Sustainable Gardening: Week 1: Have a plan

There are many parts to ‘the plan’ and this is one of the more basic pieces. Don’t just buy a plant because it’s pretty or on sale. Buy plants that are going to thrive in your garden. Read the plant labels to determine if they like sun or shade, and then only plant them in those areas. Also, read the label for water requirements. Plant sun-loving, drought tolerant plants in the sunniest parts of the garden, and put the plants that like shade and moderate water in the shady parts of the garden. Then water accordingly. Pretty simple, right? You’d be surprised how often this is disregarded and why it really does matter.

So, why does this matter? Because if a plant is not planted in the correct micro-climate, it won’t be healthy, and will be more susceptible to disease, and less able to ward off insects. It’ll start to look bad and you’ll want to add either more water or fertilizer. And unless you use organic fertilizer, you’re putting chemicals into the water table which is not very sustainable-minded (is that a word?), and the plant still won’t look good, and will probably not survive. Also, we don’t want to waste water these days especially if the plant doesn’t even want it. Okay, that’s it for week one. But, don’t go out and buy those plants yet, because we still need to talk about the right soil for each plant, and more. Click here to see the 10 basic steps to Sustainable Garden Design