Even someone who claims to have a brown-thumb when it comes to gardening can achieve green and gorgeous results with these easy gardening tips. Whether it’s digging up dirt in your own backyard or container growing on a sunny windowsill, these simple strategies will help your garden grow.

Gardening Tip #1: Reuse those packing peanuts. Container gardening is popular for folks with limited backyard space, but the large pots can be heavy to move when filled with soil and plants. Lighten the load by filling the bottom 1/3 of the pot with Styrofoam packing peanuts. It’s a great way to reuse the packing peanuts, while keeping the pots lightweight. Added bonus: The packing peanuts help prevent root rot and mildew growth.

Gardening Tip #2: Another use for the Sunday paper.
To prepare an area of the yard for your first garden, don’t spend hours tearing up turf. Reach for a newspaper instead. Place thick layers of newspaper over the section of grass you want eradicated. Place heavy rocks on top and walk away. In a few days, the grass will die off due to lack of sunshine and will make prepping the ground much easier for tilling and gardening. Bonus tip: Pour boiling water onto weeds and grass to speed up the process.

Gardening Tip #3: Plant a smelly sneaker.
Deer and other wild animals may find your vegetable and flower garden to be irresistible. Instead of erecting cumbersome fencing or using smelly sprays, try leaving a very used gym sneaker in the garden instead. The strong scent of humans is a natural way to scare off wild animals.

Gardening Tip #4: Use organic insecticides and herbicides. Using chemical sprays to control insect and invasive weed growth in the garden is passé. Try a natural product that uses a blend of sweet-smelling essential oils to target insects and weeds but is safe to use around children and pets.

Gardening Tip #5: Recycle cans. Instead of pitching used soup cans in the garbage, use the can opener to cut off the top and bottom of the can. Little seedlings can be protected in the garden by the metal sleeve. When the plant has grown large enough, remove the metal sleeve and recycle as you normally would in your curbside bins.

Gardening Tip #6: Use paint stirrers as garden markers. An easy and free way to know what’s growing in your backyard is to recycle free wooden paint stirrers into garden markers. Just write the plant’s name on the top of the stirrer with a permanent marker and insert into the ground.

Gardening Tip #7: Repurpose compost. Use eco-friendly tools like a mulching lawnmower to reduce waste. Repurpose grass clippings and compost to naturally feed the soil in your yard. Mulching (covering the soil with organic or inorganic compost) is a great way to help conserve water and prevent soil diseases from contaminating plants.

By following these gardening tips, you should be well on your way to a bountiful harvest!

Laura Mathews

What if plants could multi-task? You know, do more than stand there and look pretty.

Consider this: in order to add color and interest to your yard, you’re looking for a flowering shrub.

You could choose a deep pink flowering azalea. That would be pretty.

Or you could choose native spicebush. That would be pretty, too. But spicebush, like other native plants, offers deeper beauty. Like azalea, it flowers in the spring. Unlike Azalea, it has multiple seasons of interest. And since it is genetically predisposed to thrive in much of the US, maintenance is less. It also comes with its own butterfly: the spicebush swallowtail.

Plants have purpose beyond their ornamental value. By adding plants that are native to your area, you’re doing yourself and nature a favor. Native plants need us less. Let’s say you’d chosen the azalea. As pervasive as these are, they’re sensitive. They’re native to China, so they aren’t used to North American growing conditions. To keep them thriving here, it’s suggested you feed them with an acid based fertilizer a couple of times a year. To keep them looking good, you’d need to hit them with a fungicide spray. They’re prone to powdery mildew.

Not feeling all the work and all the chemicals? Let’s look at the spicebush. It’s a naturally occurring shrub throughout the east coast and into the Midwest. It doesn’t need us. Spicebush, like most native plants, will thrive without the regular addition of fertilizers and chemicals because it has evolved to grow in northeastern climate and conditions. As with many native plants, it offers three seasons of interest. Delicate yellow flowers start the spring, yellow leaves mark fall, and berries decorate spicebush for the winter. The spicebush swallowtail butterfly will lay eggs on the leaves and the larvae will feed on the leaves. Native shrubs benefit birds, too: “Spicebush is a McDonalds for birds,” says Judy Bono, a Native Plant expert. Birds can feed on the larvae in spring and the berries in the fall and winter. And spicebush is but one of many native plants.

Spicebush

My point? The spicebush, though less perennially popular, will enrich your garden in more ways than one. Choose plants that are supposed to grow in your location, and you’ll create a symbiotic relationship in which you, your plant, and nature all benefit. I call it right plant, right place, cubed.

Good arguments for natives can be made on a purely economic basis as well. Native plants cost less because they don’t require chemicals or, once established, as much or any watering. And there are some native plant appreciators who simply prefer natives’ delicate aesthetics: say, the wisps of purple flowers of the redbud tree as compared to the explosion of pale pink blooms of the yoshino cherry tree.

