Written by Zack Batchelder, Operations Intern
Creating a home garden has an incredible amount of environmental benefits to go along with personal perks such as fresh fruits and veggies. There are many simple steps to take to create an environmentally conscious home garden that will help you make small but effective impacts on climate change. The best part is that following these steps will also make your garden more productive and successful!
One of the easiest steps to take is to start a compost bin for your food scraps: fruits/vegetable waste, egg shells, and coffee grounds are all compostable. These will break down with the help of decomposers, leaving you with an effective and free fertilizer for your garden. Not only will you be helping the environment by creating better soil, conserving water and reducing waste, but you will also save yourself plenty of money that would have been spent on overpriced, store-bought fertilizer.
Another important step to be conscious of is saving water. There are a few ways you can do this. One option is to install a drip irrigation system which saves water, time and money by automatically turning on at certain times in the day. You can also choose to grow plants that require less water as well as fixing any leaky watering lines as soon as they are noticed. Another way to save money and water is to purchase a rainwater collector to catch any excess water, which will add up in the long run.
A few other helpful tips to make your garden as eco-friendly as possible: simply use environmentally friendly materials and organic seeds when planting your at-home garden. It is also crucial to not use (or at least limit the use of) chemicals to kill pests, bugs and weeds because these are very damaging to the environment. Chemicals in pesticides can contaminate soil and water along with harm local birds, fish, and other wildlife in the area who may become exposed to the harmful elements.
These are only a few of the many ways that you can create an environmentally conscious garden. We encourage you to be creative and come up with new ways on your own. No matter what you do, remember that it all adds up when it comes to combating climate change!
Aktar, Md Wasim, et al. “Impact of Pesticides Use in Agriculture: Their Benefits and Hazards.” Interdisciplinary Toxicology, Slovak Toxicology Society SETOX, Mar. 2009, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2984095/
“How to Choose a Garden Irrigation System.” DripWorks, 10 Nov. 2020, https://www.dripworks.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-garden-irrigation-system
James, Matt. “13 Ways to Create an Eco-Friendly Garden.” Real Homes, Real Homes, 24 July 2018, https://www.realhomes.com/us/advice/creating-an-eco-friendly-garden