Sustainable Garden DIY: Simple Home Improvement Hacks
When improving our home, an often overlooked element is the garden but it’s arguably the most important as it’s the first thing that neighbours and guests will see. Having a beautiful garden can tie everything together and give you the home of your dreams, so you should make sure that you give it the care it deserves. This could be regularly mowing the lawn or pruning your plants. You can even go that extra mile and start your own sustainable garden DIY home hacks to enhance your home aesthetic.
Sustainable gardening is also good for the environment and can reduce your carbon footprint. It can help promote environmental conservation, reduce reliance on harmful chemicals and enhance biodiversity, all while improving your own well-being and the quality of your local environment. Positive changes to your home garden will benefit both the environment and your home’s appearance.
We hope that this guide will provide you with inspiration on sustainable garden DIY projects that you can do to improve the carbon footprint of your home and give you an outdoor space that you can be proud of. Continue reading to find out more.
Sustainable Garden DIY Projects
Water Features
Having water features in your garden can be great for sustainability, as they can be useful for recycling water with many modern water fountains being designed with this feature in mind. It can reduce water wastage at home by continually filtering and reusing the same water rather than resourcing it. You can even take this a step further by having solar powered fountains, which reduce the reliance on electricity to generate the water features.
Flowing water in your garden can also be beneficial for any plants in the vicinity. It can give essential nutrients to the soil, which can enhance plant growth and allow them to flourish. This means that you should consider having your water feature come into contact with your grass and soil for optimal growth.
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Flower Beds
There’s no doubt that flower beds look beautiful and can give your garden that injection of colour that will add to its uniqueness. They are also great for the environment, as they are good at supporting biodiversity, improving air quality and boosting soil health, all while promoting eco-friendly practices like composting and reducing reliance on harmful chemicals.
You can create and place your flower beds in a variety of ways. For smaller flower beds, you can place and hang them on window sills around the outside of your home. Larger flower beds can be installed in your front or backyard, which can provide habitat and food sources for various wildlife, contributing to a more diverse and balanced ecosystem.
Compost Bins
Adding a few compost bins around your garden will be great for sustainability. They can reduce landfill waste, minimise methane emissions and enrich the soil of your home’s outdoor area. This can help foster healthier ecosystems and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers that can potentially harm the environment. It also closes the loop in the food cycle by returning nutrients to the soil, promoting a more sustainable and closed-loop system.
When you’re creating the compost bins for your garden, you should aim to use sustainable materials with naturally sourced wood being optimal. This will make it durable and aesthetically pleasing, so you can get the perfect look for your garden.
Herb Spirals
This unique piece of gardening furniture can create the perfect climate for plants and herbs to grow effectively. They can help to maximise space, create diverse microclimates and encourage efficient resource use. The spiral shape creates different microclimates with varying sun exposure, soil moisture and temperature, allowing you to grow a wider range of herbs that have different growth requirements.
You can grow a herb spiral by following these steps:
- Choose a sunny spot and weed the area to give you a healthy base layer.
- Use eco-friendly material like natural timber or stone to lay out the spiral shape that is 1.5m wide and 1m high. The outer end of the spiral should be on the south side of the garden bed with it gradually increasing towards the centre.
- Add gravel at the base of the garden for good drainage.
- Dig an area for a small pond at the bottom end of the spiral to capture any excess water.
- Select the seeds that will best suit the microclimate for optimal growth. Make sure to regularly water them or set up a self-watering system.
Solar Lighting
Even though the day time will be the best for your garden due to the amount of natural sunlight that benefits your plants’ growth, you can implement sustainable lighting options that can help with nighttime growth too. Installing solar lighting into your garden is a wonderfully eco-friendly option, as they don’t require any electricity to use with all their power coming from the sun.
Having solar lighting in your front and backyard can also help bring it to life and make it look amazing when it gets dark, especially alongside exterior walkways.
Final Thoughts
Transforming your garden into a sustainable haven is a rewarding endeavor that benefits both your home’s aesthetic and the planet. By implementing these DIY projects, you’re not only creating a visually stunning outdoor space but also contributing to a healthier local environment.
It’s always important to remember that if you are adding a variety of new plants to your garden, you’ll need to regularly tend to them with gardening tools like pruners or hedge trimmers.
