Gardening tips for the environmentally conscious

Here's some good ideas for gardening while recycling. I personally like to use raised garden beds for my herbs and some veggies. There's two reasons for this, the first being that I'm ADD and tend to be absent minded, so when I use the raised beds I can remember what plants are in which bed. 2) it helps with keeping critters out (to some small degree) and with weeding. It also helps when I go to cut the grass I don't have to worry about accidently running over the plants.

 The best way to build a raise bed is to use either old wooden pallets or recycled lumber either from a fence that's being replaced or an old dresser that someone is throwing out. A couple years ago I didn't have enough lumber for the size boxes I was building so in addition to the lumber I had, I used a couple of large logs that were left over from when we cleared some property that I had lived on previously. Old tree logs work well too and help give your garden that old rustic look and they tend not to rot as fast depending on the size log. When the log does eventually rot it helps make the soil a little more fertile. 

Depending on how big you want your boxes to be will depend on how much wood you'll need, obviously. You can make these boxes taller to keep the rabbits out if the bunnies tend to be a problem or for asstetics and better drainage depending on what you're planting. 

Another good material to use in the garden is plastic. Everyone has plastic groceries bags or if you're a person who feeds the birds plastic seed bags. You can cut the bags down one side, from top to bottom so they open up and lay flat. Once that's done you can place them in any garden bed, I use these for my flower beds, then make a hole in each one so that your plant can be easily planted in the ground with the plastic around the base of the plant . Then all you need to do is add your dirt and mulch on top and it helps keep the weeds out of your beds. The thicker the plastic bag the better success you'll have with this technique. The other thing the plastic will do is hold moisture so that even in the middle of summer you won't have to water as much and won't have to worry about being in the garden weeding for hours. It also repurposes the plastic bags so they're not sitting in a landfill somewhere for years to come. 

Use recycled materials you have at home whenever possible in your garden, whether it's paper, plastic, or wood. This way you're not only helping yourself with cost and time you're also helping out the environment :) 

Happy gardening y'all