Sustainable garden: definition, helpful tips and your advantages

The term "sustainability" can be found in many areas of life today. This makes it all the more important to grasp the meaning in concrete terms in each case. In our series of articles on the subject, we have already explained for you what is important in sustainable building and what sustainable real estate in detail.

In this article, we will now explore for you the question of what a sustainable garden is. You will see: As a sustainable hobby gardener, you have many opportunities to make an important contribution to environmental protection.

What awaits you in this article:

1. You will get 10 comprehensive tips on how to make your garden sustainable.
2. You'll learn about the benefits of sustainable garden design.
3. You'll learn how to increase biodiversity and why it's important.
4. You'll gain insight into permaculture gardening.

Every garden is different and offers different options when it comes to sustainability. It is therefore crucial to first get an overview and approach the topic step by step. Topics such as cultivation, use of resources and choice of materials have particularly promising potential. The following tips are therefore not a "catalog of duties" - rather, they are intended to give you ideas about what all is possible if you want to garden in an environmentally friendly way in the long term.

With these 10 steps you will become a sustainable gardener:

• 1. Tip: Use rainwater.Clever water saving is relatively simple for amateur gardeners. With special rainwater flaps, you can direct the natural resource "rainwater" from the gutter into a barrel and use it for garden irrigation. If you want to store even more quantities of rainwater, you can use a cistern for this purpose. Here you can get tips on buying and choosing materials for these collection containers, which are usually underground.In general, it is best to handle the resource of water as carefully and sensitively as possible. The best time to water is in the summer, for example, in the morning before sunrise. Or rely on mulching: This keeps moisture in the soil better and you save watering water. You can also save water with automated irrigation systems, especially in larger gardens, as the greenery is only watered according to specific needs. In our Smart Gardening article you can learn more.
• 2. Tip: Create a natural swimming pond.Speaking of water: a trend that is still quite young, but is gaining more and more momentum, are natural swimming ponds. These combine the aspects of a swimming pool with those of a natural pond. While part of the pool area is intended for swimming and (in the case of children) splashing, there is also a spatially separated area for biological regeneration. In it, the purification and clarification of the water takes place by itself thanks to selected aquatic plants such as zoo and phytoplankton. To ensure that there is a constant exchange of water between the two areas, a semi-permeable partition wall made of larch canthus is often used. Natural swimming ponds are visually alone a real ornament and also offer animals such as dragonflies and frogs a protected habitat.
• 3. Tip: Grow fruit and vegetables yourself.No question: if you are a self-supporter, you act sustainably. In Germany, you can grow many delicious fruits and vegetables in your own garden and thus reduce their supermarket purchases. Examples of vegetables that thrive in our country are pick lettuce, carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflower, kohlrabi, chard, onions and savoy cabbage. In terms of fruit, the selection ranges from numerous berry varieties, apples and pears to quinces and mirabelles. On the net, there are practical garden calendars for this, with whose help you can sow and harvest seasonally.
• 4. Tip: Use manual labor.Use hand shears for trimming smaller hedges and plants and do without short-lived battery and plastic devices. You can save electricity every time you do without electrical appliances. Why not also try mowing your lawn with a scythe, for example? In addition, form communities of interest with your neighbors and collectively create larger - less frequently needed - equipment. Sharing resources (new German: "Sharing") is usually one of the simplest forms of sustainable action.
• 5. Tip: Compost soil.The classic sustainability initiative for your garden. Pre-dried lawn clippings, shredded tree trimmings, leaves, selected fruit and certain vegetable scraps - you can throw all this on a compost pile and use it for fertilizing after decomposition.Fertilizing without chemicals should be a matter of course for environmentally conscious amateur gardeners anyway. Compost and native, organic fertilizers always form the better alternative for healthy and responsible cultivation. Here you can get even more tips on proper composting.
• 6. Tip: Avoid plastic.When buying plants, make sure to use clay pots or wicker planters. For those who dream of plastic-free flower pots that still have the flexibility typical of plastic, we have good news: biodegradable flower pots are now available on the net, which decompose naturally over time after planting, without leaving environmentally harmful substances in the soil.
• 7. Tip: buy regionally.Sustainable gardening in climate change - this means above all that garden products should not travel long distances in logistics. Buy best from horticultural businesses in your region to avoid CO2 emissions. Thus you support not least the regional suppliers of your confidence.
• 8. Tip: environmentally friendly furniture.In the meantime, there are also high-quality designer pieces of garden furniture made of recycled material. The trend of "recycled furniture" or "upcycling furniture" has been gaining momentum for several years, with brands such as reditum, Elementry, Lockengelöt or Piet Hein Eek you can find real eye-catcher furniture for outdoors and indoors.If you prefer a wooden look, you should at least make sure not to use tropical woods such as teak, which reaches our climes only after many kilometers. Finally, equally chic garden furniture is also available from domestic wood species such as larch, sweet chestnut, oak or Douglas fir.
• 9. Tip: garden close to nature.Let wild growth quite consciously. With a near-natural garden, you offer numerous beneficial insects and small animals a natural habitat and shelter. An extremely useful pest control, by the way, is to attract songbirds via nesting boxes. The birds then exterminate the pests and you have as a garden owner even longer something from your home green.With an "insect hotel" you can additionally make an important contribution to provide shelter for industrious pollinators such as wild bees. Here you can learn more about the so-called "nesting aids".
• 10. Tip: gardening at home.Even if you could give your plants in the garden that little extra: Exotic varieties usually require more care and resources to thrive in our latitudes. If you want to create your garden sustainably and strengthen the local ecosystem, therefore, rather rely on native plants, whose care is usually easier. Additional tip: For this, many federal states offer info on the respective native species.