Screenshot: Gardening -- Flickr
Our mother earth is going through a very tough situation and we, the entire human race is very much responsible for this. We are destroying our environment consciously or unconsciously without even realizing its consequences. Now we have to act very smart and plan something to sustain what we still have. We have to think about our future generation as well, so that they get all necessary support from the nature to lead healthy lives. To do so we need to use all natural amenities very smartly.
Gardening is always an excellent and environment friendly idea and if you can go for sustainable gardening then it will be even more useful for all. Growing your own food is a good always helps. Gardening is a favorite hobby for many. It is the time to channelize your hobby towards a more meaningful motive. Even if you are a newbie you can start thinking about sustainable gardening. No matter how small your effort is, sustainable strategies have great impact. We are trying to green nowadays to protect our environment. There are many other small things which we can do contribute. You need not to make a lot of changes in your daily life if you go for gardening with sustainable measures. Slight effort from your side can do the trick.
What is sustainability: Sustainability is a way to maintain or to endure natural resources that we need to survive. Nature has so many things to offer us, but misusing those resources can be dangerous for us and our future generation. We have been misusing natural resources since long time now. So now we have to be careful and need to use these resources carefully so that we continue using them always without any deficiency. To make this picture clearer, we can take one of the major natural resource into consideration and that is water. Water deficiency is a common problem which we can address by using sustainable measures. Water deficiency is not only a single problem but it is having many more heavy impacts associated with it. Sustainability is using water and all other natural resources in a planned way to minimize their misuse and to save and protect them as much as possible so that we can use them forever.
Sustainable gardening: When we do gardening we need to use few ingredients to grow plants. Some of them are natural resources like, water, landscape, soil, sunshine, and many things like this. Using these resources smartly is a part of sustainable gardening. This way we can make it even more healthy and green. Now there are few techniques which you can use for sustainable gardening. This is very simple. We can use less water and can use organic things to grow plants as well. These are the basic sustainable measures. To do so we need to have proper knowledge about gardening and its requirement so that we can use proper resources without wasting any of them. To do so we can research about the plants we want to grow. Only then we can use proper quantity of water and can design the landscape as per requirement. Here are few measures:
- Oscillating Sprinklers are not a great option always. You can use soaker hoses so that you do not waste any water.
- You can try to store rain water so that you can use them for gardening. Rain water harvesting is a great sustainable measure.
- Try use less energy driven devices for gardening and if you use any like a lawn mower, try to have it serviced on a regular basis.
- Avoid using plastics in any form while gardening. Plastics are not good for us and our environment.
- Select your plants smartly. If you have lesser space, then choose your plants accordingly.
- You can reuse the leaves from your garden to compost them.
- Don't use the waste from your garden for land filling. Instead send them for recycling to your local waste recycling program.
In today's busy life we don't get much time to get in tune with our environment. Gardening gives us a chance to do so. It helps to create a healthier environment too. From producing oxygen to creating some more greenery, gardening always helps. We also can have some pesticide free, fresh food if we grow them in our garden. This way there are various benefits of gardening. This is a great way to work out along with nature and enjoy its fruits for a long time. It is not that we need a vast area to start gardening. There are various procedures to do it using minimum spaces as well. We can do it in our terrace or in pots in the balcony in our apartments. So you don't have many excuses to procrastinate this time. This is the right time to act and do some good to protect our own environment and gardening is one of the easiest ways.