Coordinating between different garden projects can be an important strategy to make your efforts as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible. By this I mean finding ways to organize tasks and combine projects to achieve more than one goal at a time. Coordination and holistic thinking are key to reproductive horticulture. Here are some examples to help you understand this concept and apply it in your own garden:
Combination between ponds + other projects
Building a pond on your property can provide many benefits. But the materials you use to create your pond can also be useful. Mindfulness allows you to make the most of the soil. For example, you can:
- Store any pruned grass from top to bottom to create soil for other garden projects
- Use topsoil in developing areas (e.g., in lawns and gardens as a top layer, or at home-based clay mix)
- Use groundwater in garden bags, bedding, walls, etc.
- Take soil with the appropriate clay content and use it in the construction of cobwebs (eg garden buildings, fire pits, outdoor pizza ovens, etc.).
- Identify the clay and use it to make pottery, ponds / landscaping or handicrafts
Alphotographic / Getty Images
Trimming, copying, pruning + other projects
In many forested areas, it may be necessary to cut down trees to reclaim native forests. Pruning fruit trees to maintain good health and well-being also plays an important role in wood and forest management. These works can provide many resources for use in other garden projects. For example, wood and natural branches can be used for:
- Construction of greenhouse and other garden buildings
- Creating a fence on property
- Build hugelkultur beds (garden beds made of rotten wood) or make a bed frame
- Biocharging to improve soil and increase soil carbon
- Chipping to use in new beds, tracks, etc.
By thinking about how the output of one work or garden can be used as another input, you can create a comprehensive program that works like a closed-loop system.
Greenhouse + Chicken Pools
Getty Images
When carrying out various projects that use natural resources from your garden (with returned materials), it is important to think about the integration between the different structures you are building.
A popular example of this in permaculture is the combination of a greenhouse and a chicken coop. By combining these two elements, you can create a system that is larger than the sum of its components. The greenhouse warms the chicken coop when the sun is shining (and carefully designed, only in winter and not too hot in the hot summer months), and the body temperature of the chickens can reduce the chances of cooling the temperature inside. When there is no greenhouse. The manure in the greenhouse will be fertilized and the bed will be fertilized and once it is fertilized, it should not be moved too far for use in the greenhouse.
Rainwater Harvest + Other Projects
There are many ways to integrate rainwater harvesting systems and other garden projects. For example, you can:
- Store rainwater tanks or barrels in a greenhouse, to keep the temperature even throughout the year.
- Tap rainwater (perhaps from a chicken kitchen, outdoor kitchen or vegetable garden).
- Direct access to rainwater directly into bed beds or irrigation system
- Gravity rainwater to drain irrigation systems
- Direct rainwater to a reed bed filter system or rain garden
- Create corridors to transport rainwater to ponds on your property
- Drain rainwater through a compost heap or solar water heater for space heating or hot water needs
Pa. Thompson / Getty Images
Composting + Other projects
Compost warms up, and this is a feature used to create integration in the settings area. As mentioned above, you can pass pipes in a hot composting area for space or hot water heating. You can make hot beds filled with fertilizers that provide a gentle lower temperature for the growing area.
Fertilizer piles, when stored carefully, can often bring benefits to other nearby plants. Remember, fertilizers often provide not only fertilizer but also other growth areas, such as compost tea. In vermicomposting conditions, worms are another product. Use those worms as food for chickens, wild birds or fishing systems.
Here are a few examples of how creating partnerships between gardening projects can help you design and implement a better, more sustainable and more productive garden when you need more resources.