Gardening sustainably: 23 tips for climate neutrality

Owning your own house with a garden gives you a huge impact and benefits in terms of your carbon footprint _. Below:

• great freedom in design
• lots of space
• numerous possibilities for sustainability

Even if you’re short on floor space, a few tips can make a big impact on sustainability. As a pleasant side effect, you will also experience a relaxing effect and practical advantages with this gardening. These include:

• own fruits and vegetables
• lower fertilizer costs
• possible abandonment of pesticides
• natural balance of beneficial insects and pests
• Reduction of ongoing water and energy costs
• Reduction of dangers for children and pets

But how can all this be achieved? This question is not so easy to answer, because there are numerous measures and means available to you.

Own cultivation

Fruit, vegetables , nuts, herbs – whether lettuce or raspberries fresh from the bush – growing your own will quickly convince you. However, this does not only apply to taste and in relation to freshness and variety. Planting has other benefits as well. These include, among others:

• high vitamin content
• no transport necessary
• no outer packaging
• Food can be preserved
• Ways to go shopping are saved

If you want to achieve a particularly high yield, you can create raised beds or hill beds. This means that harvesting can take place earlier and often more frequently. In addition, this type of bed is also a wonderful way of using green waste and leaves in a practical way.

Own farm animals

Farm animals such as chickens, quails, ducks, geese, pigeons and goats as well as fish and bees can be kept in many places. The advantages of this are obvious. Depending on the animal species you choose, you will receive:

• fertilizer
• Owner
• fish
• meat
• honey
• milk

Of course, you also have to take responsibility for the animals and make the appropriate preparations. Sufficient space and a permit for keeping them are just as necessary for farm animals as comprehensive information about the needs of the creatures. This is especially true if you want to butcher.

In the medium and long term, however, you have significant advantages from it. You decide what you feed and how it is kept. You can therefore also obtain high-quality organic products from them and save on packaging, transport and money, just like with fruit and vegetables.

alternative energies

Even if you only have a small garden available, you can use this area as well as the roof of your house and the ground to generate energy. This is possible with the following variants, among others:

• ground heat flux
• Solar or photovoltaic
• Wind

Photovoltaics is particularly popular and therefore widespread. This variant is better known as solar power. The panels required for this are comparatively easy to install. However, an expert should decide which solution is best for you on site. Only then can all conditions and circumstances be taken into account.

win water

Without water it quickly becomes dangerous. This applies to humans and animals as well as plants. If you have a house with a garden, you have two options for making yourself less dependent on the water supply and reducing the amount of water you consume, which has to be treated in a complex manner. In combination with photovoltaics, you can create sustainable solar irrigation . The associated, solar-powered pump systems are easy to set up and suitable for all types of plants.

On the one hand, rainwater can be collected or caught. The advantage of this is that a rain gutter on the roof and a few tons are sufficient to collect larger quantities. In addition, rainwater is generally much lower in lime, making it softer and better suited for watering plants.

On the other hand, you can use a well or a cistern. Although the installation is more complex and not possible on every property, it also has the advantage that water costs are saved and the environment is protected. However, only a competent expert can determine whether this possibility exists in your case.

In addition to these two variants, there is another opportunity to save water and live sustainability. This is the so-called gray water. Gray water is caused, among other things, by:

• Baden
• the washing machine
• Showers

It can be treated relatively easily in a compact system and is then available again as service water. It can then be used, for example:

• while cleaning
• for the laundry
• in the toilet flush
• for watering

In this way, the water is recycled directly on site.

firewood and Christmas trees

If trees have to be felled or if there is just a cut, the wood can be used wonderfully as firewood. You don’t have to have an oven for this. A fire bowl in the garden is sufficient. Make sure the wood is completely dry.

In addition, every year immense quantities of Christmas trees are felled, transported over long distances and sold at high prices. It’s not climate neutral. However, if you want to act in a climate-friendly and sustainable manner, you can choose a potted fir tree and plant it in the garden after the party. If it gets too big after a few years, it can be felled and replaced by a smaller fir.

Until then, however, it provides shade, privacy and living space as well as a source of food for animals. After felling and use as decoration, this wood can also be used for burning.

mulch and compost

Mulch is already created when mowing the lawn. Bark mulch can also be produced, like green waste mulch. Therefore, do not bring your green waste to the appropriate acceptance points, but rather invest in a shredder.

This saves you money and fuel in the long run, recycles what would otherwise be considered waste and has mulch as fertilizer or to protect plants in winter.

If something is left over, a well-designed compost heap can be a great way to dispose of waste. The budget for waste disposal can be spared and you can recycle organic waste and green waste directly at home. The leftovers are decomposed by the rotting process and the nutrients are released again.

Compost is therefore considered ideal for heavy consumers. These are plants that require large amounts of micronutrients. In addition, there are numerous organisms in the compost. These also contribute to the soil quality in the bed.

fertilizer and crop protection

Sooner or later almost every plant needs fertilizer. But small bottles or large bags are not only expensive. You also need transport and packaging that is not climate-neutral. If you want to garden sustainably, you should therefore use existing resources. These include, for example:

• Compost
• Laub
• Mulch
• Plant manure and brew

You can also incorporate shredded weeds and chopped annuals into the soil to increase the nutrient value.

recreation

Last but not least, not unimportant when it comes to climate neutrality: the relaxation factor. Sitting together after work in a beautiful garden with numerous amenities, having a barbecue, relaxing in the sun or enjoying a mulled wine in winter – that is not only beautiful in your own garden, but also almost climate-neutral.

