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Sustainable gardening

teacher avatar Mark Shorter, DIY expert!

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Sustainable gardening - Introduction

      0:57

    • 2.

      Garden design, Compost your green waste

      6:29

    • 3.

      Save your seeds, Native plants, Beneficial insects

      4:17

    • 4.

      Conserve water, Fertilise with manure, Seaweed

      4:24

    • 5.

      High-tolerance, low-water plants, Regenerative garden

      4:58

    • 6.

      Garden design, Compost your green waste

      6:32

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About This Class

Sustainable gardening basically means that you design and tend to your garden in a smart and eco-friendly way. If you garden with sustainability in mind, you’ll be giving back to mother nature by using fewer chemicals and by incorporating lots of organic growing methods. As well as giving back to mother nature, you’ll be giving back to yourself and your family since any food you produce in a sustainable garden will be rich in nutrients and taste.

Sustainability is best done as a lifestyle rather than a one-time practice – you will gain significant rewards in the long-term in terms of your health and in cost savings.

In this course, we’re going to be looking at various ways you can incorporate sustainability into your garden.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Mark Shorter

DIY expert!

Teacher


Hello, I’m Mark and I love DIY!

For the past 15 years, I have been developing houses,  and in that time I have become an expert in everything DIY. I started out as complete beginner and found out that with a little bit of time and patience, nothing is impossible. If you scroll down through my profile, you’ll find plenty of courses that cover topics not only in DIY, but also in baking and gardening encompassing all my passions.

 

If you click any of the links below, you will have full access to all my courses plus every other course on Skillshare completely free for two months.

 

Here are the courses I have at the moment:

