Exploring Sustainable Gardening Practices

    Nothing tastes better or is more sustainable than a home grown fruit or vegetable, nothing more healthy too. The pride I always felt picking something that I helped grow was how my dad hooked me on gardening. Every year my dad tilled a small, sunny plot in the back yard. And every year the constant care required to tend to the bare soil was an up-hill battle. The weeds always took over and like most people, we gave up and let it grow over just to till the same soil again next year. I figured, in my inexperience, that a person would have to work endless hours to always have a “nice” garden.

    Twenty years later and many books later, I have discovered a better way to garden; permaculture gardening. Permaculture is an amalgamation of two words- permanent and agriculture, Bill Mollison states it also means “permanent culture, as cultures cannot survive for long without a sustainable agricultural base and land use ethic" (Mollison 1). I could never cover every design principle of permaculture, but this article will guide a person towards a more sustainable garden. When I first started my sustainable garden, I figured out what my growing zone was and researched what grew best in my area. I live in 8b, but many years here in the coastal south, 9a conditions occur. This is something I kept in mind while planning my garden. To keep it simple, we’ll go over four main tasks that can be implemented to create a more sustainable garden: stay organic, make compost, put down mulch, and plant and promote diversity

Why Organic?

    One of the first permaculture design principles is to observe and interact. Some modern gardeners have been falsely taught that when a person sees a pest, it is sprayed with insecticide, fungicide, etc. Chemical solutions to a garden problem can disturb nature’s solution to said problem. Think of this scenario: A person sprays insecticides and consequentually dragonfly populations are harmed and then there are even more mosquitoes in the first place.

    Not to mention, how pollinators such as bees are affected by insecticides. Gardeners definitely need bees if they want food. So stay organic to stay sustainable in your garden and learn as much as you can about organic solutions before using them in your garden.

The Importance of Composting.

    Composting is not only sustainable for the garden but also for the household. According to the EPA, “Food scraps and yard waste make up more than 28 percent” of what American households throw away (“Composting at Home”). Compost is also great for the garden because if feeds the micro-organisms that are alive in the soil. All these organisms play a role in the health of plants in a sustainable garden.

    The making of compost can be as easy or as hard as you  make it. I used pallets to create a designated area for food scraps, leaf litter, grass clippings, shredded paper, and cardboard. I also use a vermiculture (worm) composting bin which also provides free worm castings. I just throw everything together and let it all break down, sometimes I turn it, sometimes I don’t. The point is to not worry so much and get composting because of how much it saves on waste and helps in the garden.

Mulch.

    Mulch has been my biggest “ah ha” moment, and once I really mulled it over I realized how much it made sense. In nature, you don’t ever really see bare soil, for example, a forest floor is covered in leaves, moss, and fungi. I personally use free wood chips that I sourced from my area. They dump them at my house, and I spread them where I need them. I also collect bagged leaves that my neighbors throw out on trash days. I get all this mulch for free too. I have also heard of other people using straw/hay, but I am wary about using it from my area since it’s sprayed with herbacides that can kill certain crops, which can leech into your garden. Mulch is so important for water absorption and water retention, not to mention that as it breaks down it provides nutrients to the soil. I also love mulching to stop the growth of weeds and protect the soil.

Diversity is the Key

    Believe it or not, a lot of annuals will grow side by side with many perennials. Annuals are plants that must be grown from seed year after year, although a sustainable garden may have many annuals that re-seed themselves. Perennials, on the other hand, grow back every year, for example, a pear tree or asparagus. Growing a variety of perennials and annuals in a garden provides scattered yields season to season and if one plant fails the garden has enough variety to provide a different yield. Diversity of plants that are created by planting a food forest, for example, also provides shelter to wildlife and promotes predators of common garden pests; wasps, birds, lizards, and toads.

    By practicing sustainable gardening, I have found that most of the problems my dad and I ran into as a kid were a symptom of unhealthy soil and unsustainable practices. Good gardeners are constantly learning and always observing. Not only will you grow healthy food for your family, but you will support the ecosystem around you.

 

   

Definitions for Young Readers

1. Sustainable- able to be maintained at a certain rate or level, in this context, the garden starts to maintain naturally with less work and outside inputs from the gardener.

2. Amalgamation- the action of combining, in this case, two words.

3. Insecticide- a substance used for killing insects.

4. Fungicide- a chemical that destroys fungus.

5. Compost- decaying organic material used as a plant fertilizer.

6. Mulch- a material such as leaves, bark, or compost that is spread around a plant to enrich and insulate the soil.

7. Annuals- plants that complete a life cycle within one growing season and then dies.

8. Perennials- plants that have a continuous life cycle that lasts longer than two years.

9. Yield- the product from a garden

10. Diversity- a wide range of different things.