Ecological Gardening – The Principles Thereof

When you think of your garden beds do you yearn for a garden requiring less maintenance and water? A garden with a more diverse selection of wildflowers and pollinator plants with a greater biodiversity all the while having a healthier growing soil or growing medium. If so, then ecological gardening may be right for you.

What is Ecological Gardening?

Often this can become one of the most educational, fun-filled and exciting learning experiences of your life, especially when you turn it into a family affair with young children. It’s like discovering for the first time the place where you’ve been all along. If you’re already an avid gardener, then you probably are pretty familiar with the common, birds, wildlife, trees, grasses, perennials and wildflowers that flourish every season. After a while, you may start to truly see where you live from an entirely different perspective and appreciate your home’s and Mother Nature’s unique character.

Ecological gardening asks us to go a few steps further. Ideally, we should ask, given the natural conditions of this place, what would thrive here? A wet, shady spot is best for plants that need wet conditions and shade. While a dry, sunny location is ideal for drought-tolerant plants. The ideal situation allows one to place plants where they will require no extra water once established. If we can do that, then we’re one step closer to achieving a garden where the plants thrive with minimal care from us, as they do in a larger eco-system.

When choosing your plants consider each of the following:

Light: Walk the property and make note of the sunlight and which areas and/or beds each receive during the daylight hours. Full sun as a rule means six hours of direct sunlight per day and more. Anything less is either shade or partial shade conditions.

Space: Check the area to ensure the space can accommodate your plants at their mature height and breadth.

Drainage: You need to know how your growing medium or soil retains water and moisture. To determine the drainage of a site, dig a hole eight inches deep and fill it with water. If it takes less than 12 hours to drain, the site is very well-drained. If it takes more than 24 hours, the site is poorly drained.

3 – It All Begins With The Soil

Soil is the foundation of all the plants you grow. It’s alive and teeming with thousands of microorganisms working full-time to make nutrients available for your plants. Plants nurture a whole world of creatures in the soil, that in return feed and protect the plants. Out in a natural ecosystem, you’ll seldom find exposed soil. If an animal ever does dig up some earth, it’s quickly covered with leaf litter or colonized by new plants. This diverse community of living organisms keeps the soil healthy and fertile. Often when speaking with a client I say to them “feed the soil, not the plant”.

Soil is home to more than 1/4 of our planet’s biodiversity. Yet, we only know 1% of this universe. There are more living creatures in a single teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on Earth. Soil organisms are responsible for many critical ecosystem processes, on which humans depend: from supporting plant growth, to storing carbon and being a vast reservoir for pharmaceuticals. But soil biodiversity is under pressure! Unsustainable soil management affects life belowground. Cover your soil with a layer of organic composted matter and mulch.

Interesting facts about your garden soil:

1 – In just 3 inches of soil, there are 13 quadrillion living organisms, weighing 100 million tonnes.

2 – One hectare of soil contains the weight equivalent of two cows of bacteria.

3 – There are more organisms in one gram of healthy soils than there are people on Earth.

4 – An earthworm can digest its own weight in soil every 24 hours. 50% of the planet soil passes through the gut of earthworms each year.

4 – Attract Beneficial Insects

Come Spring our gardens flourish with new and rampant growth. We eagerly tend to our garden beds and vegetable plants and lo and behold suddenly we spot holes in our bleeding heart leaves, or in the leaves of lettuce and kale. Now what? First off, here’s a piece of advice; don’t just head to the local “box” store and grab some pesticides and start spraying.

Yes danger does lurk in the backyard gardens, but Mother Nature provides us with organic means to deal with the threat. Aphids, cutworms, mealybugs and other pests are preying on your vegetables and flowers. Forget nasty, expensive chemicals, enlist the aid of “good bugs” that will battle and help control pest outbreaks and won’t even ask for a thank you, let alone a pay check.

 5 – Use Natural Fertilizers

Synthetic (man-made) fertilizers give plants a quick boost but do little to stimulate soil life, improve soil texture, or improve your soil’s long-term fertility. They’re highly water-soluble and can leach into waterways. The quick results of synthetic fertilizers can come at a cost; apply too much and it may burn your lawn and plants.

Synthetically derived fertilizers are manufactured from minerals, gasses from the air and inorganic waste materials. Users must reapply synthetic fertilizers regularly to keep the results from fading. In healthy soil, these creatures do all of the work of a fertilizer. They convert nitrogen from the air into the soil and help decompose dead plant matter into the materials that a plant needs. If we fertilize repeatedly, we lose this living ecosystem, and our plants become dependent on inputs from synthetic fertilizers.

There is a natural cooperation developed between Archaea and beneficial bacteria making them more effective as a group. Archaea also breaks down organic matter into usable forms that plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi can identify, absorb, and ultimately incorporate for new growth. To promote soil life during fall and winter, I lay down compost and make sure to feed the soil with a deep application of compost tea. The compost tea, with its diverse microbial population, supercharges the soil and roots with microbial life.

6 – Putting The Puzzle Together

Ecological gardening is both the practice of using ecological techniques and the art of growing the plants that already thrive in our region. Use these techniques and your gardens will flourish while reducing the need for watering, weeding, and maintenance. Remember, it’s your journey to discover the native plants that you wish to grow. At the end of the day, you’ll enjoy a beautiful garden that’s healthier for you, your family and friends, your plants, and the wildlife that will find and flourish within your eco-system.

Want to know if any of your perennials from are native plants? Browse our website to find numerous articles about organics, sustainable landscaping and other information relative to sustainable organic land care! There are some resources with in-depth explanations below to get you started.