5 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR GARDEN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

5 Ways to Make Your Garden Environmentally Friendly


By Drew Hendricks
Posted Thursday, July 2, 2015 at 02:20pm EDT
Keywords: environmental, Environmentally friendly, Ways to Make Your Garden Environmentally Friendly
Common sense dictates that nothing could be more ecological than gardening. After all, what could be greener than plants? Unfortunately, too many gardeners are making choices that harm the environment rather than becoming a natural and co-existent part of it. Here’s a look at five ways you can use your garden to work with, not against, the environment.

1.) Use Native Plant Species

Many gardeners don’t know the difference between native plant species, exotic species, and invasive species—or worse, they just don’t care. For example, English Ivy has long been prized as a fashionable ground covering with aristocratic, old-world connotations that have made it very popular in the United States. Now that the forests of the Pacific Northwest are carpeted by it, the English Ivy invasion has pushed out native plants, harmed the trees, and increased soil erosion.

Of course, “exotic” doesn’t necessarily mean “invasive.” All plants are native somewhere—“exotic” species are just plants that did not originate in the region in which they are now grown, however integrated or common they have become. An exotic species becomes invasive when it does too well in its new environment, or otherwise harms the existing ecosystem. But even when you’re choosing between non-invasive exotics and native plants, choose the native plant! They usually require less maintenance from fertilizers or other additives, less water, and minimal pest control thanks to generations of adaptation. Native wildlife also rely on native plants for food or pollination, whereas exotics might even be poisonous.

2.) Make Your Garden Pro-Wildlife

Many gardeners consider wildlife their enemy. They’re tired of deer jumping their fences and nibbling their flowers, or rabbits tunneling in and eating their carrots. And it’s true that animals often pose a substantial threat to your garden, but “wildlife” means more than just those hungry, furry, four-legged critters.

For example, attracting pollinators is not only good for your garden, it benefits the entire area. Pollinators like bees, butterflies, or hummingbirds usually prefer native, flowering plants. Even if you’re gardening purely for sustenance and vegetables, it’s a good idea to plant a few of these pollinator favorites along your garden perimeter. Butterflies will add to the beauty and atmosphere of your garden, so encourage their presence by planting your flowering natives in the sun (which is the only place many butterflies feed). You can also provide them with a place to “puddle,” which is where they drink from wet sand or mud, and say “no” to insecticides that will harm either butterflies or caterpillars.

You also might want to consider adding a small pond to your backyard. This could provide a home for amphibian species like frogs, toads, and salamanders, whose species are in rapid decline, or dragonflies, many species of which are endangered.

3.) Use a Safe Fertilizer

Most gardens don’t have the soil to support the kind of garden they’re hoping to grow. In nature, soil develops its nutrients and minerals over many hundreds of years of decomposition or from the bodies or manure of the native animals. It’s likely your soil hasn’t built up this kind of complicated, rich composition—luckily, there are lots of ways to supplement your soil so that it can support a thriving garden, but you need to be careful when you choose your fertilizer.

Many commercial fertilizers contain ammonia, the creation of which not only contributes to global warming, but it also produces nitrates that seep into the ground water and can harm plants, animals, and humans. Even if ammonia-based fertilizers seem like an easy solution and yet hard to avoid, choose something organic! There are lots of natural fertilizer solutions out there. Slow-release organic fertilizers are often pre-made from fish, bone, or blood meal, fruits or vegetables, kelp or earthworm castings. You can also easily make your own fertilizers from household food waste by composting, or sprinkling dried coffee grounds on the earth for a quick nitrogen burst. Add eggshells for calcium or seaweed for potassium!

4.) Insulate Your Greenhouse

Greenhouses might seem like a great way to grow fruits or vegetables year-round or in any climate, but many older greenhouses are incredibly inefficient. If you have a glass or fiberglass greenhouse, every seam presents a place for heat, air conditioning, or humidity to escape. For maximum energy efficiency, seek a modernized greenhouse, which offer environmental control systems, ventilation, and insulation options up to any R-Value. If you can’t replace your older greenhouse, it’s imperative you insulate as best you can during the winter. Not only will it save you a substantial amount on your energy bills, it’s an important act of energy conservation. Another step you can take to insulate a frame-and-glass greenhouse is to apply tinted window film to the panels, which will decrease the emissivity of your windows and both keep heat in during winter and out during the summer, making the most of your building’s growing capabilities.

5.) Reconsider Your Lawn

An expansive lawn of rich green is part of the American dream. Since the early 1900s, Americans have been captivated by the idea of the lawn, often at the expense of the environment. In today’s average home, 50-70 percent of the water usage goes toward landscaping, and lawns cover 20-30 million acres of the United States. These lawns have 70 million pounds of active pesticides applied to them annually, resulting in polluted run-off which damages about 26,000 miles of rivers and streams every year. Their homogenous nature of a lawn is useless for wildlife, and the vast networks of shallow roots degrade the quality and strength of the soil. And what’s more, those gas-powered lawn mowers used to maintain the perfectly-even appearance of the grass contribute to air pollution.

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