Why Choose Sustainable Gardening?

Sustainable gardening can be a great way to add fresh, wholesome, naturally grown produce to your diet, even if you don't have much garden space available. Stress relief, better health, and a sense of personal satisfaction are just a few of the other benefits you can receive by practicing sustainable gardening.

One great way to bring balance to your health and home is through sustainable gardening. By creating your own garden to supplement your diet, you can eat healthier, as well as help protect the environment and save money!

Sustainable gardening allows you to grow some of your own food, while lessening the amount of pollution released into the atmosphere and water supply, not only through chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but also by reducing the need for fuel for transportation of commercially grown foodstuffs across thousands of miles. (This is particularly true if you grow your food organically, but in general, you will still use fewer chemicals on your home garden than a large industrial farm would.)

There are a number of great ideas for sustainable gardening, which will allow you to work with your current natural environment, wherever you happen to live. Indigenous plants which naturally grow well in your area will require less care and effort. For example, if you live somewhere very dry, look for drought-resistant plants for your garden. This will reduce the need for expensive and time-consuming watering.

One important component of sustainable gardening is composting. Composting is quite easy, and allows you to turn kitchen waste back into valuable nutrients and fertilizer for your garden -- in essence, think of it as recycling your garbage! Composting can help you avoid adding toxic chemical fertilizers to your food, soil, and groundwater supply. And it's very easy to do!

You can find many websites with suggestions for the ins and outs of composting, but basically all you need is kitchen scraps, and a bin or place to build a compost pile. (See our Sustainable Gardening blog for lots of helpful tips and how-to videos.) Even if you live in the city or an apartment, there are many different options for compost bins that are enclosed and sanitary, and can fit in a very small space. (We like the Envirocycle Backyard Compost Tumbler, but there are a number of other options available.) 

After a few months, you will be able to use your newly created, rich, beautiful compost to enhance your sustainable gardening efforts in a way you can be proud of!

But what if you live in the city or in a condo or small apartment? Can you still practice sustainable gardening?

Yes, you can!

Sustainable gardening can be done in a tiny corner, a patio, or even a big pot!

If you only have a few feet of garden space, the "Square Foot" concept may work well for you, by maximizing the use of your space, with minimal resources. You may be amazed at how much you can grow! Even if you have no ground space at all, Square Foot Gardening can still work in some situations. Depending on your patio space, you may be able to build raised beds and use this method (see the book for more details).

If you don't even have enough space for this, you can also garden in large pots. You may be a bit more limited in what you can grow, but some plants, such as tomatoes, strawberries, and many types of herbs and flowers, do quite well in pots.

Some of these methods will allow you to water and fertilize much more efficiently, which will maximize your resources, while minimizing your costs. And don't forget that sustainable gardening can also save you money on groceries!

Click here for some great resources to learn more about sustainable gardening, plus essential tools that no gardener should be without:  http://newholisticliving.com/recommended-products-for-sustainable-gardening.html