Every homeowner wants a perfect backyard. They dream of a backyard with a visually appealing landscape such as organized shrubs and trees. However, this can often come at the detriment of the environment. Here are some eco-friendly yard ideas:
Eco-friendly gardening is beneficial in a lot of aspects. Not only is it economical as it involves using recycled materials, but it can also be well designed, visually appealing, requires less maintenance, and helps reduce climate change. So, if you are a homeowner who loves gardening, this article will cover what makes an eco-friendly garden and some backyard ideas for eco-friendly gardeners. So, let’s begin.
What is an Eco-friendly Garden?
One might wonder, shouldn’t every garden be eco-friendly since they all grow organic plants? Well, it can be that simple, and it might not be. Aside from growing organic plants, an eco-friendly garden should have the right plant and follow good horticulture practices.
The best part is that an eco-friendly yard does not have to be expensive. You can easily build an eco-friendly garden by doing the following:
- Avoid all types of chemical or synthetic fertilizers.
- Utilize the natural climate and soil.
- Encourage native species.
- Conserve soil resources.
- Minimize supplemental water, etc.
It is important to note that you do not need to have an organic garden or be a professional gardener to have an eco-friendly garden. Thus, whether you enjoy growing vegetables for cooking or doing it for fun, there are numerous simple backyard ideas to build an eco-friendly garden.
10 Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas:
There are several benefits attached to eco-friendly gardens. So, it doesn’t matter why you own a garden; you should consider implementing one of these ideas to build an eco-friendly backyard.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Collect Rainwater
One of the simplest tips you can start utilizing today is water conservation to build an eco-friendly garden. First, start putting rain to good use by collecting water. You can purchase a water butt, rain barrel, or a large container to collect the rainwater. Then, you can use the rainwater collected to water your plants, flowers, and vegetables. Not only will this reduce your household water usage, but it will also help your plants grow better.
It is better to use rainwater for your backyard garden because tap water is often chlorinated. Hence, even if you use tap water without rainwater, it is important to note that chlorine can negatively affect the soil and plant. Also, while watering your plants in an eco-friendly garden, you should try to avoid hoses and sprinklers. Try to invest in a watering can or safe drinking water hoses instead.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Choose Native Plants
Native plants benefit gardens because they can support and encourage insects and wildlife. Additionally, native trees and plants are acclimated to the local climate and rainfall. So, you won’t need to change plants that do not work or have to spend money on maintaining plants that are not used to the climate.
Choosing native plants for your garden is beneficial to the environment because they are resistant to their environment and don’t require any fertilizer, chemicals, or supplemental watering to grow. However, if you want another plant aside from native plants, a tip to keeping a sustainable garden is to choose resilient plant varieties that can adapt to any climate. This way, they will require a little more maintenance than native plants but less intervention.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Plant More Ground Cover And Invest In Nets
Ground covers are more beneficial than grass because they require very little mowing, no additional watering, or need for chemicals or fertilizers. For instance, creeping perennials, clover, and even moss are excellent ground covers. They can all remain green in high heat and full sun.
Plus, clover is a nitrogen fixer. It tolerates soil compaction, requires little maintenance, unlike grass, and feels soft underfoot. In addition, investing in a strong net that you can use for a long time will help protect your crops from leaf-munching insects and wildlife.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Attract Pollinators With Nectar-rich Flowers
One of the most important ways to keep a sustainable garden is to attract pollinators, and if you want to do that, an easy way is to plant flowers rich in nectar. Flowering plants attract pollinators, and it is vital to note that different plants might attract different pollinators. Hence, that’s why having a variety of plants with different bloom times in your garden is necessary to support them and help your garden thrive.
Some common pollinators are butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, and bees. For instance, mason bees are very efficient pollinators because they have great pollinating abilities. However, they require specified shelter sizes. Hence, eco-friendly gardeners must support pollinators with chemical-free food sources, clean water, and safe shelter.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Don’t Cut Down Your Lawn
Some gardeners can’t bear the sight of a lawn with tall grass. However, it would be best if you tried to keep your grass as high as possible. A common tip is to leave your grass to grow taller before mowing and when you are mowing, leave the grass higher. This way, your lawn will retain more water, and the grass clippings, if left on the lawn, will keep it moist and healthy.
Grass clippings also provide a natural fertilizer for plants and help trap moisture in the soil. We recommend that you invest in a quality lawn mower with a mulching function because they can recut the grass clippings into smaller sizes. This will let the grass clippings quickly decompose when left on the lawn.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Get A Green Roof
A green roof means that your roof will be covered with vegetation. This type of roof is encouraged and is becoming very popular because it helps improve biodiversity, provides good insulation, and increases the value of a building. Green roofs are very attractive and excellent for adding to a property’s landscape. Plus, they can drastically reduce noise pollution and your home’s energy bills.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Make Your Compost
Making your compost gives you a win-win situation. Not only do you have more natural compost, but you can also save money and reduce landfill waste by making homemade compost. If you are wondering how to make compost? It is quite easy.
You can save up on your food waste instead of disposing of them in the bin for the garbage collector. Then, combine your food and garden waste such as egg shells, newspaper, weeds, etc. Over time, these wastes will decompose. Note that you should not add cooked food waste, meat, or fish into your compost bin because as the waste decomposes, it will produce bad odors.
Some other acceptable wastes are tea bags, vacuum cleaner contents, lawn clippings, leaves, etc. To make compost, you must be in a warm and slightly sunny area. However, you could use other methods to create your compost. A very common one is the wormery technique.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Reuse And Recycle
Recycling material is one of the most popular eco-friendly techniques known for good reasons. So if you have old items in your home, consider if you can recycle them to protect the planet. For instance, some popular reusable materials are natural stones, tin baths, buckets, old bricks, plastic pots, etc. You can use all these materials to increase your landscape appeal without harming the environment.
For example, you could use old plastic pots for sowing seeds and growing seedlings. You could also buy plants without pots and grow them in your old plastic pots. Similarly, natural stones can be used to design a pathway or build a fence around a flower bed. Conclusively, recycling old materials can give you a chance to show your creative side, so get to work bringing more warmth and character to your garden.
Eliminate Fertilizers In Your Garden
A simple way to keep a sustainable garden is to eliminate fertilizers and chemicals, including pesticides, fungicides, etc. Standard lawn care doesn’t mean using these chemicals because they only make the soil lose its nutrients. That’s why it is recommended to make your compost and grow resilient flowers that wouldn’t need the use of such chemicals.
Grow Fruits And Vegetables
Growing fruit and vegetables in your backyard is a great idea to reduce your grocery bills and environmental impact. You can easily eat fresh food instead of buying veggies that take so long to get to the counter that they are already stale.
Source
Plus, this benefits your garden by utilizing the companion planting technique to control the pest. An example of using the companion planting technique is to plant onions between carrots to mask their smell and prevent carrot root flies from discovering that there’s a carrot planted in the area.
Eco-friendly Backyard Ideas: Conclusion
As a gardener concerned about the environment and interested in using more sustainable practices to keep the environment safe, you should consider adopting some of the abovementioned ideas to make your backyard more eco-friendly. Remember, keeping a sustainable backyard is all about working with nature to the best of your abilities.
