One of the major cornerstones of the modern environmental movement is that all of us (individuals, businesses, governments) must reduce what we throw away. Natural historian David Attenborough, in his swan song documentary A Life on Our Planet, emphasizes as much when he was asked what we can do, as individuals, for the environment. “Don’t waste anything,” he intoned in that rich, deep English voice we all recognize from his 60-plus years of showing us our planet in all its glory and sadness. Unfortunately, we westerners create, on average, 4.5 pounds of trash per day. When held against the global average of 1.6 pounds, it is clear we have a veritable ton of work to do.
Here are some ways to start bringing a zero-waste game to the garden:
Start from seed: Start your vegetable and flower plants with seeds and reusable seed starting kits and try not to purchase seedlings from the garden center. In this way, you can reduce your use of un-recyclable plastic garden center pots as much as possible. Go a step further and save and reuse household plastic containers (yogurt and sour cream containers work great) for seed starting.
Reduce water usage: There is currently a water ban in my normally water-rich New England town; water woes are everywhere. We Americans are too accustomed to easy, cheap water and it is time for all of us—from west to east—to take water usage more seriously. Avoid sprinklers and hand-water your plants at the roots in the early morning. Drip irrigation systems are a close second to hand-watering. Plant xeriscape: choose plants for your landscape that require less water and maintenance. Take astilbes for example: who doesn’t love the alluring deep-green finely dissected leaves, the airy whites, pink, and red plumes that make you think of fairground cotton candy, and the way they reliably fill a shady spot with a dash of color? I am a fan! But as drought here in the Northeast has become less of the exception and more of the rule, I have found that I can’t keep astilbes alive during drought without turning the hose on them 24/7. I am done with astilbes in my landscape. Pay attention to light requirements for annuals and perennials (a hosta planted in full sun is going to require more water than its shade-planted counterpart).
Take cuttings: You can take cuttings of many common annual ornamentals and store them in water (remember to change water regularly) or soil over the winter. In this way you save money and avoid creating more plastic waste by recycling plant material. Coleus, fuschia, begonias, mandevilla, oxalis, and ornamental sweet potato are some examples of plants to save and reuse.
Try regrowing food (shown above): You can regrow store-bought green onions by leaving about an inch of plant at the base, placing ends in a small container of water until the bases sprout new growth and then transplanting into the garden in spring/summer or into a pot placed in a sunny location for the winter.
Turn down extra plastics and encourage your local garden center to do the same. It is always depressing to see what happens when people are asked whether they want some plastic to go with that; the power of suggestion is strong. I have lost count of the number of times I have been behind people in shopping queues who would not have left a store with single-use plastic unless they were asked whether they wanted it. Most recently, at my local garden center, a woman with two medium-size perennials was on her way out the door with just the plants when the checkout clerk asked whether she needed some plastic to protect the back of her vehicle. I could almost hear the wheels start spinning. She happily took the plastic and tucked the ream of it into her cart. Ask yourself: is preventing a small amount of dirt in your car worth the resultant disposal of plastic that will never decompose? Say no to the extra plastic and go one step further by suggesting to your local garden center to only hand it over when specifically asked by the customer!
Are there ways you’ve been reducing waste in your own landscape? Tell us about them in the comments section.
I’ve gotten in the habit of leaving trimmings from bushes and flowers on the ground beneath the plants as a mulch. While it looks a bit messy, it conserves soil moisture and deters weeds. As leaves decompose, they also help amend the soil. Of Course, if there’s a sign of disease on the leaves, then I remove the cuttings rather than leaving them lay.
Thank you Jack. I do the same thing, while making a serious effort to separate stuff like godawful bittersweet from the mulch I leave behind.
Thanks Jack. I’ve been doing that just because, instinctively, it seems sensible. But validation from real gardeners (I’m a total rookie) helps keep me motivated.