All about British birds: https://skl.sh/31gN27U

5 Easy to grow herbs, sowing, g... See full profile

Level: All Levels

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Transcripts

1. Sustainable gardening - Introduction: Sustainable gardening. Sustainable gardening basically means that you design and ten for your garden in a smart and eco-friendly way. If you'd garden with sustainability in mind, you'll be given back to Mother Nature by using fewer chemicals and by incorporating lots of organic growing methods, as well as giving back to mother nature. You will also be given back to yourself and your family, since any food that you produce in a sustainable garden will be rich in nutrients and taste. Sustainability is best on his lifestyle rather than a onetime practice. You'll gain significant rewards in the long-term, in terms of your health and in cost-savings. This course, we're going to be looking at various ways you can incorporate sustainability into your garden. 2. Garden design, Compost your green waste: Garden design. If you have a new garden that you're thinking about developing, then it's a good idea to incorporate resource conserving practices in order to protect your plants annual soil. Think about water conservation prices and so preparation ten days, they will make your garden greener and reduce your own impact on the environment. The best way to do this is to think about the sorts of plants you want to grow. First. If you place planted an area where they're most comfortable, then they will require very minimal care. Plant shade loving plants under the shadow of taller plants and some worshiping variety she planted in Sunni areas. Plants are crave water. Should we plant it in the most moist areas of your garden? You might be thinking that this is basic common sense, but you'd be surprised how often gets overlooked and isn't really thought about. If you take the time to find the best conditions for each plant, sheep boy, you can save yourself huge amounts of time and huge amounts of water. Compost your green waste. One of the most sustainable gardening practices is compositing. Compositing is basically we circling your food and other natural wise to be used as organic fertilizer. Instead of throwing away your dead leaves, flower heads, and grass clippings, you can compose them into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer for your garden. But regularly adding organic compost your soil, you'll be making it much richer and in turn, it will produce healthier and more delicious plans. Only he's composting crucial for an organic garden. It's also crucial for Sustainable Living in general. When you composite of food scraps, garden waste, and any other biodegradable materials you have at home, you will reduce the amount of 40 produce. Angelo also get closer to living a 0 waste lifestyle. As well as your own compostable wise. If you have any friends or neighbors who have a lot of biodegradable waste, you could ask them for this to what you can put into your compost will depend on what sort of compost we have. But there are a few basic rules that you can live by. All compostable material is either carbon-based nitrogen biased. The secret to a healthy part of a composite is to work for a good balance between these two elements. Carbon-rich materials include things such as branches, stems, leaves, pills, bits of wood, bark, dust, sawdust, shredded paper bags, cornstalks, coffee filters, coffee grounds, conifer needles, eggshells, straw, peat, moss, and wood ash. All of this stuff will give you a composite and light and fluffy body. Now nitrogen-rich material is basically anything you think will contain protein. Things such as manures, food scraps, lawn clippings, kitchen waste, and green leaves will all be nitrogen-rich. A healthy compost should have much more carbon than nitrogen, would say, one-quarter nitrogen to three-quarters carbon is ideal. The bulkiness of brand carbon-rich materials and less oxygen to penetrate down into the ground and nourish any organisms that are living there. Too much nitrogen will lead to a dense composite this smells as it decomposes. Group compositing technique is to cover fresh nitrogen material with carbon-rich matter. You can't go wrong with more carbon if indeed add more. Here are a few common things you might put in your compost. Tea leaves, which gives you nitrogen. Table scraps, which also gives you a nitrogen. Straw or high, which gives you carbon. Woody short prunings, which also gives you a carbon. Shredded paper carbon again. Seaweed, which is nitrogen-rich, sawdust, which is carbon. Pine needles, also carbon, although they can also be acidic. So don't add too much newspaper, which is also carbon. Weeds, which are nitrogen-rich. Lawn clippings, which contain nitrogen. And flowers, which also contain nitrogen. Few things that you should never compost include meat, bones, fish scraps. As always, we'll just attract pests. Also don't add perennial weeds because these will just spread throughout your compost. And fruit pills that might contain pesticides. If you're starting a new compost pile, it's best to do it on bare earth as this allows worms and other beneficial organisms to aerate the compost. Your first layer should be twigs and straw and a few inches deep as this as vital drainage and also helps to aerate the pile. Then add composting materials in layers, alternating moist and dry. Moist ingredients or the nitrogen-rich foods, including food scraps, tea bags, seaweed, Etcetera. The dry ingredients or the carbon-based items, including straw, leaves, sawdust, and would actually etc. Keep your compost moist by water is occasionally or just letting the rain do his job. But once it's moist, covered with wood or plastic sheeting or even copy scraps. This will help to retain moisture and retain he's which are the two essentials for composts. Covering also stops the compost from being over watered. Bahrain, you want your composts be moist, not soaking wet. Every few weeks. Turn your poll with a fork or a shovel. This era is apart and gives them much needed oxygen. Once you have an established compost pile, you can then add new materials by mixing the mean rather than by adding layers. 