Sustainable gardening ideas

INSPIRATION | green thumb Find out what you can do to make the world a better place – beginning in your backyard! Sustainable gardening ideas

by MARK & BEN CULLEN

Whether you define yourself as a gardener or not, we hope you find the following suggestions helpful. These are our top four ideas for making your yard, which is an integral part of the community around you, an environmentally better place for all:

Hang your laundry

Every year, Canadians use an average of 100 kilowatt-hours of energy using the clothes dryer. Your clothes dryer uses as much power as 225 lightbulbs. In total, for all Canadians, this is roughly equivalent to the output of three coal-fired power plants per year. It’s important to note that you can save up to $250 a year by drying your clothes outside.

Buy a rake

This suggestion is a not-so-subtle way of saying that you should not buy a gas-powered leaf blower. And if you have one, ignore it and let it hang in the garage until it rots. Giving it away means that someone else might use it, and that would defeat the purpose. If everyone who uses a leaf blower instead used a fan rake (on the lawn) or a broom (on hard surfaces), imagine how much quieter our neighbourhoods would be. And how much more satisfying yard cleaning could be. There is more that you can do if you wish to add to the environmental benefits of living in a neighbourhood. You can trade your gas-powered lawnmower for one of the new lightweight, walkbehind, manual reel-type mowers or a rechargeable electric model.

Add water and don’t stir

Think of your yard as one patch in a patchwork of yards around your neighbourhood. And think of the patchwork of yards as part of a bigger whole that includes public parks, soccer fields and other public greenspaces. Got the snapshot in your mind? Now think of the positive impact you can have on the sustainable bioactivity in your neighbourhood by adding a water feature to your landscape. Environmentally speaking, still water (versus a waterfall or fountain) provides more benefits to the ecology of your outdoor space than any single addition that you can make. And all it takes is a half barrel of water and a few floating water-lettuce or water hyacinths. A ground-level pond is better still, where toads and frogs can play, drink, mate and live.

Plant natives

As you plan your garden for this upcoming season, be sure to add some native plants to your mix. They are insect and disease free, for the most part, and they attract all kinds of pollinating insects, birds and butterflies. Many perennial flowering plants are very winter-hardy and flower for an extended period each spring and summer. Some of our favourites include bee balm (Monarda spp.), purple coneflower (Echinacea spp.), Canadian ginger (Asarum canadense) and Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium spp.).

Mark Cullen is a Member of the Order of Canada. He reaches more than two million Canadians with his gardening/environment messages every week. Ben Cullen is a professional gardener with a keen interest in food gardening and the environment. You can follow both Mark and Ben on Twitter (@MarkCullen4), Facebook (facebook.com/MarkCullenGardening) and Instagram (instagram.com/markcullengardening). Receive their free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com.