4 Ways to Make Your Garden Eco-Friendly

With the coming climate crisis and the increased awareness of how our actions have impacted the world around us, many people are re-evaluating even the smallest of their practices to help maintain a happy, healthy planet.

If you have been growing your own garden, you might be surprised to find out that taking a closer look at your gardening practices is a great place to start. The commonly accepted wisdom regarding gardening doesn’t always take greener approaches into account, as gardening practices in the United States have led to harmful chemicals leaching into groundwater, a ridiculous amount of water wasted, and a variety of other detrimental impacts on the environment.

Yet, it can be difficult to know where to start. Going green is often correlated with expensive overhauls of everyday practices, and you may be thinking that a ridiculous amount of effort and thought will be required on your part to make the switch.

Luckily, there are a bunch of inexpensive, accessible ways to make your garden more eco-friendly: while you certainly can spend a lot of money on the latest and greatest green technology if you wish to, it’s not necessary.

Are you interested in learning more? Let’s get started.

1. Reduce The Use Of Chemical Herbicides

The use of herbicides like Roundup is common in the United States, despite the chemicals within being banned in most European nations. The main ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, has been correlated with several adverse health impacts for humans, causing the development of cancers like non-Hodgkins leukemia. And that’s just what Roundup can do to things it wasn’t made to impact.

While you may think the way you use herbicides is targeted and therefore safe, herbicides can leach into groundwater and even enter the atmosphere if volatilized, reaching thousands upon thousands of unintended targets. Herbicides have also been known to impact ecosystems by causing subtle but significant developmental changes in local wildlife, including mammals. Ditching chemical herbicides and substituting natural weed-killers in their place, like vinegar or a kettle of boiling water, will immediately reduce your overall ecological footprint.

2. Conserve Rainwater

Depending on what environment you live in, the way you conserve rainwater may be different: if you live in a more spacious area, consider placing a large container like a plastic tub or barrel outside to collect water. If you live in an apartment complex, smaller containers will do, or perhaps a device you can purchase. When it comes time to water your plants, using the rainwater you’ve collected instead of a hose or the faucet will cut down on your overall water usage.

3. Collect Scraps To Create A Compost Pile

While maybe not the most sustainable for people living in apartment complexes or similarly smaller, enclosed environments, collecting food waste and scraps and allowing them to break down can be an effective, all-natural way to fertilize your plants.

Many of the chemicals in market fertilizers can also be harmful if allowed to run-off into streams or leach down into the groundwater: substituting an all-natural alternative for purchasing chemical fertilizers may be an excellent way for some to eliminate the possibility of perpetuating this kind of damage.

4. Look Into Green Technology

Not all forms of green technology are expensive or work-intensive, and several may provide solutions to problems you’re not sure how to solve. Hydroponic gardening, for instance, is a system that allows one to grow plants without soil, feeding crops a nutrient-rich fluid instead.

This technology may make it easier for people who live in apartment complexes or other smaller dwellings to garden in a low-effort, low-impact fashion. While there are certainly more expensive models of this technology for industrial farmers, there are lower-cost options on the market for those just looking to garden sustainably.

5. Create A Self Sufficient Garden

There are several vegetables you should always grow in your garden to make it self sufficient.

1. Lettuce

The first vegetable to grow in your garden is lettuce. Lettuce is high in nutrients, but very low in calories.
Lettuce is a vegetable that can hydrate you very fast. If you feel thirsty, you only have to have a drink of lettuce by eating it.

Lettuce can also be used in your salad or in a sandwich like an egg and lettuce sandwich.

2. Carrots

Carrots are very tasty, juicy and healthy root vegetables. Being packed with vitamins and minerals, carrots can improve your eyesight. The antioxidants like lutein and beta carotene contained in carrots are responsible for an improved eyesight.

Carrots can grow well in many climates all year round, and they are also very productive plants.

3. Cabbage

It’s pretty easy to grow cabbage in your garden, but if you run into problems due to pests or the head of the vegetable takes too long to mature, you can grow mini cabbage. They don’t take long from seed to harvest, but only one mini cabbage still goes a long way to feed an entire family.

4. Beetroot

Beetroot is considered a super food due to the high amount of vitamins and minerals contained. Beets are also high in fiber and low in calories and fat.

These veggies are very easy to grow, plus beside the roots, you can also eat the tops, exactly like in the case of regular leafy vegetables.

Being really versatile and productive, you can grow beets in your garden.

5. Onion

You can use onion practically in everything from sauces to sausage sizzles. You have to put the onion on the bread first, because this way you will feel the taste and you will fully benefit from it.

Onions come with several health benefits, such as regulating blood sugar, helps to strengthen your bones, lowers cholesterol levels, inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria and parasites in your stomach and gut, and can also boost the immune system.

Going Green: The Road Less Traveled

Take the time to try some of these methods out, and conduct research when possible in other ways you can reduce your impact on the environment. While it may seem like a lot of work for little reward, you’re helping keep our planet healthy and keeping the future bright for generations to come.