0

Comments

Sustainability projects can simply be described as projects that place no undue load to the environment and which sometimes can even go further to create positive benefits to the natural environment. A sustainable garden therefore is one that is specifically designed to be sustainable i.e. to meet the expectations of any typical garden without having to jeopardize the environment and to even have positive benefits to the surrounding.

A typical garden can qualify to be sustainable after passing through a number of criteria ranging from the types of plants grown in the garden, to the usage of water, and type of gardening methods practiced. In an effort to promote community sustainability, in some areas, some landscaping companies are now specializing in establishing sustainable gardens and training the community on how to create and maintain one, in an effort to create a sustainable economy whose community is self-reliant.

One of the main measures of sustainability, and perhaps the most crucial one, is resource efficiency. A garden which uses water effectively and one which has a small environmental footprint is thought to be more eco-friendly. For example, one gardener may go into a nursery and randomly select an assortment of plants which may sometimes have been shipped from a remote location, and perhaps may have used a lot of water in their maintenance and a lot of fuel in the transportation. Of course this does not create a sustainable economy, but on the other hand, a gardener who plants local plants from a local nursery will contribute to local community sustainability.

Sustainable gardens can be practical, ornamental, and sometimes even both. For example, a sustainable vegetable garden, apart from the vegetables grown, can have flowers in the garden which will be used to control pest. The flowers can be planted in an artistic way that will be visually appealing and interesting. Still on point, a sustainable garden that only has flowers can be planted and managed in an eco-friendly manner, so that it will not only have positive effects on the environment, but it will also look attractive.

A local garden increases sustainability as the gardener will reduce his energy needs and use of fuel to go to the local store to get the fruits and vegetables. Still on point, the gardener does not buy products grown in remote locations, or some foods which may have been grown with harmful fertilizers and through unsustainable practices, hence does not contribute to any unsustainable system.

Some landscaping techniques are thought to be more sustainable than others, and so are some plants. If some landscaping techniques give shelter for wildlife, helps in the heating and cooling of the structure surrounding the garden, helps retain the topsoil, and has native plants, it is thought to be more sustainable as the garden benefits the environment directly and indirectly. A gardener is at liberty to choose the level of sustainability that he/she is comfortable with, and then they can create a sustainable garden from scratch or make alterations to an existing one.