Smart strategies to achieve a sustainable garden

The selection of materials for your new garden is difficult and time consuming. There are so many products out there to choose from. And what do we do with the existing materials? Nadia Pomare from Stylish Gardens shares her tips for purchasing new materials and products for your garden, and offers solutions for recycling existing materials.

Recycle what you already have • Bricks and Pavers: These can be reclaimed from elsewhere. • Concrete, Bricks, and other aggregates: These can be crushed and used as back fill on the same site, or for drainage purposes. They can also be sent to a recycler and turned into crushed rock to make an interesting mulch or pathway. • Tiles and Glass: Both can be crushed into smooth pieces for interesting garden mulch or broken into pieces to create artistic mosaic landscape elements, including pathways. • Topsoil: So often this is lifted along with the rubble when clearing the site, and disposed of. A common mistake.

This should be piled up onsite ready for reuse. Treat it like gold, as there is nothing you can buy which will be as good for your plants as natural topsoil. • Soil: Using the original soil found beneath your topsoil will assist when selecting suitable plants for this environment. Improving the soil with organic matter and sand can be a more sustainable option than simply replacing all the soil. • Large rocks: Re-use as seating, features, retaining soil on slopes, building retaining walls. • Gravels and small stones:

Re-use in drainage, water features, as mulch for garden beds and pots, and in paving details. Choices towards a more Sustainable Garden • Choose local products from a controlled source, which have travelled minimal distance and therefore have less impact on greenhouse gas emissions. • Timbers should be local and purpose grown timbers (from local plantations). • Aged and recycled timbers are a good choice as carbon is stored for a longer period of time. • Large Rocks and Stone should be sourced locally from licensed quarries.

Sometimes a surplus results as a by product of the quarrying process. • Rocks are often removed in redevelopment and road construction.

A good use of the land development by-product. • Products (such as furniture), which are transported over minimal distances and are made from local products. • Item existing on-site, and are being re-used or transformed and recycled. • Composite products that incorporate recycled plastic waste. • Reclaiming re-cycled materials. • Made artificially but from recycled materials such as plastics or tires. • Use durable materials. • Act energy-wise. • Act water-wise. • Use materials that are not toxic or harmful to the environment. What to Avoid • Choosing products that have been imported from overseas or have travelled long distances. • Using stones and pebbles, which have been removed from natural living landscapes such as rivers and natural bush land. This can result in unnecessary erosion and loss of habitat. • Petroleum-based products. • Toxic materials and products. • Using high processed materials.

This usually means high-energy consumption during the manufacture of the product. • Using rainforest timber, or timber from old trees. • Processed, chemically treated timber or kiln-dried boards. Choose air-dried, rough sawn instead. • Over ordering of materials as this results in excess waste.

Nadia Pomare www.stylishgardens.com.au