How Eco-Friendly is Your Garden?

Sure, gardening brings us closer to Mother Nature, but is your garden a model of eco living? Here's how to make it happen.

Gardening is even better when it's earth-friendly. Photo: Rob Melnychuk, Getty Images

While plants help to clean the air and are good for the environment, many people use chemical insecticides and fertilizers in their gardens, which are harmful to the environment and the people and animals that come into contact with them. Plus, in the hot summer months gardens can become huge water hogs. Here are a few tools to get your garden onto a greener path:

An easy-to-assemble and affordable compost bin. Photos: Gardener's Supply Company

The first step to greening your garden is to forgo chemical insecticides and herbicides. Opt for organic options instead (hint: look for a label that says OMRI, which is a group that certifies organic products through a rigorous testing process).

Another way to feed your flora without harming the environment is to start composting. Composting creates nutrient rich soil that will nourish your plants naturally and it keeps kitchen and garden scraps out of the waste stream.

A compost pail you won't be embarrassed to display on your kitchen counter. Photo: Crate & Barrel

All you need to start composting is a bin to contain the compost. We like Gardener's Supply Company's no-nonsense Simply Natural Compost Bin ($100) for its simplicity, its easy assembly and basic, but attractive design. You'll also want to invest in a compost pail for your kitchen to gather scraps as you cook. A metal pail, like one of Crate & Barrel's Compost Pails ($40 to $55), is better than a ceramic model because you can bang it against the compost bin without fearing it will break.

Not only does compost nourish your garden, amending your soil with compost will also increase the ground's ability to retain water, reduce runoff and improve drainage, all of which are earth-friendly results.

Martha Stewart Seeds are 100% certified organic -- hooray! Photos: Martha Stewart Living

Starting your own plants from seed guarantees that they haven't been treated with chemicals -- it also gives you the satisfaction of a front row seat to the miracle of life. We're thrilled to see that Martha Stewart has introduced a line of seeds as part of her partnership with Home Depot. These 100% USDA Certified organic seeds are available for $2 a packet. Martha's collection includes 29 vegetables and 9 herbs. Don't worry, it's not too late to take advantage of these earth-friendly seeds; you can sow these varieties now for fall harvest: "Broccoli - Green Sprouting Calabrese," "Lettuce - Bibb (Limestone)," "Lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson," "Lettuce - Parris Island Cos (Romaine)," "Spinach - Bloomsdale Long Standing and Swiss Chard - Ruby" would all be good choices.

Opt for greener ways to plant your seedlings. Photos: Green Nation Gardens and TerraCycle

When you start those seedlings, there's a greener way to sow your seeds. Instead of using plastic pots, create easily biodegradable seedling pots out of newspaper with this Paper Pot Maker ($15) from Green Nation Gardens. If you aren't planting directly into the ground, the greenest option would be to reuse a container you already have. If you're in the market for a new vessel, we like TerraCycle's Biodegradable Fiber Pots and Saucers made from rice husks, and bamboo and coconut fibers. (We're also big fans of the company's organic Garden Fertilizer - it's made from worm poop!)

Save water -- and money! -- with a rain barrel. Photos: Home Depot and RainBarrelSource.com

Another ecologically unsound part of gardening is water waste. The best way to combat this is to plant drought-tolerant plants appropriate for your climate. Another easy way to cut your water use is to collect rain water with a rain barrel. While many models are ugly plastic jugs, Home Depot offers a pricey-but-pretty 67 Gal. Wooden Rain Barrel for $249 (be warned, one customer review reveals that it comes unassembled). For a no-frills rain catcher, try the Upcycle 50 Gallon Rain Barrel ($80) that links to other barrels to fill from one downspout. Attach either directly to your gutter's downspout with a Basic RainReserve Diverter System ($45).

When you water, do it in the most efficient way possible: First, always water in the morning. If you wait until the sun gets hot, much of your watering will be lost as evaporation. When you water use a hose with a soaker attachment, which is much more efficient than a sprinkler. And last but not least, don't water unless plants need it!

Want to learn more about earth-friendly gardening? Check out the Sustainable Sites Initiative, which was introduced last year by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden. The Initiative's report includes proposed guidelines for creating sustainable landscapes, which even offers a point system for rating a landscape's sustainability (much like the LEED rating system).

 

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Source: http://www.diylife.com/2011/04/14/eco-garden/

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