The environment is the ever unbelievable design on the earth. A perfect garden is on everyone’s minds, and if you have a garden, you have an opportunity to contribute to protecting the nature. But what does a eco-friendly garden actually look like, and what features does it have? You might imagine an untamed, overgrown jungle teeming with wildflowers and insects. Nowadays, however, even the slickest contemporary garden designs can be environmentally friendly, thanks to a combination of ethically-sourced materials and innovative technology. 

Healthyliving.lk had previously published an article on the Ideas for an eco-friendly home gardening. From this article we can discuss some more tips that are very important for a successful eco-friendly home garden. 

 Mulching

Another important technique that home gardeners can employ to create low-maintenance, a healthy garden is mulching. Mulching has a multitude of benefits. It prevents by the drying out of the soil suppresses the growth of weeds. Mulch can be moderate the soil temperature for a desirable level for the microbial activities. By using the mulch we can, reduces compaction of soil and adds nutrients to the soil. A perfect mulch will prevents erosion into some extend and it is adding to the ambiance of the gardens. Mulching may be done as soon as you’ve planted something; it may also be done to cover the bare soil in your garden. It’s one of the most important constituents of a sustainable garden.

Using Low CF Lawn Mowers

It is very important to cut the grass accordingly to maintain a well furbish green lawn in your garden for a nice green patch. If we do not use the trimming of grass in perfect timing it is very difficult to maintain it perfectly. We should trim grass accordingly to the growth of particular grass variety. The perfect time to trim the grass land is when it is grown up to 2 ½- 3” in height. It is best to trim before the flowering occurs of the grass for a uniform turf. The buffalo grass Stenotaphrum secundatum and mini buffalo grass are the most popular turf grass species recommended to home gardens with low maintenance. If you want to reduce your carbon footprint in your home garden, it is a good idea to use a mechanically operated (manually operated) lawn mower or electrically operated one. Decline or reduce the use of gas powered lawn mower as its emitting more CO₂ and CO to atmosphere. 

Planting More Trees

Planting trees helps store carbon from the atmosphere into the soil. It also helps cool your surroundings in the dry periods. Moreover, good, strong trees are a gorgeous sight to behold. You can personally feel that every garden should have at least one tree or two for a nice view. However, if your garden doesn’t have enough room for one, you can always have miniature trees on the pots- we call it Bonsai. That being said, if planting trees at home, you need to be careful about where you plant them so they don’t damage your property like your brick or parapet walls. Healthyliving.lk wishing to post an article regarding the Bonsai Techniques to improve your gardening skills further. So stay tuned!   

Conserve Water Resources

Water conservation is essential. A sustainable gardener conserves water resources by using rain barrels to store and use rainwater in their garden. Rain water harvesting is a very good water conservation method. Rain gardens may also be developed by producing terraces that store rainwater and protect it against fast evaporation. The goal of a sustainable gardener should be to only use natural sources of water such as rain water or rivers. In areas where rain is scarce, irrigation or direct watering tools such as a watering can be employed to use the water as in drops/ droplets for the cultivations. Automated tools such as the sprinkler are faster, but they also lead to a lot of wastage and you may not know it, but many plants don’t fare well with sprinklers. Although the drip irrigation system is comparatively fair to sprinkler irrigation systems because the water wet only the roots of plants without wasting it on the leaves but the best option to harvest the rain water and store them where we can use in dry periods. So you can install a butt on every downpipe – you can use expelled tubs. If you have the space, consider an underground rain tank. Larger ones can easily collect enough water for the average garden. Clever cost-cutting irrigation helps too, like : repair leaky pond liners; buy large pots for plants as they don’t dry out as quickly; and don’t mow the lawn too low in hot weather.

 Fertilize with Manure

Manure is one of the best sustainable fertilizers that can you can nourish your plants with. If you’ve got your own livestock then that’s awesome, but if you don’t you can try looking for some farmers in your local area who may have some you can buy. The best options are cow dung, poultry litter (especially the litter of Layers – this litter is 2-3 years that old enough to enrich with relevant nutrients with the layer farming) and goat manure. The cow urine also highly rich in essential plant nutrients Nitrogen, Prosperous and Potassium.   

Loppings

Gliricidia sepium leaves are very rich in Nitrogen.  It is excellent for most plants. It has many essential nutrients required by plants for healthy growth. If you live in an area where you may find Gliricidia sepium in abundance, collect it, pat dry it in a open area crushed well. Then mix to your plants later. 

Live Fences

The protective live fence is a treasurer to your garden and cost cutting idea to your kitchen. You can plant more plants in your live fence and you can lock the protection and other advantages in the same time. We can plant fruit or edible trees like Moringa oleifera, Murraya koenigii, Garcinia gummi-gutta and Myristica fragrans. Also you can easily grow Diospyros ebenum, Chloroxylon swietenia, Vitex pinnata as your timber trees. Most of fruit, edible or timber trees are having medicinal values too. 

High-Tolerance, Low-Water Plants

Another way to conserve resources while having a marvelous garden is to plant high-tolerance plants that require less maintenance and water. These plants are perfect for a beautiful, earth-friendly garden. There’s plenty of creative additions that you can make to add a personal touch to your sustainable garden. It’s a wonderful hobby that promises good exercise, healthy food, and benefits to the environment! 

There are some more tips for a beautiful green garden. So Healthyliving.lk hope to bring you the finest and most convenient ideas for a eco-friendly gardening in the next article.