Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Earth Day 2022
Today is Earth day. Northern Gardener magazine had an insert last month with the 7 ways to Garden Greener. Today seemed a PERFECT day to share some of those ideas.
- Nourish your soil with what’s on your property. Don’t haul those leaves, spread them on your garden beds for mulch. Compost your other plant debris!
- Pick Perennials. Once established they use less water and fertilizer than annuals.
- Put your plants where they want to be. If you put a shade plant in the sun, it’s toast. Check the tags and remember, “Right Plant, Right Place”.
- Plant in layers. Mix trees and shrubs, groundcovers and annuals, vegetables and perennials in layers. Plants are healthier in communities and those communities help wildlife.
- Water wisely. Last year’s drought was rough. I lost some of the sod that the City placed in September when they finished road work. I have such an aversion to watering a lawn but had to water some or there would’ve been nothing. Group water-hungry plants together and get a rain barrel like I talked about last week. It truly is liquid gold.
- Save seeds. I found this very interesting. Seeds will adapt to soil conditions where they are repeatedly grown!! How cool is that?? Beans, marigolds and sunflowers have the easiest seeds to save.
- And lastly, let nature control pests. Welcome diversity of insects, birds and wildlife. They’ll help take care of the bad actors!