Here are easy eco friendly gardening tips to prepare your garden for winter.   Easy tips for going green can start in your garden.  Following organic and sustainable gardening practices will be beneficial for your garden, the critters, your health, the planet and your pocket book!

One of the benefits of sustainable, organic gardening is the connection to the land, to the living and growing organisms, and to a more natural existence.  It is working WITH Nature, not against it and viewing the garden as a small component of the natural system, an ecological community.

Forget about the typical fall clean up.  Environmentally friendly gardening means you avoid gasoline-operated leaf blowers, avoid throwing away your leaves and putting them in plastic bags to send them to the dump.  Instead, you work with Nature by leaving leaves where they fall in your garden beds, rake the leaves from your grass and place them in your beds and/or your compost.  Leaves and garden waste are biodegradable and you can easily recycle them back into your garden soil to feed the microbes, who in turn, feed your soil.

Organic gardening recycles the leaves, twigs and other plant material back into the soil; it feeds the microbes, which are the soil’s maintenance crew.  In contrast, conventional gardening sees plant debris (fall leaves, twigs, other organic matter) as waste to be removed from the garden; it uses synthetic fertilizers, which only feed the plants, not the soil, and disrupt the soil’s integrity (biological, ecological, chemical, etc.).

The focus is on healthy soil; building the soil with organic matter (compost, grass clippings, straw, seaweed, conifer needles and cones, shredded or whole leaves, twigs) which feeds the plants.  Adding organic matter attracts soil organisms, creates nutrients in the soil and improves any soil’s texture.  Compost and mulches are used to nourish the soil and microbes, prevent erosion, conserve water, supress weeds and moderate soil temperature.  This is the way to have an eco friendly garden.

Marisa

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