3. Save your seeds, Native plants, Beneficial insects: Save your seeds. Towards the end of the fairing period, your plants and vegetables are going to be producing seeds. Great way to save money is to collect the seeds and store them in a cool, dry place. You can then use your seeds in the spring of the following year to grow your plants. Again. Vegetables that are easier to solve sees from are things like tomatoes, peas, beans, and peppers. If you have a flower bed, keep an eye out for the developing seed pods and save them before they open up. Collecting your seats for save you a lot of money on buying new sees each. 19th plants. Plants are plants that grow naturally in your region. Native plants are easier to grow and sustain because they're already adapted to your climate. There'll be perfectly suited to the rainfall, soil, and climate in your region. Native plants will need much less work to grow. And most of them won't need any watering at all. Since there'll be adapted to surviving on the amount of rain you get naturally. Additionally, by growing native plants in your garden, you'll be provided in the ideal food sources and perfect shelter for local birds and insects. No herbicides. In a sustainable garden, you should say no to herbicides. And instead use organic methods to control weeds and pests. Weeds onto tricky to control if you're willing to put in a bit of elbow grease, regular weeding will make sure nothing gets too out of control down on the ground and start pulling. You'll also be getting some votes, Lexis always. Then official insects. Nature already has its own way of controlling most pests. Find out what beneficial insects you can encourage to live in your garden. And they'll help to control any pests. They'll eat up caterpillars, mites and aphids. And you won't have to use any chemicals that may also be harmful to you and your pets. One great example of a beneficial insects is a ladybird who just loves to eat aphids in green flies. Mulching. Multi means putting a layer of organic matter such as compost around the base of your plans and all over the flow of beds. Mulching has many benefits, including stopping the soil from drying out. Making it harder for ways to establish. Weeds are also much easier to pick out from most grinds rather than hard compacted soil. Modern writing the temperature of the soil. Stopping soil compaction. Adding nutrients back into the soul. As energy plants, something new in your garden, you should add a layer of mulch which will break down over time and provide your plants with lots of nutrients. It also looks nicer than just a patch of bare droid eggs soil. Here's a manual lawn mower. This is harder to do if you have a sprawling garden with lots of icons. But if you have an average backyard switch or electric or fuel powered lawnmower to a manual one. Manual normal will give you a much better workout and you'll also save money on energy bills. Plant trees by plants and even just one tree in your garden. You're helping to store carbon from the atmosphere into the soil. If you live in a very warm climate, the shape provided by a tree can also help cool down your home in the summer. Most importantly, however, trees are just gorgeous to look at. Having said that, you should do some research into which treats or plants and where has there are some species of trees, particularly the conifers, that can cause damage to your property if they're planted too close. 4. Conserve water, Fertilise with manure, Seaweed: Conserve water. If you get yourself a rain barrel, you can consider so much water and use it in your garden. You could also think about designing a rain garden, which is done by designing a system that stores rainwater from the roof of your house. The goal of a sustainable garden, ETUs, natural sources of water such as rainwater or rivers. If you live in an area where Ronnie scarce, then you should think about using direct watering tools such as watering cans. Or you could install an irrigation system that will water your plants directly at the base. The water gets straight to the roots. Automated watering source, such as sprinklers lead to enormous amounts of water wise teach and turn always reach all the plants in the garden. What's the conservation is especially important if you have a vegetable garden. Vegetables require more water than pretty much any other plants in your garden. Even to grow a single head of lettuce requires about 70 liters of water. You shouldn't stop watering your vegetables though, just be boys that when doing so. As I've already mentioned, a direct watering system is much better than an automatic want. Some vegetables will even be damaged if you use a sprinkler. Beans and squash is, for instance, would develop molds, plots, and fungus if too much water sits on them. Mulching is a good way to start watering from evaporating out of the solar soon as it's put down. The same goes for compost. The more organic matter, the reason that store, the more it will retain moisture, plenty to the ground before you even plant your seeds. Only water your plants when they need it, rather than simply watering three or four times a week, no matter what. Stick your finger in the ground and see if the sole really needs watering. Less frequent deep watering, ten to about six inches or so is much better than