This past Monday was Earth Day. While we recognize the need for institutional change, we’re also big believers in doing what you can on an individual or community scale. Here are a few great ways that you can create a sustainable garden and make an impact in honor of Earth Day. 

Start Composting

According to the EPA, food and other organic materials comprise 51.4% of municipal solid waste in landfills. Not only does this lead to wasted space, but it also contributes to climate change. When organic waste like food scraps, coffee grounds, and grass clippings ends up in a landfill, it decays under anaerobic conditions and produces methane gas.

Composting allows these organic materials to decay in normal aerobic conditions, preventing the release of methane. It also helps build healthy soil for your garden. Get started with our beginner composting guide.

Practice Water Wise Gardening

Depending on where you live, your area may be experiencing increasing droughts. Thankfully, there are several ways to reduce your water usage in the garden. Use mulch around plants and in rows to hold in moisture. Cover crops and vining, leafy crops also shade the soil, acting as living mulch. Choose drought-tolerant plants when you can, especially if water is already an issue in your area. 

When you do water, try to use soaker hoses or drip irrigation and water in the morning or evening to mitigate loss to evaporation. Pulse irrigation is also a relatively new technique that’s showing promising results, especially for commercial growers.

Avoid Plastic

Plastic is now so prevalent in agriculture; there’s a word for it: plasticulture. We see it in home gardens, too; from the flats we start seeds in, to the black plastic mulch, and hoop house covers. While we can’t ask you to give up plastic entirely, everyone should strive to cut back.

Consider using a soil blocker or newspaper pots to start seeds. Avoid plastic mulch, opting for natural materials like wood chips, cardboard, and old leaves. Re-use existing plastic for as long as possible. When it’s time to retire the greenhouse cover, try using it to cover low tunnels.

Use Integrated Pest Management

Most backyard gardeners try to avoid pesticide use, as even organic options can inadvertently affect other species. One way we can further this goal is through integrated pest management strategies. These primarily include strategies for preventing pest problems like crop rotation, trap crops, attracting beneficial insects and wildlife, and companion planting.

Donate or Giveaway Food You Can’t Use

Food waste is a massive problem in the United States. It’s estimated that 30 to 40% of food in the U.S., over 130 billion pounds, ends up in landfills each year. These statistics are even sadder when we consider that 12.8% of Americans, approximately 44.2 million individuals, lack access to an affordable, nutritious diet. 

While much of this waste occurs on a commercial scale, gardeners can ensure that the food we produce isn’t wasted. Consider donating excess produce to a food bank, giving it away to neighbors and friends, or even setting up a free stand or table.

Opt for Human-Powered Tools When Possible

We’re not telling you to ditch all of your lawn and garden equipment, but cutting back on your fuel usage is a wonderful thing. Whenever you can opt for human-powered equipment or no equipment at all.

Consider going no-till, using a reel mower or scythe for small areas, and mulching to eliminate the need for cultivation.

Minimize Fertilizer Use

Fertilizer can seem like a miracle when you see your plants thriving, but it can also have negative impacts. The production and use of fertilizer contribute to nitrous oxide emissions, which contribute to a warmer and wetter climate.

Excess fertilizer also tends to wash away, ending up in groundwater, streams, and other local water sources, where it causes toxic algae blooms. These algae blooms impact fish and other aquatic wildlife and can even make people extremely sick. 

Choose Appropriate Plants

Choosing appropriate plants will look different for every garden, but we like to consider a few basic tenets when selecting plants for a sustainable garden. 

First, avoid invasive, non-native that spread aggressively. Many invasive species have been introduced incidentally, but others are spreading because gardeners continue to plant them, primarily as ornamentals. Here are a few good examples of common invasive plants and more eco-friendly alternatives:

• Avoid Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana). Instead, try a crab apple, other fruit tree, or native dogwood. 
• Avoid Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica). Try a native honeysuckle like Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens).
• Avoid Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis). Plant the native American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens).
• Avoid Lesser Periwinkle (Vinca minor). Try a native, shade-loving ground cover like Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica).

Secondly, we look for low-maintenance plants whenever possible. These are the plants that will thrive in our garden and specific climates without high inputs of water, fertilizer, or pesticides. Here in the southeastern United States, some good examples include:

• Echinacea (coneflowers)
• Dent Corn
• Collards
• Rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans)
• Pole Beans

All plants may still have occasional problems, but these plants aren’t generally taxing to tend.

Save Seed

Seed saving is one of our favorite recommendations for taking your garden to the next level. By saving your seed, you’re helping preserve genetic diversity and adapt varieties to your local climate. Check out our beginner-friendly seed-saving post. 

 

Implementing just a couple of changes can help you create a sustainable garden. Thankfully, many of these changes can also help increase production and reduce issues and costs associated with the garden. Happy Earth Day!

Social media can be a great source of gardening inspiration and advice. Unfortunately, it can also be full of not-so-great advice. In today’s post, we’ve rounded up some of the common garden myths we’ve seen on social media recently. We dive into why they’re incorrect and what you can do instead.

