Sustainable Gardening

Practical answers from nature-loving garden gurus

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So what IS Sustainable Gardening?

• "Sustainable" typically means not requiring outside inputs, but how does that apply to gardening? Sustainable gardens are more the ideal than the reality because without humans to take care of them, they'd just revert to forest, at least here in the East.
• So we minimize inputs like fertilizer and supplemental water. We use "earth-friendly" practices like improving the soil. We're strictly organic or pretty close to it. And we include plants that support wildlife in our gardens. Sustainability is a holistic approach that incorporates and synthesizes from many disciplines.
• On this website attention is paid to sustaining the gardener, too. Call it low-maintenance gardening but more importantly, it's low-drudgery. It's also gardening for the small of budget, including tips about using what you've got, getting free plants, et cetera. Very DIY.
• So here you'll learn the type of gardening that's environmentally responsible, nature-loving, and digging-in-the-dirt-loving. Sustainable gardeners grow plants for their beauty, for their many positive contributions to the environment, and because homegrown food is just better.
• If there's a commonly accepted axion of sustainable gardening it's this: Right plant, right place. Very pragmatic, very clogs-on-the-ground. And that's the focus here — on how plants really behave in our gardens and what really works to keep them and the soil they grow in healthy. For more on definitions of "sustainable gardening," see my article on GardenRant and some terrific comments.

Great Info in Print

• Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School — by my favorite organic designer.
• Naturalistic Gardening by Ann Lovejoy
• Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses by Darke
• Organic Lawn Care by Paul Tukey, spokesman for the important SafeLawns campaign.
• The Rodale Book of Composting — they've been doing it for decades.
• The Secret Life of Compost by Malcolm Beck was recommended to me by a serious composter.
• Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
• Organic Gardening Magazine — another trusted source for decades.
• The Truth about Garden Remedies by Jeff Gillman
• Eat More Dirt by "Queen of Non-Toxic Know-How," Sandbeck
• Planting for Weather-Resistant Beauty by Lauren Springer
• Good Advice for Challenging Climates by Lauren Springer and Rob Proctor
• Water-Wise Gardening by Lauren Springer
• Nature's Role in American History by Steinberg
• The Informed Gardener by Linda Chalker-Scott

Photo of Kurt Bluemel's garden in September of 2008.