Going Green in Your Garden ...

With the multitude of pollutants in the air and soil today, I try to do my part by being as green as possible in my garden. I don’t use pesticides, herbicides, or any other chemical for that matter. If you are also interested in going green in your garden, then read on for some useful tips.

I compost all our food scraps and make a nice layer of these, grass clippings, saw dust, and old newspapers. The mix is rich and dark after it has had time to decompose. My father actually does what he refers to as lasagna gardening. This involves taking the same items I mentioned above, but layering it on the ground and then planting seeds directly into this mixture. The newspaper is the ‘noodle’ part of the mix and all the rest gets placed between the sheets of paper.

When I have to start new plants in the spring, I don’t go out and buy all those cute little starting pots. Even though they are adorable and look great sitting on my kitchen window sill, they are just contributing to the trash already present in the world. I save up yogurt containers, cardboard egg cartons, and small butter dishes. I prefer the egg cartons the best since I can cut them apart when the plants are big enough to place in the ground. These cartons also can go right into the dirt, since they fall apart when they get wet.

Harvesting rainwater off of the roof is another chore that I’m glad to do. There are a lot more minerals and other nutrients in the rain water that plants love. They’d prefer to drink this than to have me let the garden hose trickle on them. It also saves money on utility costs.

I hope these few tips will help you on your quest for becoming a green gardener as well. Do you have other green methods that you’d like to share? How do you deal with pests? If you have any natural methods for taking care of pests, then feel free to share those as well.

Top Photo Credit: Mawhrin Skel