frequent Lloyd drinks that don't really encouraged the roots to develop deeply. The deeper the roots, the longer between watering your plant can survive. Additionally, the time of DI water is important. Or chewing in the morning is the best practice. If you watch her in the morning, you don't have the son evaporating everything. So the water has the chance to penetrate deeper down into the soil. You could walk in the evening, but it isn't as good because if you get water on the leaves is probably going to sit there so rather than node, rather than evaporite. And this can lead to mildew developing. Finally, plant vegetables, they use a lot of water close to each other. You less severe water is going to waste. Fertilize with manure. The most sustainable fertilizer you can use to nourish plants with is manure. If you have your own livestock, then you can easily get manure on a regular basis. But if you don't, then try looking for some farmers in your local area who might have some, you can have seaweed. If you live close to the ocean, then get harvesting seaweed. It's excellent for most plants as it has essential nutrients for healthy growth. When you collect the seaweed, draw it out, and then you can store it for use later time. When you want to use it. Just crush it up and then mix it into your compost to give you a plant and extra boost. Wooden plant tanks. This is a really simple tip, but one that can save a huge amount of plastic waste. You don't even need to buy wooden plant tanks. You can simply get some plant twigs, shave them off, and then write on the bare wood beneath the bark. It's not only cost effective, but creative as well. Organic fencing. Using scrap wood from saplings and fallen branches to create fence dairies in your garden is a great way to add some unique style to your garden. Not only organic, but it can be a very attractive feature. You can use fencing to keep pets away from your vegetable garden, or just to add some structure to a plane area. 5. High-tolerance, low-water plants, Regenerative garden: How it's tolerance, low water plants. Great way to conserve water is to have plants that are very high tolerant. This means they'll not need a lot of water, nor will they need much maintenance. There are so many high tolerance plants that look stunning. Two, depending on your climate, high tolerance plants include grasses, succulents, hardihood, herbs and shrubs, artichokes, pen Simmons, and lavender is regenerative garden. All plants have the ability to pull carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soul. Regenerative garden is one that is releasing the store carbon. Most vegetable gardeners unfortunately, do release all store carbon every year when they play the store to get it ready for the following year. In a regenerative garden, there are several things that you want to consider. Limit digging. Digging in so too much can cause a huge loss in nutrients and organic matter over time. By limiting how much you dig, you allow worms and other song love to remain established. This helps with aeration and drainage. If you're a vegetable gardener, rather than digging or tilling the soil, you can add a thick layer of mulch on top. Thick lines of mulch will allow water to pass through easily whilst also shining the soil. This reduces water loss through evaporation and it maintains a more squaring environment which encourages root growth. Another benefits are not digging is that it can eliminate the need to weed. Most garden source can time weed seeds that weren't start to grow unless they get exposed to sunlight. If you never turn the saw, the sun long won't hit the seeds. Of course, you'll still have airborne seeds. But these tend to be much easier to remove from the store by hand. As I said, most volatile in a no dig garden, don't take them all Ching though, as this defeats the object of not digging. But just let them won't sit on top. If you want to plant your ceilings in your vegetable garden, pull the most pack and then dig the surface just enough to set the plant in. Cutback on watering. Using mulch automatically reduced the need for watering. Reduced watering also minimize his soil compaction and stops weeds and seeds from germinating. A good way to reduce your watering is to use a drip irrigation system that will direct the water straight to the plant roots. Cover crops. In a vegetable patch when you're in the off-season, you can discourage wastes from the communist up is by using something called cover crops. Cover crops such as clovers, oats, and Roy's are often referred to as green manure because they add so much fertility back to the soil. You let the cover crop grow when you're not growing your vegetables. And then once you wanted to use your vegetable beds again, you lay a dark place the sheet over the cover crop. The heat will build up and kill the cover crops. And you can then plan your vegetables. Encourage biodiversity. The healthiest garden is the one that supports plants, insects, and solo organisms. If you plant a variety of crops in each area, you'll be diversifying your garden at plants that have tried to beneficial insects. Or you could even leave a wall patch that you don't tend to grow perennials. If you plant lots of perennials in your garden, you will limit soil disturbance even further. Plants that survive for more than one year have a greater chance of storing carbon in the soil. Plus the roots will extend further into the ground and support your codons water-holding capabilities. If your vegetable gardening, there are plenty of edible perennials you can consider, such as berries, fruit trees, rhubarb soon chokes, and asparagus. Introduced animals. If you have the spice, then have some chickens, rabbits and took shoes your coordinate certain times of the