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Sustainable Gardening – Tips To Create An Eco-Friendly Natural Garden

Sustainable Gardening – 20 Tips To Create An Eco-Friendly Natural Garden

Want to make your garden sustainable? That's great! Both for yourself, for the environment and, above all, for the animals and plants that live in your garden paradise. Unfortunately, the trend is towards monotonous, lifeless and gray stone deserts in your own garden, which simply do not offer bees, birds and other animals a livelihood. And if they do, the use of pesticides kills them off.

With the tips in this article, I want to help you make your garden more environmentally friendly and turn it into an organic and climate-friendly mecca for biodiversity. Let's go!

You can find an overview of all the tips here:

  1. Create compost in the garden
  2. Use soil without peat
  3. Use natural fertilizer
  4. Know the tasks of the soil inhabitants
  5. Provide more shelter for animals
  6. Choose sensible fences and facades for your natural garden
  7. Planting diverse and native plants in the garden
  8. Collect and exchange seeds
  9. Create space for fruit and vegetables
  10. Adhere to mixed culture and crop rotation
  11. Using a natural pesticide
  12. Prefer garden furniture made from local woods
  13. Paving paths curved and not too dense
  14. Leave garden waste lying around and rotting
  15. Offer ponds, hills & ditches for cooling
  16. Do without motors and prefer manual labor
  17. Upcycling worn items in the garden
  18. Collect and use rainwater
  19. Save water when watering
  20. Save energy through minimalist lighting

Advantages: Why is it important to grow a sustainable garden?

To give you that extra boost of motivation to create a sustainable garden, I'd first like to give you the most important benefits of a real natural garden.

What appeals to me personally is the constant change. A natural garden is always on the move. Plants move, new animals are added. Nothing is permanent. A true natural garden is also uniquely wild rather than over-manicured.

But apart from the variety, there are of course many other reasons that I don't want to withhold from you:

Protecting the environment and conserving resources

By creating a consciously sustainable garden, you can make a major contribution to protecting the environment and Natural resources spare. From climate-friendly garden furniture made from local, certified wood, through to the reuse of construction waste for the creation of a flower bed.

Promoting biodiversity

A near-natural garden has great ecological value in the fight against climate change. species extinction. The Interplay between the garden material and the local seasonal, evergreen and flowering plantscreates ideal conditions for wildlife.

Birds like to come here because they find good Nesting material and a wide range of food find. Insects, hedgehogs and mice also have everything they need to live there.

Enjoy a relaxing garden paradise

As the owner:in of a natural garden, you benefit, for example, from a unique A variety of plants and animals that you can enjoy in peace and quiet - including the soothing chirping of birds.

Particularly pleasant here is also the small workloadbecause you simply let nature take its course.

Save cash

For example, a sustainable garden allows you to Cost savings for pesticides and chemical fertilizers. There's also no need to buy organic food if you grow your own tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and herbs. By sustainable behavior, you can save money.

20 tips for sustainable gardening in your own natural garden

Sustainable gardening - Tips & Tricks

Motivated enough? Then it's time to get down to business! Always view sustainable gardening as a continuous development processwhere every single step takes you further. Use the following tips, which are relatively easy to integrate into your everyday gardening routine.

1. create compost in the garden

The Creation of a compost heap saves the energy-intensive transportation of your organic waste and also prevents the unloved fruit flies in the house. Instead, you get fertile soil and a natural fertilizer.

You can conveniently dispose of cut branches, grass cuttings and fruit and vegetable scraps from the kitchen in your compost and use the "Garden habitat" even more interesting for many animals make. However, make sure that the compost heap is in partial shade and on open ground if possible.

Don't have room for a compost heap? No issue! Look with pleasure in my Interview with Wurmkiste.at inside. Even if you don't have a garden, you can use a worm bin or a bokashi bucket in your home, for example, to ensure that your own organic waste is skillfully decomposed into fertile soil.

