Green Gardening Techniques

A lot of people might see the term “green gardening” as redundant. Isn’t all gardening green, technically? The answer is that while planting and raising most forms of vegetation is good for the environment, there are definitely ways to go about it that can boost the benefits and decrease your carbon footprint.

The nice thing about green gardening is that it’s pretty innovative and affordable. There are lots of different tactics you can use to save on space and money—it’s a win-win situation. Here are a couple things you can do to set up a green garden, in just about any situation:

Hydroponic Gardening

Hydroponic gardening, or hydroponics for short, has become a recent trend. This type of gardening is unique in that the plants are grown in a medium other than traditional soil. Plants are usually kept in a porous medium that has a water-nutrient mix flushed through it. This helps aerate the plant roots, allowing them to grow better than in traditional soil.

Another benefit of this type of gardening is that it can be remarkably space-efficient. You can grow hydroponic gardens with plants much closer together, since air and water aren’t a limited resource. Additionally, since water is circulated throughout the system and reused over and over, it uses only a fraction of the water that traditional gardens use. This conservation helps both the environment and your wallet.

Composting

A lot of gardeners feel that they have to go buy chemically treated fertilizers to keep their gardens growing strong—but this is not true. The best way to go about fertilizing your garden is by organic composting. Not only does this help reduce the amount of waste heading to a landfill, but it provides healthy and natural minerals to your garden.

There are lots of different methods of composting—some use worms, even—but all that you really need is a place to contain the organic waste and a willingness to salvage your organic refuse.