Create a Sustainable Garden

There are plenty of magazines and books on the topic of how to create a sustainable garden, particularly raised bed gardens that require minimal maintenance and not only looks great but delivers delicious fruit or vegetables all year round.

Try to match the garden vegetables with compatible companion plants, flowers, and fruits. This not only looks very attractive but also creates a natural environment for insects and worms in the garden soil.

Remember to plant on a regular seasonal basis and don’t overuse the same garden bed area for the same planting, move fruits and vegetables around and prepare the new garden area well in advance before re-planting the next batch.

Use compost wisely and select the type of food scraps which offer the best nutritional benefits to your garden, consider the types of vegetable or fruit you intend to grow and their nutritional requirements.

One tip is to use separate plastic buckets with holes drilled in the sides for aerating labelled or marked with the intended garden area it will be used in so you know that each individual bucket of food waste will be used on a particular area of the garden bed.

Do some research and match the household kitchen waste with the garden requirements because you don’t want to create an unbalanced environment such as too much potassium or too little phosphate with poor fertilizer. Also, it helps to establish a sustainable garden by planting drought tolerant variety of species which can be readily purchased from local garden suppliers or nurseries.

First decide on the space and size of garden bed area that is available for planting, then research the best plants, trees, and shrubs for that area in the garden, allow for spreading out and height growth, particularly if your planting climbers.  

Also consider placing complementary rocks around the garden especially if you plant a combination of succulents, cacti, cabbage trees, yuccas, native grasses, and flaxes which all represent low maintenance and high tolerance to drought conditions, as these rocks will make the garden more attractive and help retain ambient warmth during the cold nights.