2. use soil without peat

Although peat ensures better aeration of the garden soil, it is not without environmental damage. This is because peat comes from the various bogs - and that's where it should stay. They are home to many endangered species and are also huge carbon reservoirs. Although they only cover 3 percent of the Earth's surface, they actually bind a third of all terrestrial carbon - twice as much as the planet's forests.₁

According to NABU you should as an alternative to peat prefer humus-rich soil with air pores and soil animalsso that healthy plants can thrive.

3. use natural fertilizer

Chemical fertilizers have no place in a sustainable garden. Instead, you can rely on your compost heap - because it provides you with homemade, natural fertilizer from your Organic waste. Whether branches, leaves, lawn cuttings or apple and onion peelings - these plant residues are a wonderful fertilizer for your garden. You'll need a little patience, but you won't need any chemicals at all.

In the vegetable garden, the so-called Green manure. Plants are grown in the fall and simply left in the bed over the winter. In this way, the soil is loosened up nicely by the roots. Plant residues are also good for the soil climate.

4. know tasks of soil inhabitants

Mole as a pest controller in the sustainable garden

In order to understand and optimize the diversity in your garden, you should also think a little about the lives and tasks of the garden's inhabitants.

Matching a few Tasks of the respective beneficial organisms in the garden:

  • Mole: The presence of a mole confirms that the soil in your garden is healthy and has enough microorganisms to eat. It also eats snails, grubs and snail larvae, for example, and is therefore a useful pest controller.
  • Earthworm: The earthworm loosens and aerates the soil in your garden and enriches it with natural fertilizer. Its excrement serves as a valuable plant nutrient.
  • Springtail: Like earthworms, springtails also eat dead organic matter and leave behind fertile humus. They therefore make a valuable contribution to healthy and nutrient-rich soil.
  • Mite: Lots of mites in your garden are basically a sign of nutrient-rich soil. For example, they break down organic waste at an incredible rate and counteract pests.

Tip: If you are interested in the animal kingdom, then take a look at the Wildlife Blog over. Stephan is a nature filmmaker and delivers breathtaking videos and short films in top quality.

5. provide more shelter for animals

Stone, leaf and dead wood piles should be deliberately made available to welcome animal guests to your sustainable garden. They provide them with shelter and also serve as food storage. For bees or bumblebees, for example. Hedgehogs feel particularly at home in piles of leaves.

Of course, your Garden also bird friendly be! For swifts or redstarts, for example, you can use a few Nesting boxes provide. Wrens and warblers, on the other hand, like to build their nests in hedges. According to NABU, you should therefore not cut hedges from March to June.

Tip: With this bee hotel* you can, for example, offer a home to one of the world's most important farm animals. You can find out more about this in the article about the Creation of a bee friendly garden.

6. choose sensible fences and facades for your natural garden

If you are building a garden fence, make sure that animals such as hedgehogs can still get over to the neighboring property. A sustainable fence is Very durable and may well hung with potted plants or directly overgrown by climbing plants such as ivy or blackberry become. The dense mesh provides a home for many birds.

Also Hedges and trees provide protection and shelter - and are also ideal for use as Natural privacy screen.

Tip: You yourself also benefit from the climbing plants in the garden. You can for example make your own washing-up liquid from ivy leaves make

7. plant diverse and native plants in the garden

In your garden should be healthy Mix of flat and tall plants prevail. Large trees act like a cooling air conditioner in summer and provide shade for many living creatures.

Make sure that the plants are all native to our region, as they are adapted to both the climate and the soil and are therefore more resistant. A bed of native plants Wildflowers provides plenty of color and creates ideal living conditions for countless insects such as bees and butterflies.

8. collect and exchange seeds

As soon as the first year is over, you can always fall back on the seeds from the previous year in subsequent years, Conserve natural resources and save money. So collect the seeds of vegetable plants or wild flowers with foresight. You can also use stored food from the pantry (e.g. potatoes, peas and garlic) as free seeds.

Furthermore, you should seed also share and swap with other people in the neighborhood or at swap meets.

Tip: Incidentally, you can make your own pots for growing or sowing. For example, from drinks or egg cartons, newspaper or toilet paper rolls. Get more inspiration in the article about the Reuse of old packaging.

