Creating a More Earth Friendly Garden

Creating a greener garden is a great for so many reasons, but can be overwhelming when it comes to putting a plan for your garden into action.  Don’t stress! There are many simple steps to getting your garden more earth friendly.

Conserve Water

Florida can be hot, humid, and unforgiving.  When choosing plants for your Florida garden, select plants that can put up with the sun and heat.  Florida natives are called natives for a reason, they naturally do well in Florida If you choose to have a healthy mix of natives and non-natives (like me), put the right plant in the right place.  For instance, sun lovers shouldn’t be planted in the shade. Responsibly planting will minimize the amount of water needed.

Set up your irrigation system to manually control.  Florida’s rainy season will be here before we know it.  Save money and your plants from root rot by manually choosing when your garden needs to be watered.     

Compost

Don’t throw away veggie kitchen scraps or yard waste/debris.  Create a compost bin. This is a great way to add organic matter to your yard and minimize the amount of waste sent to the land fields!

Upcycle or Recycle

We’ve all seen those insanely cute upcycled garden photos on Pinterest.  Get inspired, plan one upcycle project using discarded household items (like a chair, broken wheel barrow, etc).  

Garden supplies can get expensive, real quick.  Save money and minimize waste by recycling or upcycling.  Egg containers are perfect for starting your seedlings. Instead of disposing of all things in the recycling bin, take another look and think about repurposing.      

Grow Your Own

Vegetables and herbs grown in your own garden taste always seem to taste better.  Plus, it’s always fun to brag! Start by researching what vegetables or herbs grow well in your area, or hardiness zone and when is the best time to plant them.  Buying seeds is less expensive than a full grown plant and you can reuse old pots instead of adding to your container collection.

Welcome Pollinator Friends

Pollinators are important to the life cycle of plants.  Bee nice to pollinators by planting their plant buddies.  Did you know the milkweed plant is the only food that monarch caterpillars eat to transform into beautiful butterflies?  Check out what kind are native to your area: Monarch Watch.

Minimize or Eliminate Chemical Usage

Fertilizers have been directly linked to environmental disasters, like the massive fish kill that happened to the Indian River Lagoon not more than four years ago.  To be fair, fertilizers were not the only contributing factor to the Indian River Lagoon’s health issues, but as garden and lawn caretakers we can minimize our contribution to these tragedies. It’s been proven that the health of the soil directly impacts the health of your plants or grass.  Improve your soils health with organic matter (compost and yard waste) and other good trace elements to promote a healthy ecosystem that doesn’t need chemicals to thrive.

If you must use chemicals, be responsible.  In Brevard County, Florida, the fertilizer ordinance states that homeowners should use fertilizers that contain 50% or LESS slow release nitrogen and only apply between October 1st and May 31st.  Read the labels of your products and only use as much as recommended.

Some say every day is Earth Day when you have a garden.  By starting with simple steps, your garden can make a difference in promoting a healthy, sustainable future for your local ecosystem and the planet.