earth remain healthy. Green-gardening trends thrive both online and in print. Environmentally friendly gardens start with a conscious decision to lower your carbon footprint, reduce chemical use, and go back to natural ways of maintaining your landscape.
For those passionate about keeping the world clean and safe for all, earth-conscious gardening is a way of life.
If you are new to the practice, some tips on how to make your garden earth friendly can get you on the right path to a sustainable way of life that does not impact nature.
What is Earth Conscious Gardening?
Turn on the television or boot up your computer and you are sure to see products, ideas, and stories on eco-friendly gardening tips. The idea is to boost pollination, increase biodiversity, and use landscape techniques that are conservative.
Humans are an important part of slowing global warming, reducing waste, and lowering energy consumption. The key maxims, "reduce, reuse, recycle," should be applied to environmentally friendly gardens. Changes don't have to be made overnight, but there are some easy alterations you can make today to your gardening practices that will benefit everyone in the long run.
Eco-Friendly Gardening Tips
One of the easiest ways to go green is by choosing native plants. They are already adapted to the area and will need less water, are less susceptible to disease and insect pests, provide habitat and pollination opportunities for wildlife and beneficial insects, and support the native diversity. It is one quick step to make your garden earth friendly.
Another important step is reducing the size of the lawn. Doing so conserves water, mowing, fertilizer, chemical use for weed prevention, and gives you more space to plant a multitude of beneficial plants.
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Here are some environmentally friendly gardening ideas:
- Add flowering plants to attract pollinators.
- Capture rainwater and use it for irrigation.
- Use mulch to reduce evaporation.
- Set up a compost bin or pile.
- Use only organic products in your garden.
- Encourage birds which will eat many of the damaging insects in your yard.
- Buy soil, mulch and other items in bulk to reduce the packaging that comes in smaller amounts.
Even simple changes that seem small have been shown to provide a host of benefits to the environment and they don't have to be expensive or time consuming.
Bonnie Grant is a professional landscaper with a Certification in Urban Gardening. She has been gardening and writing for 15 years. A former professional chef, she has a passion for edible landscaping.
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