Trips to the beer garden, the restaurant or on vacation can be reduced as a result. Important tips for sustainability are therefore also to create beautiful and usable zones. This can be the terrace for breakfast in summer, the fire bowl or a pool. Employment opportunities for children and pets are also a sensible idea.

How about, for example, an agility course for the dog or a trampoline for the little ones? Especially in areas where the only way to get to the playground or dog run is by car, such equipment is a great advantage and minimizes the CO ₂ footprint.

Improve the natural garden

Your garden is already close to nature and you are just looking for other ways to live and garden in a climate-neutral way? The following tips show how you can achieve this goal.

combat neophytes

Neophytes are invasive plants introduced after 1492 to areas where they are not native. These include, for example:

• Ash maple
• service pear
• Greek foxtail
• Hercules perennial
• Indian Balsam
• Canadian goldenrod
• Lupine
• Robinie
• Late bird cherry
• Narrow-leaved waterweed
• Narrow-leaved groundsel
• Butterflies
• White Bent Grass

Comprehensive lists of these plants and their current floristic status can be found, for example, at the Naturschutzbund (NABU) or BUND. They pose a potential problem because they displace native species and can even lead to the extinction of these plants. However, this is not the case with all neophytes.

However, the necessity of the complete destruction of these plants is always given when it comes to dangerous species. In any case, find out in advance which plants are in your garden.

If disposal is necessary, do not put plants on your own compost or in the organic waste bin. To prevent further spread, the plants must be destroyed.

Solar energy, garden tools & tools 

If you want to make climate neutrality a top priority, also look out for alternative options when it comes to technology in the garden. For example, you can install solar-powered pond pumps, rely on solar energy for the pool or operate the lighting in the garden using photovoltaics. This saves you money, the devices can be used more mobile than with wired versions and they are also climate-friendly.

Also, avoid petrol-powered models. As lawnmowers , chainsaws and scarifiers, these are still popular with gardeners. However, they are not climate-friendly. Therefore, as far as possible, weed out all petrol engines and choose battery or corded devices instead.

horticulture and biodiversity

The English lawn, the gravel bed, the perfectly trimmed roses – this picture is certainly decorative but not very climate-friendly. Allowing wild growth in at least one section is beneficial for biodiversity and also for the fauna.

Also try to achieve as much variety as possible when gardening. One-sided monocultures of fruit, vegetables or ornamental plants are more susceptible to diseases and pests. On the other hand, they only provide limited food for insects and other animals.

Fruit trees, berry bushes, herbs and vegetables are sustainable because they are usually not just annuals, but can be cultivated for a long time. In addition, aromatic herbs in particular keep pests away and thus protect other plants.

No hybrids

For seeds and seedlings, you should be careful not to choose hybrids. These are often more susceptible to diseases and pests, but offer little food for local beneficial insects. It is better to choose native and old species instead of hybrids and exotics. This avoids the use of pesticides, can reduce the effort required for maintenance and at the same time increase the occurrence of useful animals.

Peat-free potting soil

Peaty soil is often recommended. However, it is neither environmentally friendly nor does it contribute to climate neutrality. Because to obtain this substrate, moorland must be destroyed. Suitable and better alternatives are:

• Grüngut compost
• wood fibers
• Coconut fiber
• Rindencompost
• peat-free soil

You can produce a lot of it yourself through sustainable gardening and thus directly use supposed waste in a meaningful way.

promote beneficials

On the one hand, beneficial insects can be attracted and, on the other hand, they can be used in a targeted manner. They include, among others:

• bees
• Hedgehog
• ladybug
• parasitic wasps
• birds
• wasps

Other insects and other animals can also be extremely useful. Therefore, if possible, integrate the following tools and use the measures:

• hedgehog houses
• Insect hotel
• nest houses
• bird baths
• birdseed
• Vogeltränke

As a result, you can often do without chemical agents and create a natural balance between pests and beneficial insects.

Avoid using pesticides

Whether a disease is spreading or pests have infested the crop: chemical agents are often used far too quickly. However, if you want to live sustainably, the following tips will help to combat this:

• Cutting off damaged plant parts
• Use of home remedies
• bring in beneficial insects
• Destroy green waste
• controls
• regular trimming
• avoid waterlogging

Use space & multiply yourself

Another point of climate neutrality is to use the space as sensibly as possible. This includes various factors such as:

• to install hanging baskets
• choose correct location
• Plant walls, walls and fences

By greening as extensively as possible, you create an area that produces a lot of oxygen and thus makes a significant contribution to climate neutrality. They also create areas for their own breeding.

Because instead of constantly buying seeds and seedlings that are packed in paper and plastic, it is best to harvest the seeds and young plants yourself. You can do this by collecting the fruiting bodies. Alternatively, you can trade with your neighbors to get new plants.

create bodies of water

Another way to garden sustainably is to create a garden pond, which can even be connected to a watercourse. They offer more animals a habitat and also a water source. This can be crucial for survival, especially in summer.

They also increase biodiversity and help turn your garden into a local recreation area.

frequently asked Questions