9. create space for vegetables and fruit

Sustainable gardening with vegetable garden

How cool is it, really, when you can make your own Strawberries, potatoes, cucumbers or raspberries have in the garden? In any case, self-sufficiency in food is incredibly sustainable. It helps you do that, Avoid plastic waste and save a lot of money and unnecessary transportation.

Just set up a small flower bed or build a Raised bed from old palletsto grow the fruits and vegetables you would like to enjoy.

Just use this Seasonal calendar for fruit, vegetables and saladsto find out more about the ideal cultivation times.

Tip: By the way, fruit trees (e.g. a pear or apple tree) will also give you great pleasure in the future if you plant them in your garden today.

10. observe mixed cultivation and crop rotation

If your plants don't really want to sprout, the main cause is often depleted soil. Adhering to mixed cultivation and crop rotation can help.

The sense of a mixed culture is a More even nutrient utilization through the plants you grow - ultimately it promotes healthy soil and saves a lot of water and work. Potatoes, for example, harmonize well next to spinach and corn, but less so next to cucumbers and radishes.

Crop rotation, on the other hand, describes how well the crops grown in a specific bed over many years in a row harmonize with each other. It is generally recommended to get a Crop rotation plan for the next four years to create.

For example, strong growers such as tomatoes should not grow in the same bed every year. Instead, it makes sense to grow weak growers such as onions there the following year.

Tip: NABU introduces you to more information is available here.

11. use natural plant protection products

Not only your fertilizer, but also the pesticides in a sustainable garden should be natural and without toxic chemical additives get by.

On the one hand, you should always more resistant plants in your garden, on the other hand you can make a wonderful garden tea from wormwood, tansy, horsetail, dandelion, camomile and onions, for example, natural pesticide ₂ The protective agent is rich in nutrients and keeps unwanted pests away from your plants.

12. prefer garden furniture made from local woods

Prefer environmentally friendly garden furniture

In order to Protecting rainforestsyou should use for your sustainable terrace prefer garden furniture made from wood that comes from local, sustainable forestry and awarded with the FSC, PEFC or Naturland seal were.

Above all, avoid garden tables or chairs made of teak, bangkirai and mahogany - and instead look out for garden furniture made of wood from Oaks, Douglas firs, Robinia ("false acacias"), sweet chestnuts or larches were manufactured.

Whether Tables, chairs, a bench or a deck chair - here you can look for environmentally friendly furniture for your garden:

Tip: Of course, you can just as easily buy your garden furniture buy used or build it yourself from existing materials. The necessary inspiration can give you for example my DIY dining table from old oak planks that could also be used outdoors without any problems.

13. paving paths curved and not too dense

Just because stone deserts are notorious among environmentally conscious people doesn't mean that a natural garden has to be completely stone-free. On the contrary! An environmentally and animal-friendly natural garden is usually a successful interplay of stones and plants.

Curved and not directly adjacent Natural stone slabs are ideal, for example, for an elegant path through your own garden. In addition they provide shelter for ants and other insects. In addition to stone slabs, gravel or wood paving, for example, are also suitable for the paths.

14. leave garden waste to rot

Please do not dispose of or burn cut branches, twigs and other wood waste too quickly. This will ultimately release even more CO2. Instead, you can Deadwood piles or deadwood hedges create from it and let the wood residues rot in this way.

How to offer animals additional Shelter and can, for example, a small windbreak against Soil erosion erect

15. offer ponds, hills & ditches for cooling

A flat garden certainly has its advantages, but it can also dry out or flood more easily. A sustainable natural garden therefore also includes a few hills and ditches. They protect the soil and plants from wind, but also from soil erosion by water.

Especially the so-called Crater bed is back in fashion - a deliberately created, heat-storing depression in the ground, with little wind and lots of sunlight. It is ideal, for example, for Cultivation tomatoes and salads.

In addition to hills and ditches, there is also a Garden pond or alternatively a small stream for even more life in paradise. Water-loving plant species, dragonflies, frogs and toads - they all come together here. What's more, the rippling of the pond will naturally also soothe your own mind while you lie in the hammock and enjoy a Book reads.

