Elements to Incorporate in an Eco-Friendly Garden

Reduce, reuse, recycle, composting – if you think that these are the only ways to have an eco-friendly garden, think again. Today’s modern homeowner wants aesthetic quality and sustainability

Sure, you want to have lush flowering shrubs or a beautiful and utilitarian herbal garden – and it pays to help the environment while you’re at it.

What are the elements to incorporate in the design to have an eco-friendly garden? Read on to find out.

Eco-Friendly Garden Designs

Basically, your goal when mapping out a plan for your garden is to make sure that it is sustainable, beautiful, useful and eco-friendly.  Here are some important elements that you can Incorporate in your garden’s design to assure that it will not cause harm to the environment:

Eco-friendly Plants

Do your best to have all plant species be eco-friendly. Plants should attract wildlife and create biodiversity in your garden. Eco-friendly plants should increase the population of butterflies, bees and birds.  These plants can be beautiful to look at as well.

Sustainable Materials

From the flower pots to the garden furniture you use to design your garden, all items should be made from sustainable materials. Do these items require less energy to be manufactured, shipped, and installed?   Consider, are these items less harmful to your garden and the environment?
Rainwater Harvesting

It is reasonably easy and not too expensive to incorporate diverters, down sprouts and rain barrels to collect rainwater.  Your plants prefer rainwater over tape water.  Rainwater harvesting is an ideal way to irrigate small gardens.

Balancing Ponds

The main purpose of balancing ponds is to hold and store flood water in case there is excessive rainfall. The installation of balancing ponds on larger acreage will retain a certain volume of water and enhance the performance of the garden by retaining nutrients, organic matter and collected sediment.

By incorporating just these four elements into your garden design, you can easily have an eco-friendly garden that is a beautiful outdoor retreat. You can do your share in helping save the environment.

About the Author – Emma Spivey writes for http://www.solarwaterfountains.org her personal hobby blog focused on tips to design an eco-friendly garden using solar power.