Sustainable Gardening

Grow a "greener" low-maintenance landscape with fewer resources

Vincent Simeone

• Publisher: Cool Springs Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780760370377
• Topic: Biowissenschaften
• Subtopic: Gartenbau

Take practical steps to protect the Earth for future generations by creating a sustainable home landscape that is also beautiful, budget-friendly, and low-maintenance.

In this updated edition of Grow More With Less, author and horticulturist Vincent Simeone shows us that gardens are living laboratories where we can experiment, grow, and connect with other living things.There are tens of millions of gardeners across the globe. Together, we can create a huge and lasting positive impact on the planet and all the creatures who share it with us.

With the well-researched plan found in the pages of Sustainable Gardening, gardeners and homeowners are taught how to:

• Grow more plants while using fewer resources
• Conserve water through plant choice and proper landscape care
• Stop the disposable mindset
• Mitigate the effects of climate change through intelligent landscaping
• Plan and plant with low-maintenance in mind
• Build healthy soil to sequester carbon and grow healthier plants
• Create a garden that supports wildlife and soil life
• Design your garden for resiliency and a long, healthy life
• Banish synthetic pesticides and herbicides for more eco-friendly choices
• Reduce plastic waste in the garden and the landfill
• Set your garden on a schedule to reduce maintenance needs
• Harvest rainwater for future use
• Adopt a sustainable lawn care program that requires less work and fewer resources

Plus, discover profiles of some of the best shrubs, perennials, and ornamental grasses to include in your sustainable landscape. Not only are they beautiful and low-care, they also provide valuable ecosystem services.

Sustainability is defined as the capacity to endure, and while the term sustainability may seem a bit overused these days, the truth is that there are few other words that convey the same message. Adaptablity and resilience are close, but they miss the mark in conveying the long-term aspects of true sustainability. Being more mindful of your actions and learning how everything you do in your landscape impacts the ecosystem found there generates a more thoughtful and responsible approach to gardening we all would be wise to adopt.

CHAPTER 1

ECO-FRIENDLY STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR YOUR GARDEN

Setting Up a Blueprint for the Future

The term eco-friendly is used quite often, but do you truly know the meaning and intent of the term? Many people don’t. Eco-friendly is an abbreviated version of ecologically friendly or environmentally friendly and basically means the activities, products, practices, and policies that do the least amount of harm to the environment. Companies and organizations have used this term regularly as a marketing tool to make their products more attractive to consumers. In the garden realm, eco-friendly can have very specific and direct significance. For example, compost and processed organic products are marketed as eco-friendly products because they are derived from plant and animal matter. It seems only natural that this recycling process of returning to the earth what came from it is the right thing to do. Eco-friendly products can include a wide range of recyclables, such as fertilizer, paper, and cardboard; recycled plastic and rubber products; recycled wood products; and more. Eco-friendly activities can range from using greywater (recycling wastewater as a source of nonpotable water to wash clothes or water the lawn) to riding a bike to school or the mall rather than using a car. Using energy conservation initiatives and equipment that reduces harmful emissions is not only eco-friendly but is economical as well.

Eco-friendly strategic planning takes the term eco-friendly to a whole new level and validates why sustainability is so meaningful. There is no question that in order to be successful at creating a sustainable garden, you have to do a little research, be prepared, and have a plan in place before starting. A gardener without a plan is destined to waste time and money trying to piece together various sustainability practices with no clear sense of direction. Planning gives you the opportunity to map out a schedule, prioritize, and list the goals that will undoubtedly make your life easier in the long run.

PLANNING FOR THE LONG TERM

As I mentioned in the book’s introduction, long-term planning is a key element in developing a sustainable garden. Proper planning and design will enable your home landscape to survive the stress of an ever-changing, challenging world that includes extreme environmental conditions, increased pressure from pests, and other environmental challenges. If we have learned anything from t...