Maintaining a garden is one of the most beneficial things you can do for yourself. Realtors agree that high-quality landscaping can increase your home value by up to 10%, and having homegrown products ensures that you always have access to nutrient-rich foods.
And growing a garden doesn’t have to be too costly or wasteful. If you observe the cyclical patterns of nature and abide by its self-sustaining characteristics, you can possess a beautiful garden with bountiful harvests.
Here are 4 tips to help you grow a sustainable garden that doesn’t hurt your wallet or waste resources.
1. Save scraps for compost
Compost can be made from food-soiled papers, food scraps, and yard trimmings. By saving your leftover coffee filters, banana peels, and grass clippings you can simultaneously reduce your waste and provide nutrients to your growing garden. Saving scraps for your compost pile allows you to save on fertilizer and make the most of the resources you have at your disposal.
2. Grow more produce
Although flowers and other aesthetically pleasing plants can make a garden look beautiful, it’s more beneficial to grow edible plants and produce. You can best utilize the limited space you have to garden by planting foods you eat often that can be harvested in large quantities. If you have excess, you can preserve your produce by canning or freezing them. Leftover peels and cores can also be recycled in your compost pile, continually providing fertilizer for your garden.
3. Grow organically
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need chemicals in order to be rid of pests in your garden. Nature has a way of managing itself. For example, ladybugs naturally prey on aphids, small bugs that suck the nutrients out of plants. Ladybugs can be ordered in large numbers and spread liberally throughout your garden to protect it from pests, and as they reproduce they will continue to protect your garden.
4. Purchase native plants
Every area has local plants that flourish in that specific climate, and planting things that are native to that particular environment is much more sustainable. Doing so requires less artificial maintenance, as the water levels and soil pH will likely occur naturally without the need for excessive monitoring.