16. do without motors and prefer manual work

Sustainable gardening by hand instead of with motors

The basic principle in a natural garden is to let plants grow rather than constantly cutting them back. Of course, this also applies to the lawn. Ideally, you should not cut it every third day with a noisy and air-polluting lawnmower, but only less frequently and with a Sense. The fitness program is already included.

Significantly more comfortable and still relatively sustainable and quiet, are long-lasting Lawn mower with battery. You can then put the grass clippings on the compost. Leaves should simply be scraped together with your rake and the Pile of leaves as shelter for hedgehogs and other animals. Loud Leaf blowers or leaf vacuums, on the other hand, are anything but sustainable.

Try to do without motors as much as possible and instead use to focus on environmentally friendly manual work. If you want to design your garden sustainably, you generally only need a few tools. A wheelbarrow, spade, watering can, hand shovel, pocket knife and secateurs, for example, are essential - but extremely quiet 😉.

17. upcycling used items in the garden

An old, rusty bike that is unfit to ride in every way is still good as a Trellis for your plants or simply as nostalgic decoration in the garden. This upcycling idea will make your garden even more exciting for everyone who visits it.

But it's not just visual benefits that you can achieve by using old objects in new functions. An old dog bowl, for example, can become a source of water for birds and other animals. There are no limits to the imagination.

So the next time you want to throw a seemingly useless or broken item in the garbage can, think again about possible upcycling ideas.

18. collect and use rainwater

To save water for watering your plants, you should definitely collect the free rainwater in your organic garden. An underground Collection container (cistern) is particularly suitable for larger gardens. But even a simple Rain barrel helps enormously to water your own garden sustainably.

When the barrel is open, it even serves as an oversized water source for birds. But make sure that the Water level always high enough is. Otherwise, some animals may fall in and have no chance to get out.

Tip: You can also use collected gray water from the sink or the cooled pasta pot to water your plants in the garden!

19. save water when watering

The climate change is one of the reasons why our gardens in Germany increasingly need more water. The larger the garden, the more expensive watering can become.

To Save water, you should make your garden Watering is best in the morning between four and seven o'clock or in the evening after sunset - then the evaporation of the water is only around 10 to 30 percent. When watering at midday, on the other hand, as much as 90 percent of the water evaporates.₃

In addition, you should use the Significantly increase the cutting height of your lawn mower in summer. The slightly taller grass protects the soil from drying out, so you can water your lawn less often with a clear conscience.

Tip: If you want to make the environmental problem of global warming even more tangible, take a look at the article on the Climate change statistics over. For more advice, you can also read my Climate protection tips for everyday life view

20. save energy through minimalist lighting

By pulling weeds by hand, letting the lawn grow a little longer and using an energy-saving, electric lawn mower with sharp blades, you can save a lot in the garden. Save energy. However, these Savings in many gardens are negated by excessive lighting. At the same time, this form of Light pollution countless garden animals with fatal consequences.

Your neighbors can also admire your garden in natural daylight! So keep the lighting as minimalist as possible and, if necessary, give preference to natural light, solar powered LED lights with motion detectorwhich can be deployed in the areas where you are.

Additional Tip: Also your Garden house should be sustainable be! When making your choice, look out for FSC-certified wood from ecological forestry - and have your Garden shed also popular with climbing plants overgrown.

Set up your favorite spot and enjoy the sustainable garden!

Sustainable garden plant and relax

We maintain our greenery on our own property because we feel comfortable there. Feel good and relax can. Accordingly, you should also set up a favorite spot in your natural garden where you can really switch off can. How about a bench or a hammock with a view of the pond? With the sound of birdsong and the scent of thyme and lavender. Just an idea 🙂

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."

 Ralph Waldo Emerson (more at Nature Quotes)

Simply turn your sustainable garden into one step by step Mecca of biodiversity and avoid lifeless stone deserts! A wild, species-rich natural garden has much more to offer and is also easy to maintain. You now have the right tips for sustainable gardening at your fingertips. You can find even more practical tips in the Book "Fresh harvest by Huw Richards, which has also been extremely helpful to me. If you like, get it here*.

