Sustainable gardens
Sustainable gardening boils down to simply this: when you take away, give back. It’s a matter of using renewable resources. Choose plants that will thrive under existing conditions and improve soil quality by using organic matter from a compost heap. And be a producer of something as well as a consumer: even a few pots of homegrown tomatoes and some herbs will yield a summer’s worth of pasta sauce, and you won’t have to get in the car to drive to the grocery store.
The homesteading trend includes an emphasis on canning and freezing homegrown fruit and veggies, too, reducing dependence on others for basic needs.
Include recycled materials in the landscape design, such as reclaimed wood or old stone. Even empty wine bottles can be put to creative use in the landscaping (try upending and embedding a row of them to border a garden plot, and light from the inside with fiber-optics for a colorful nighttime effect). Use local materials where possible, reducing the garden’s carbon footprint and keeping the local community thriving as well.