FANTASTIC article. So glad to see this important perspective on Garden Rant. I’m hand watering newer plants. Stopped mowing during the heat to let the grass leaves provide some cover to the roots but the grass has grown very little anyway. Trying to keep the storm drain clear. Starting more seeds to reduce the pots and trays I use. Focusing on shopping online nurseries with an eco-focus in their packaging (Select Seeds and Bluestone for me). A native nursery in MN is sending out plant orders with reused newspaper and boxes for packaging! Also planting native for the depth of roots and suitability for Midwest weather.
Amy: I love the focus on plant-buying through nurseries that try for sustainable packaging and on making planting decisions for your weather. I think people don’t get thanked enough for trying to make changes — however small these changes in our gardens may be — in doing better for the planet. So, thank you for your efforts!
Thank you for this thoughtful article. Being environmentally-conscious in the garden actually is not a big problem. It can be done easily and as a fun challenge. I do store about 300 gallons of rain water for individual watering, I added xeriscapic plants, I avoid all pesticides and herbicides, let my grass grow long in summer, attract pollinators, take cuttings or seeds of my favorite plants, recycle various objects for garden art, etc., etc. And plastic in the garden center? Can be easily replaced by a cardboard box I bring along in the car.
But these actions don’t mean much. As long as big business is continuing business as usual, as long as gas-guzzling military planes circle the air 24/7, as long politicians of all parties get away with empty phrases and political propaganda, and the building industry remains a bigger carbon producer than all cattle in the world, zero waste policy in the garden is well-intended, honorable and a worthy goal. But its impact will be minimal at best. As a society, we are not ready to make the big turn necessary to really impact change. We continue worshipping profit and stock market portfolios, and don’t pay attention to those things without a price tag that we humans need for our survival most.
You got that right!!! As individuals we must do our best conserve. We need to unite and pressure and vote for leaders who support saving our planet instead of catering to the wealth in our nation..
Thanks for this thoughtful reply Evelyn. It is a sad fact that our small, individual environmental measures do little to make a dent in the main problem: the greed and self-interest of fossil fuel and other large corporations. And the even sadder fact is that these corporations have been working for years (many since the 1960s) to place the burden of cleaning up their environmental messes on consumers (“reduce, reuse, recycle”). What does it matter if I persistently lug around my reusable water bottle when Coca Cola has only stepped up its production of products packaged in plastics that never biodegrade?
With that said, Jason Mark of Sierra Club makes the point (Yes, Actually, Individual Responsibility is Essential to Solving the Climate Crisis, Nov. 2019) that the current refrain in the environmental movement that individual action is ultimately useless until our entire capitalist system is dismantled is an “overcorrection” in environmentalism. And I tend to agree with him. All change begins at the individual level and moves toward more collective efforts. Individual action, at worst, helps to stave off despondency at this mess we humans have gotten ourselves in. At best, if enough of us participate in demanding change (via our voices and wallets), collectively we can force change.
Buying soil, compost, mulch, etc…by the truckload means fewer plastic bags. But if you do buy bagged goods, those large, tough plastic bags for compost, mulch, etc….can be used in many ways, such as cooking weeds before adding them to compost pile or yard waste, smothering weed patches, lining pots in non-draining situations, and scrunched up into balls to filling in the bottoms of big pots of annuals to keep them lighter and use less soil. Also handy for stowing weeds as you work your way through the garden. I never throw them away.
Good suggestions!
Eileen: all excellent suggestions. Thank you!
I’m working on having no garden waste at all, because the local company at this point does not compost garden clippings. That means composting everything possible, but also growing more plants that produce little waste. We grow all our own fruit–citrus and avocados and as many vegetables as we can–so no carbon-generating shipping or packaging involved.
A local family run nursery takes back all plastic nursery pots for reuse.
I buy all cotton clothes because after being worn, then worn out, then spending time as cleaning rags or drying wet dogs, they can also be composted.