I hope you find the ideas and advice for an animal and environmentally friendly garden useful. Do you have any questions, suggestions or other tips for sustainable garden design? Then I look forward to your comments!

Stay sustainable,

Christoph from CareElite - Plastic-free living

PS: Feel free to look further in the Sustainability Blog from CareElite. For example, learn the best tips for a sustainable lifestyle or simple Ideas for avoiding waste in everyday life know

References:
₁ Parish, Sirin, Charman, Joosten, Minayeva, Silvius, Stringer (2008): Assessment on Peatlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change: Main Report. Global Environment Center and Wetlands International. S.179.

₂ Smarticular Verlag: Make your own organic sprays against pests and plant diseases. https://www.smarticular.net/pflanzliche-mittel-gegen-blattlaeuse-und-pflanzenkrankheiten. [22.03.2023].

₃ VGL Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (Gartencenter.de): Garden irrigation: Automatic plant irrigation. https://www.gartencenter.de/automatische-pflanzenbewaesserung. [22.03.2023].

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* Links with asterisks are so-called Affiliate linksIf you click on it and buy something, you automatically and actively support my work with CareElite.de, as I receive a small share of the proceeds - and of course nothing changes in the product price. Many thanks for your support and best regards, Christoph!

Christoph Schulz

Christoph Schulz

I'm Christoph, an environmental scientist and author - and here at CareElite I'm campaigning against plastic waste in the environment, climate change and all the other major environmental problems of our time. Together with other environmentally conscious bloggers, I want to give you tips & tricks for a naturally healthy, sustainable life as well as your personal development.

13 thoughts on “Garten nachhaltig gestalten – 20 Tipps für einen tier- und umweltfreundlichen Naturgarten”

  1. It's good to know that even small tips can go a long way. The outdoor design of my garden is extremely important to me, so I really like your tips on a sustainable, natural, wild garden. I will start right away with the tip from the compost!

  2. Thank you for a super article regarding natural garden design. I also think that a natural garden is usually a successful interaction of stones and plants. I think I personally do not dare to "self-made paving". I prefer to hire a professional.

  3. I bought a new house with a big garden and I am looking forward to next summer. In the meantime, I would like to collect ideas to best prepare this. I would love to have my own vegetables in the garden! Fruit trees will definitely bring great joy. Thanks for the tip, I will definitely read more about it!

    1. Hey Nora, thanks for your comment! Then have fun with the implementation next year and a good move!
      Many greetings, Christoph

  4. wolfgang Krähenbühl

    I think the idea of a sustainable garden is great. My parents had their own bees and tried to make the garden as diverse as possible. I also do not like the monotonous stone deserts and prefer the diversity. Nevertheless, a certain structure and order is important to me, so that the whole thing is also respectable.

  5. Good to know that the mole is a beneficial insect. I want to make my gardening more sustainable and find your blog very helpful. Now I will no longer fight against but with the animals in the garden.

  6. Thank you for the valuable tips on sustainable garden design! Very useful I found in particular the tip of crop rotation. So I have already had several years always a good harvest, whether of tomatoes or strawberries.

  7. Thank you for the useful contribution on the subject of sustainable garden design! I have recently grown a vegetable garden and therefore found especially useful the tip on green manure. A few days ago I grew some plants that will remain in the bed during the winter and loosen the soil through their roots.

  8. Our garden is so far very sparse and unfortunately not a favorite place to relax. Incredibly I would like to plant some fruits and some vegetables, as well as beautiful plants in our place. I find it very good to know that it is best to plant diverse and native plants in the garden, as they are already adapted to the climate and soil. I hope to actually make my garden a mecca of biodiversity, what's super is that it doesn't need that much maintenance at all. What's great is that you can always get support from a gardening company, which is also much more knowledgeable about the plants.

  9. We have not visited my grandparents garden for a long time and very neglected in the winter, so a lot of help is needed. I wanted to find out in advance, especially on the Internet, what we should pay attention. Now I know that the presence of a mole means that the garden is healthy or earthworms loosen and aerate the soil, also enriching it with natural fertilizer.

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