Organic Gardening is a Sustainable Win for Local Ecosystems
Living sustainably begins at home, and organic gardening practices sustainability and is an incredible way to contribute to the health of your local ecosystem. Carbon footprint reduction, self-sufficiency, and providing local wildlife with food sources are, generally speaking, the benefits of your sustainable actions and decisions. Here are some resources that may help you make more of an impact.
Arbico Organics: A Go-To Source for Organic Gardening Supplies
When it comes to organic gardening, Arbico Organics is a fantastic resource. They offer a wide variety of organic gardening products, from seeds to fertilizers to organic pest solutions. They even supply beneficial insects - a floral militia, if you will, that will defend your garden. For stubborn or out-of-control cases of garden pests, you can find low risk options that are minimally harmful to the environment. Their customer service is exceptional and available to help beginner or master gardeners find the best products to meet their needs. Arbico Organics provides the resources to help you feel confident that you’re making choices that are not only effective for your garden but also for the environment.
Native Flowers and Plants: Nurture Your Garden and The Environment
Regardless of your location in the world, native plants are a critical part of ecological systems. They are a cornerstone of sustainable gardening, promoting biodiversity and resilience. Wildflowers and native plants provide food sources and host plants for wildlife and are an easy and environmentally conscious choice to make for your next growing season.
The Wild Seed Project offers an extensive variety of flower seeds and native plants for your garden. In addition, The Plant Native provides information and resources to find plants specific to your region (in the United States). They’ve synthesized a lot of information into their Native 101 and explain the importance and ecological benefits of planting native species. They both offer a library of resources and guides to promote native plant and wildflower gardens.
The best part of native plants and wildflower gardens is that they’re adapted to your local climate and soil conditions, which means they require less water and maintenance. This leaves you with more time to enjoy the flowers that grow and the wildlife that visit.
Why Buy Mulch When You Can Get It Free?
Mulch, believe it or not, is extremely important for your garden beyond the aesthetic value. It plays a crucial role for the health of plants in your garden by retaining moisture in soil, suppressing weeds, and improving soil quality with additional nutrients. However, bagged, store-bought mulch might not be the best choice.
Because it’s sealed in plastic, its natural moisture content and stored for who knows how long, it easily develops mold and fungi spores that harm your garden. Additionally, bagged mulch is often produced inorganically from recycled construction lumber or pallet wood, and chemically treated to contain dyes and herbicides.
There is an alternative, though! Many communities have landfills that accept yard waste from the community. An important note, however, is to know if a) your local landfill accepts yard waste and, more importantly, b) what’s done with it. Some communities and states have banned yard waste for legitimate reasons, but it’s uncertain why those communities don’t use it to produce mulch for the local residents. Most facilities, though, run collected yard waste through a woodchipper to turn it into quality, organic mulch for residents. Moreover, many municipalities provide leaf or fall clean up services for residents. In turn, it’s broken down and mulch piles are distributed throughout the community for residents.
This is THE example of cycling biomatter back into an ecological system. The best part: COMPLETELY FREE MULCH that’s beneficial for your garden and local ecosystem.
The EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) has compiled a state-by-state list of landfills. The link below directs you to the EPA website. Find and click on your state (in the map of list below it), and it will prompt a download of a spreadsheet containing the locations and status of landfills in your state. From there, you can find the contact information on the web to get answers to the important considerations I mentioned above.
