44 Sustainable Gardening Tips

5. I recycle drink cups to grow tomatoes from seed. When they’re ready to transplant, I simply remove the bottom inch or so of each cup and plant directly in the ground. This prevents cutworms from making a meal of my transplants. — S., California

6. I was given some heavy-duty metal “for sale” sign frames, and I placed them in my raised beds to support bed covers in early spring. — Kat, California

7. Old pantyhose are my friends: They make garden ties, and I use them to “bag” cantaloupes growing on trellises so the melons have extra support. — Donna, North Carolina

8. I make all my garden fencing with scrap wood and build my veggie trellises and arbors with fallen branches and saplings. — Irene, New Jersey

9. My plant tags are twigs with a shaved-off area to write on. — Michelle, New York

10. For a cold frame in late winter, we prop old windows against straw bales. When I know we’re in danger of a frost, I take old bean poles and jab them into the ends of my beds, throw old sheets over them, use stones or bricks to hold down the edges, and voilà! I have a makeshift tent in my garden. — Liz, Ohio

Saving water and conserving energy

11. I’ve come to discover that mulching heavily is a water-saving essential. It could be store-bought mulch, dead plant materials, chipped up pieces of trees, etc. Lately I’ve been using downed pine cones. After you start looking around, it’s all you see. — Cam, Colorado

12. I make small ditches between my plant rows to funnel water right to the plants, and I have a cistern under my house that catches much of the rainwater my barrels can’t. — Pat, Missouri

13. My husband got a laundry sink at a yard sale that we hook a hose to for cleaning vegetables outside. A bucket underneath saves the water (and nutrients from the soil) so we can put it back on the garden. — Jeannemarie, Maryland

14. I no longer drive to the gym or turn on exercise equipment as a couple of hours of “aerobic gardening” a day keep me in good shape. Thanks to working from home and eating from the garden, I can go a couple of weeks without turning on a car. — Phil, Pennsylvania

15. I conserve solar heat by enclosing my two parallel raised beds with hoop-style covers in spring and fall. The beds are surrounded on both sides and down the center by a 2-foot-wide brick walkway. This whole area is then covered with another larger hoop house through winter. The heat absorbed by the bricks keeps the greenhouse warmer longer. — Ian, Pennsylvania

16. I weed by hand or with a hoe and minimize machine tilling. I find my plants grow better because the network of goodness that grows under the soil’s surface is allowed to flourish. — Carol, Massachusetts

17. I use two windmills. One of the windmills turns a generator that powers batteries for electric power, and the other runs the pump for the well by the garden. — James, Maryland

Zero-waste gardening

18. We save urine and dilute it to use as fertilizer. Sounds gross, I know, but I have never seen plants grow so well! — Amanda, Kansas

19. Whenever I’m chopping vegetables for a meal, I save the excess bits I’ve cut off of veggies that are well-suited for making soup stock: onion skins, stems of leafy greens, carrot ends, etc. I store all of these in a plastic bag in my freezer, and when I’ve gotten a good stash saved up, I make a batch of fresh veggie stock, relegating the veggie bits to my compost pile after draining the stock. — Jennifer, Kansas

20. When starting a new garden, I first spread out household paper waste (old bills, homework, cereal boxes) and soak it in water. Then, whenever I weed or rake leaves, this refuse goes on the paper. A season’s worth of debris lands in the area, and it gets topped off with compost in fall. The bed is ready for planting the following spring. — Amanda, New York

21. We don’t waste anything. If we can’t eat it, the chickens can. When we clean out the coop, the manure goes straight to the compost pile. We don’t burn any brush or clippings; it’s all shredded and used as mulch or composted. — Kat, California

22. Everything in the garden, including veggies the bugs got to before me, goes to the compost pile. At season’s end, I uproot my expired plants for compost before seeding cover crops, which get worked into the next season’s beds. Grass clippings and raked leaves get put around and over plants that are being overwintered to keep them from freezing. I collect manure for fertilizer from local farms, and I collect discarded cardboard and paper for my worm bins. — S., California