Grind or Dehydrate Food Scraps for Fertilizer

The problem: Many sites recommend grinding or dehydrating food scraps, then soaking them in water and straining them or adding them directly to the garden. While this isn’t an extremely harmful practice, it is a bit wasteful. Despite your efforts of grinding or dehydrating, microbes will still need to break down those scraps to make them accessible to your plants. 

The solution: Food scraps make excellent fertilizer after being composted. Setting up a home composting system is simple and requires no fancy equipment. Homemade compost is a gardener’s gold, helping you add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Read more about making compost on our Black Gold post. 

Epsom Salt is Good for Plants

The problem: Epsom salts are often touted as a great general garden amendment or as a good way to prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes. Unfortunately, adding Epsom salts to the soil can also add too much magnesium. High magnesium levels can prevent plants from taking up calcium and cause issues like blossom end rot. The one time Epsom salts may genuinely be helpful is if a soil test shows your garden is deficient in magnesium, which isn’t common.

The solution: Do the work to determine the cause of the issue you’re dealing with, get your soil tested, and select appropriate amendments with the help of your local agricultural extension agency. 

If blossom end rot is your issue, your plant has likely had trouble taking adequate calcium. Calcium-deficient soil is relatively rare. Calcium is absorbed through the root tips, and failure to do so can be caused by insufficient watering during fruit growth, saturated soils, or fertilizer burn on the root tips. Rapid growth related to overfertilizing can also cause it, as the plant doesn’t have enough time to take up adequate calcium.

This same lesson applies to preventing blossom end rot with egg shells or milk.

Use Coffee Grounds to Lower Your Soil pH

The problem: Contrary to this popular garden myth, coffee grounds don’t alter soil pH. While coffee grounds are a great addition to the compost pile, they won’t help you achieve more acidic soil for crops like blueberries or hydrangeas. 

The solution: If you were previously worried about adding coffee grounds to your compost pile, you have nothing to fear. You won’t create acidic compost. However, if you aim to lower the pH and acidify your soil, opt for elemental sulfur instead. 

Rocks Improve Drainage in Containers

The problem: This garden myth seems like it should be accurate, but water doesn’t always work the way we think it does! Rather than seeping between the rocks, the water moves sideways when it encounters a different layer, creating a saturated zone at the bottom of the soil. It’s known as a “perched water table.” Like a sponge sitting on top of gravel, the potting soil will only release water into the rocks below when it is absolutely saturated.

The solution: Use good-quality potting soil and containers with drainage holes. If you have containers without drainage holes, you can always make some. If you have ceramic pots, you can find ceramic-specific drill bits at most home improvement stores.

Add Banana Peels to the Soil to Increase Potassium

The problem: Banana peels are rich in potassium, but when you bury them in the garden, it’s not quickly accessible to plants. In fact, microbes will have to work to break down the banana peel and sometimes tie up nitrogen in the process. 

The solution: Toss your banana peels in the compost pile to give your plants nutrients in the future. If your soil test shows a potassium deficiency, amend your soil with an organic fertilizer or kelp meal for a more quickly available form of potassium for your crops. 

Add Sand to Heavy Clay Soils to Improve Drainage

The problem: Sandy soils obviously drain better than clay soils, so this one seems like a natural assumption. Unfortunately, this garden myth doesn’t work out well. In reality, the clay particles filter in between the sand particles and become compacted, forming a substance similar to concrete. 

The solution: The best way to improve the drainage of clay soils is to add organic matter. The fastest way to do this is to add finished compost. We recommend top-dressing beds with a couple of inches of finished compost before planting. You can also use cover crops and mulch to help build up organic matter and soil health over time.

Make DIY Insecticides with Hot Peppers and Garlic 

The problem: There are many social media recipes for one-size-fits-all homemade insecticides. These recipes often involve garlic, hot peppers, soap, or some combination of those ingredients, and they may work sometimes. Unfortunately, they may not work with every pest and often don’t address the root of the problem, leaving you to make and apply these sprays continually. They can also damage plants by destroying the waxy layer on leaves or blocking plants’ stomata.

The solution: The first step is to do your research and find out what pest species is snacking on your cops. Then, you can work to take the steps appropriate for that species. For some species, like tomato hornworms, it can be as simple as putting on garden gloves and hand-picking them. For others, like cabbage loopers, you can use a tried and true organic insecticide like B.t. (Bacillus thuringiensis), a bacteria that infects them.

Further, you can practice companion planting, crop rotation, and other integrated pest management methods to keep your garden healthy and pest-free over time.

 

Many tips and tricks can make a gardener’s life easier, but not all of these hacks and shortcuts are all that they’re cracked up to be. In many cases, the real solution is to slowly build up healthy soil through compost, cover cropping, and good garden management. Hopefully, you can have a more successful garden this season by avoiding these common social media garden myths.