If you’re looking for more ways to be eco-friendly this year, look no further. Gardeners have a lot of power when it comes to sustainability, as we each foster a small plot of the earth. When our efforts are combined, we can make a massive difference for the planet.
Here are some eco-friendly ideas to get you started and, if you like the ideas, share them with your neighboring gardeners!
Make Your Own Compost
Homemade organic compost is eco-friendly, good for your garden, and helps keep waste out of landfills. Start with an enclosure or raised bin, then add your green and brown matter with a bit of water, turning it over regularly. As it naturally decomposes, you’ll get nutrient-rich compost that you can add to your garden beds.
Green matter includes fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, trimmings of plants, coffee grounds, and manure from cows, horses, sheep, chickens, or rabbits. Brown matter includes twigs, fall leaves, sawdust, cornstalks, dryer lint, cotton, and non-coated paper. The ideal ratio between the two should be three parts brown to one part green, but you don’t have to be exact.
Turn Off the Garden Lights
Garden lights are the number one culprit for declining insect populations. As pollinators are significant players in the ecosystem, it’s essential to protect them! Leaving garden lights on keeps the bugs up and busy all night. This makes them very tired and susceptible to predators.
By turning off the lights in your yard, you can save six bugs a night, which adds up fast! If you want to be eco-friendly but don’t want to give up lights, try motion sensor lights or switch to yellow LEDs, which attract bugs less. Tell your fellow gardeners about this eco-friendly strategy, and you could save thousands of insects—literally!
Trees Are for More Than the Birds
If you want to help control the heat in your yard, fostering healthy trees is an eco-friendly way to provide shade for your plants and a home for the local wildlife populations! They’re also one of many ways to support pollinator populations in your yard. What’s more, when you grow trees around your home, the shade they provide can cool your home and potentially lower the AC bills. It’s an eco-friendly win-win-win situation!
Eco-Friendly Water Solutions
Preserving water is potentially the most talked about eco-friendly strategy, and that’s because it’s an important one. There are many ways that you can be conscious of your water use. Rain barrels are great to fill during the rainy season and use throughout the summer.
If you have a lot of runoff in your yard, consider building a retaining wall to level out your yard so that the rain can absorb in the yard rather than pouring into the drains. Similarly, if you have pavers in your yard, make sure that water can pass through them or that there is space between each paver for water to soak into the soil. Always water when the sun is low, so it doesn’t evaporate, and bam! You’re a water conservator.
Use Eco-Friendly Organic Fertilizer and Pesticides
Chemical products are not eco-friendly for various reasons. First, the chemicals are not good for the environment and can contaminate the soil. If you have a vegetable garden, those chemicals will end up in you. There are many eco-friendly options for organic fertilizers and pesticides that help you achieve the growth and aesthetics of your garden dreams without costing the earth. With a bit of research, this transition is an easy one!
Use Recycled Materials for Your Tools and Hardscaping
When planning your eco-friendly garden space, consider how you can use recycled materials to build your raised beds, patio and retaining walls, and even how you can use second-hand furniture on your patio. Just like composting, using recycled materials keeps more things out of the landfill and gives them a longer life of doing good for the earth.
If you want to become an eco-friendly gardener in 2022, come visit us at Westwood Gardens. Our expert team would be happy to help you make your garden into a space that makes a significant impression with a small ecological footprint.