23. All supplies like ties and plant markers are recycled or repurposed (rags are torn into strips, popsicle sticks or leftover lumber are plant markers). I make every attempt to minimize all that comes in or goes out of the garden. To be truly sustainable, the entire homestead must work on the closed-loop principle. — Carol, Massachusetts

24. My best investment: a small electric garden chipper-shredder. I put prunings and garden waste through the chipper and then on the compost pile. This method reduces the volume of waste and speeds composting. — Elizabeth, British Columbia

Integrating livestock in your gardening

5. I integrate my farm animals by using their manure and bedding for mulching. I feed weeds and extra food that is not able to be used by humans to the animals. There is no waste at my home — something always eats it, and then that something is either eaten or contributes to the food cycle. I also use some of my chickens to eat my squash and potato bugs. They are delighted at the treats! — Laurie, Vermont

26. I’ve trained my goats to pull a cart and supplies. I make completely organic fertilizer and buy the ingredients in bulk, which cuts down on transit. — Lauren, Washington

27. We have 240 square feet of composting area to which we add chicken poop. The chicken area is expanded into the garden at the end of the season for cleanup. — Angela, Indiana

28. Forget the old saying about goats eating the stickers — use pigs! They eat the vines from the ground up, eat the roots, and then till, leaving you with nice ground. — Lisa, Washington

29. I plant some crops for the chickens (Swiss chard is a good one), and in return I get eggs plus manure for compost. I’ve also hauled loads of autumn leaves into the chicken yard to be turned over, scratched into bits and fertilized through winter, and to then be worked into beautiful compost in spring. — Lori, Oregon

30. Cows, goats and sheep eliminate the need for a mower, and guinea hens eat up the insects in my garden. — Kamia, Missouri

31. I use ducks for pest control and horses for lawn mowing. — Cindi, Pennsylvania

32. Try putting your compost pile in your chicken run — let the chickens do the breaking down and turning. — Joy, Iowa

33. My compost pile is enriched by rabbit droppings. I also use compost as a worm bed for chicken feed and for fish bait for my grandkids. — Doc, Ohio

Sustainable gardening tools, supplies and amendments

34. Most of my tools are homemade, as I have a forge and blacksmith shop. If I can’t make a tool, then I buy at flea markets or garage sales. — Allan, Iowa

35. My favorite tool is an old-fashioned hand sickle. It’s handy for quick trimming jobs. Who wants to fight a noisy, balky weed-eater engine? — Margi, Oregon

36. I have no gas-powered tools. I use hand tools that have been passed down to me, or I repair discarded tools. I have made a broadfork, as they are rare in my area. My favorite tools are my own two hands. — Adam, Washington

37. I got a truckload of elephant compost from the local zoo. It cost me $43. I use that and soil from the chicken run. — Amy, South Carolina

38. We have bought or scrounged biomass and even woody prunings from neighbors. My husband has gone to the local harbor to bring back fish waste from fishermen for the compost. If supplies must be bought, my first choice is compostable or used, then recyclable and recycled. For us, it’s a defeat to purchase something new, especially if it isn’t recyclable. — Darien, Washington

39. We buy local. Any lumber we need is locally harvested and milled down the road. Our path and boundary stones are free quarry waste. — Ken, Pennsylvania

40. We collect seaweed, dry it in a wooden box and crush it with a heavy roller. Seaweed has all of the elemental requirements for most plants’ needs. We shred coconut husks from our own trees for “cocopeat” for water retention. — Lance, Cayman Islands

41. I have three friends with livestock who bring me manure. This year, I talked a local park manager into letting me come mow up maple leaves. — Lisa, Washington

42. I’ve asked tree-trimming companies that are trimming near electrical lines to let me take their chipped material to use for mulch. I’ve also picked up bagged leaves on the curb. — Robin, Missouri

43. I use as many products listed by OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) as possible. We use cover crops in winter to revive planting beds, and when we pull up the cover crops in spring, the material goes to the compost pile. — Fran, California

44. Compost is my No. 1 amendment. Plus, I’ve started to invest in professional soil testing so that we aren’t adding things that the soil doesn’t actually need. — Elizabeth, British Columbia

Source: www.motherearthnews.com