Good article overall, but I totally disagree that watering by hand is more efficient/water saving than drip irrigation. I was raised in the northeast, now live in Kansas, believe me the difference in having a flower garden and landscaping is day and night. You have to get the roots on the perennials trained to go deep for water during high temps and drought. The way to do that is via drip irrigation. For the past month, with maybe a five day break, the temps have been an average of 97 deg, varying from 92 to 100. I water the entire butterfly garden only every five to seven days, depending on if we get any rain in between. I belong to a gardening FB page, and see that a lot of people water every day, or every other day, during such weather. Also, if you Google the topic, you’ll find multiple results saying the same thing, such as this one: Although hand watering helps conserve water, it is not the most efficient method. Drip-irrigation systems are more efficient because the water is delivered drop by drop over a long period of time, and this provides plant roots time to absorb waterborne nutrients gradually and continuously.
Agreed! I leave drip hoses going for about 6 hours on my larger gardens for a deep soaking about once a week during dry spells. Also have a rain barrel collecting water off the roof. I use this to water container plants and any flowers in small plots where I don’t have drip hoses available.
I hand drip irrigation. Don’t laugh When I’m out in the yard I have hose on trickle on move from plant to plant. Leave it anywhere from 15 min to hour. Depending on size of plant
I think Tibs wins!
I will say that from personal experience I will still maintain that light and close hand-watering beats drip irrigation and this is why: I find that if I do not regularly check each dripper…they clog or spray water into random locations not related to the plants that need them or get moved to areas where I never put them and where they are not needed. I have a lot of gardens and I am, sadly, not attentive enough to make drip irrigation efficient and non-wasteful in my own landscape. Maybe someone has a suggestion about the newer systems that work better?
I too had a problem with drip hoses spouting water randomly. Turns out it was due to excessive water pressure from the well pump. I purchased a limiter that attaches to the drip hose and it solved the problem.
How about starting with living in only 1 house. And the Jet Fuel used between the 2??????????
Thanks Kathy. Yes, there is no question my flying and owning a second home is not good for the environment and I fully acknowledge my privilege in leading a life in which I can even worry about the environment (rather than putting food on the table). By the same token, it is incumbent on those of us who can make changes in their individual lifestyles and also demand change of governments and corporations…to do so. Without going into more detail than your comment warrants, I will say that our family more than offsets its air travel and multiple homeownership with other lifestyle choices that are better for the planet. And, ultimately, no one can be perfect from an environmental perspective.
I appreciated reading some of the good environmental habits some people have shared. I spent last summer removing by hand, all the sod in my front yard that I either took to a dumping area provided by a compost making business or trucked it around back and used it to fill in holes in my back yard. This summer I had pea gravel paths put through the front yard, and planted basically grasses and a few coreopsis, rubeckia, nepeta. On top of it all I brought in mulch which has been spread. I have watered just a few plants now and then–but hardly at all. I have lived at this current location for 13 years in VT, and have never used pesticides or herbicides on this 3/4 acre lot. However, I think I can safely say I have the world’s largest grasshopper living here. I keep waiting for the bravest bird on the property to eat it, but so far he is still chewing holes in any leaves he so chooses. But that’s just the way it is.
Hi Betty: thanks for your efforts in your gardening life to do better for the planet! I can sympathize with your grasshopper problem since I currently have the World’s Largest Woodchuck living under and around my vegetable garden. It feasts on my kale all night long.
Thanks for the article. This is something I think about a lot. I also have started using more seeds and cuttings to cut down on buying nursery plants for home use. However, I am also a landscaper, and would love to see some other material used for all of the nursery containers I buy for customers.
I am also experimenting with using less fertilizer. One substitute I have tried is comfrey leaves. They are said to be full of nutrients and can be dug into the ground or made into a tea. My patch grows happily even in a low-water situation.
Thank you Andrea! I am looking forward to reading about comfrey because I love my Neptune’s Harvest fertilizer but it comes in a giant plastic tub.
In terms of the nursery containers, I hear ya. I actually wrote a rant last summer about this and there was some good discussion in the comments after (Our Plastic Pot Problem). The issue is that most garden centers do not recycle these pots and even though many places (including the big box stores) say you can bring the pots back for recycling, from a practical perspective, 80 to 90 percent of ALL plastic does not get reused and ends up in landfills or our oceans.