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One of the best (and most delicious) ways to make your garden eco-friendly is to grow some of your own food.
Much of our produce is transported in from other countries for most of the year. By growing some of your own veggies, herbs, and berries you’ll decrease your reliance on food delivery systems while decreasing emissions from large-scale farming, storage, refrigeration and transportation. You’ll also have less lawn to mow!
Green vegetables like kale are easy to grow. Perennial berry plants like blueberry bushes and raspberry canes are also excellent producers for the home garden.
Fruit trees such as apples can handle cold winters and the fruit can be stored for months in a cellar.
Garlic is quite easy to grow at home, and is much healthier and more flavourful than imported garlic. Garlic can be planted in the fall or early spring. The scent of garlic growing has the added benefit of organic pest control - many pest insects simply don’t like the smell.
Stop using chemical fertilizers in your garden (here’s a hint – if it’s a bright colour, it’s probably not organic). Also, stop using potting soil that contains chemical fertilizer or pesticides. Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from chemical fertilizers is now considered a major environmental concern.
If you want your garden to be eco-friendly, it pretty much has to be organic. Organic gardening foregoes harmful chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides in favour of working with nature to create a healthy ecosystem.
You can read about organic gardening online.
And what could be fresher than veggies and fruits grown just outside your door? Or even inside your house? And oh, yes ... you’ll save money, too.
