These are a few little tips which can help contribute to healthier gardens and world :
- Bring in new top-soil only if absolutely necessary. Better to use what's on site, or raise the garden bed using compost or a three way mix but make sure it has compost built in to it. Remember, it's the living critters in your garden which help with nutrient uptake, not the empty top-soil. Soil that's already on site is precious.
- Avoiding digging unnecessarily in the garden (releases carbon sequestered in the top-soil, so unnecessary digging is a big no no.) Also see my first post about gardening, over hard-scaping.
- Remove large items like cars, green refuse bins from the garden to avoid soil compaction.
- Using a more eco-easy weed-killer like glyphosphate on your weeds a couple of days after it rains or after you've water (don't waste your time on the lifeless drought-tormented plant as it won't be very receptive).
- Using the weed-killer on the plant while the weed is still young (make sure it's applied to the leaves and stems)
- Do investigate a plant to check if it has weedy tendencies before planting. Remove weed trees like common desert ash and plant one which isn't prone to spreading to other properties. Remove the seeds and flower heads from plants eg mint, agapanthus before they can spread. Weeds are one of Australia's biggest environmental problems aside from land-clearing!
- Fertilise only when you have to and only use organics, if you can.Google what fertilisers do to our creeks, ground-water and seas.
- Finally research sediment control when doing new landscaping. Try to avoid sediments, chemical fertilisers and pollution getting in to drains. Use sediment control sausage bags which stop these draining away to the wrong places eg your vegie garden beds, and lay down protective plastic in key posies etc.
PS The picture was taken at lovely Mt Macedon 2010.
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