year as this will improve your soul while reducing pests. Ducks, just little slugs and chickens will most insects in your garden. In a vegetable garden, the best time to let the check-ins roam around isn't early spring before you plant anything else. The chickens will also leave plenty of manure behind. Obviously, you don't want to leave the animals when you grow and vegetables. You'll need another area to move them too. That's just some hints and tips that you can use to make your garden a sustainable one. 6. Garden design, Compost your green waste: Garden design. If you have a new garden that you're thinking about developing, then it's a good idea to incorporate resource conserving practices in order to protect your plants annual soil. Think about water conservation prices and so preparation ten days, they will make your garden greener and reduce your own impact on the environment. The best way to do this is to think about the sorts of plants you want to grow first. If you place planted in an area where they're most comfortable, then they will require very minimal care. Plant shade loving plants under the shadow of tall or loss plants and some worshiping for our tissue we planted in Sunni areas. Plants are crave water. Should we plant it in the most, most areas of your garden? You might be thinking that this is basic common sense, but you'd be surprised how often it gets overlooked and isn't really thought about. If you take the time to find out the best conditions for each Planche boy, you can save yourself huge amounts of time and huge amounts of water. Composite your green waste. One of the most sustainable gardening practices is compositing. Compositing is basically we circling your food and other natural wise to be used as organic fertilizer. Instead of throwing away your dead leaves, flower heads, and grass clippings, you can compose them into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer for your garden. But regularly adding organic compost to your soil, you'll be making it much richer and in turn, it will produce healthier and more delicious plants. Only use composting crucial for an organic garden. It's also crucial for Sustainable Living in general. When you compost your food scraps, garden waste, and any other biodegradable materials you have a term, you will reduce the amount of water to produce. Angelo also get closer to living a 0 waste lifestyle. As well as your own compostable wise. If you have any friends or neighbors who have a lot of biodegradable waste, you could ask them for this to what you can put into your compost will depend on what sort of compost we have. But there are a few basic rules that you can live by. All compostable material is either carbon-based nitrogen biased. The secret to a healthy part of a composite is to work for a good balance between these two elements. Carbon-rich materials include things such as branches, stems, dry leaves, pills, bits of wood, bark, toast. So dosed, shredded paper bags, cornstalks, coffee filters, coffee grounds, conifer needles, eggshells, straw, peat, moss, and Burdash. All of this stuff will give you a composite or lots of fluffy body. Now nitrogen-rich material is basically anything you think will contain protein. Things such as menus, food scraps, lawn clippings, kitchen waste, and green leaves will all be nitrogen-rich. A healthy compost should have much more carbon than nitrogen. Was psi one-quarter nitrogen to three-quarters carbon is ideal. The bulkiness of brand carbon-rich materials allows oxygen to penetrate down into the ground and nourish any organisms that are living there. Too much nitrogen will lead to a dense composite this smells as it decomposes. Group compositing technique is to cover fresh nitrogen material with carbon-rich matter. You can't go wrong with more carbon. So if in doubt, add more. Here are a few common things you might put in your compost. Tea leaves, which gives you nitrogen. Table scraps, which also gives you a nitrogen straw or high, which gives you carbon. Would he shook prunings, which also gives you a carbon, paper carbon again, seaweed, which is nitrogen-rich, sawdust, which is carbon. Pine needles. Although carbon, although they can also be acidic, so don't add too much newspaper, which is also carbon. Weeds, which are nitrogen-rich. Lawn clippings, which contain nitrogen. And flowers, which also contain nitrogen. Few things that you should never come past include meat, bones, fish scraps. As always, we'll just attract pests. Also don't add perennial weeds because these will just spread throughout your compost. And fruit pills that might contain pesticides. If you're starting a new compost pile, it's best to do it on bare earth is this allows worms and other beneficial organisms to aerate the compost. Your first layer should be tweaked and straw and a few inches deep as these as vital drainage and also helps to aerate the pile. Then add composting materials in layers, alternating moist and dry. Moist ingredients or the nitrogen-rich foods, including food scraps, teabags, seaweed, Etcetera. The dry ingredients or the carbon-based items, including straw, leaves, sawdust, wood ash, etc. Keep your compost moist by water is occasionally. We're just letting the rain do his job. But once it's moist, covered with wood or plastic sheeting or even copy scraps. As this will help to retain moisture and retain he's which are the two essentials for composts. Covering also stops the compost from being over watered by rain. You want your compost be moist, not soaking wet. Every few weeks. Turn your poll with a fork or a shovel. This era is depart and gives them much needed oxygen. Once you have an established compost pile, you can then add new materials by mixing the mean rather than by adding layers.