But it’s interest in environmental preservation that is truly fueling the current rage for native plants and convincing folks that they’re crucial for our ecosystem. From soil, to birds, to insects, “Nature contains incredible layers of relationship,” said Jan Getgood, of Meadowood Nursery, an all-native plant nursery. According to Getgood, our efforts to re-arrange Mother Nature in our developed areas by introducing non-native species has impacted the biodiversity that those species support.

Douglas Tallamy, from the University of Delaware, has energized plant lovers with his book, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in our Gardens. In it, he explores the relationship between native plants, birds and insects. Certain insects only feed on certain plants. Birds for instance, search for certain insects; often in spring, caterpillars. Native oaks, for example, support the most butterfly and moth species, over 500, who lay their eggs in oaks. Those eggs become caterpillars and feed the majority of migrating birds. Birds need protein provided by insects to feed their young. While birds gain sustenance from seeds and berries, that’s not enough to support their offspring.

“We need to abandon the idea that we are planting purely for the aesthetics of plants.” Said Tallamy. “Landscapes need to be functional for nature.”

So does this mean we need to tear all our plants out and start over with native plants? Hardly. In fact, native plant experts suggest starting small.

“First, make sure there are no invasives, then replace your plants with natives through attrition,” said Tallamy. “Reduce the amount of lawn you have and plant your areas densely with native plants. Almost everyone has more lawn than they need. ”

Gardens that are tightly planted provide food and shelter for insects and wildlife can gradually allow nature to rebound. The hope is to create a corridor through suburban landscapes that allows wildlife to move freely and find shelter and food.

Of course, gardeners nurture plants. So the idea of pulling out your hybrid tea to replace it with clethra feels a little counter intuitive to us. Native plant champions argue that we should quell our guilt: “People need to know its O.K. to kill a plant,” said Lorrie Preston, President of the Appalachian Audubon Society. Preston suggests looking closely and really thinking about some of our problem plants. Rather than putting a plant on life support with additives or keeping it in bounds with excessive pruning, take the plant out and replace it with a native.

“Plants have their own purpose. We have to understand and think about how a certain plant can serve nature,” said Preston.

Years ago, when natives were called wildflowers, the only way to find them was to start your own from seed. Now, you can find native plants at your Garden Center. Often, there will be entire sections devoted to native plants. And don’t think your plant palette will be whittled down to nothing. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center at the University of Texas hosts a native plant database of more than 7,000 plants. Many of our garden favorites are native: echinacea, rudbeckia, and coreopsis come to mind. And there are several resources on line, including these:

-Wildflower.org

-Plantnative.org

-National Wildlife Federation

With native plants, you enjoy their beauty and the beauty of the nature that they attract—all while ensuring that birds, butterflies and, well, everything, will be here in the future.

Laura Mathews is a horticulture student, life-long gardener and professional photographer from Pennsylvania.  Currently, when she’s not driving her teenage daughter from place to place or chasing her kindergartner around the yard, Laura is writing blog posts for Punk Rock Gardens and shopping for a small farm.

Mike Lieberman

It seems like a lifetime ago now, but last this past spring and summer were my first seasons of urban vegetable gardening. I didn’t have a huge, lush, perfectly tended garden to work with. What I did have was a fire escape—and my own determination!

See, I live in New York City. Around here, the concrete outweighs the green. I had to get creative with the limited space outdoor space in my apartment, so I decided to turn my fire escape into my own little garden.

Just Start Growing

The biggest hurdle for me—as it must be for any home gardener—was getting started. What if I fail? Do I know what I’m doing? I can’t possibly do this. Luckily, I was able to forget all that self-deprecating nonsense. What did people do hundreds of years ago? They didn’t get fancy certificates declaring that they could garden. They just got it done, and I was going to do the same.

What To Grow In

I did a bit of research on what I could grow in and built my own versions of a self-watering container. They were perfect: inexpensive to make (less than $5), and composed of recycled materials.

If these seem like too much trouble, you could make a hanging planter using recycled soda bottles. These work well for herbs and lettuces.

What Kind of Potting Soil To Use

The next task was to decide on a potting soil that I was going to use. The one thing that I knew is that I wanted to use organic methods and no chemicals and pesticides. I started to do some research as to what I should use. Some said a coconut coir based soil, and some said a peat moss based soil. I figured that I’d experiment with both to see which one works better. So I bought some coconut coir based soil from my local ecology center. I also made my own potting soil from peat moss, vermiculite, limestone and compost that I made in my kitchen.

I haven’t yet done a complete analysis, but I haven’t noticed much of a difference in how things have been growing in the different soils. So, urban gardeners, I’d suggest using whichever is easier for you. Once you decide, you’ll face the next question:

Where To Buy Your Plants

My personal preference on this is to go local. Go to your farmers market or nursery and talk to the gardeners. I bought my plants from Silver Heights Farm at the Union Square Farmers Market. I was able to build a decent relationship with the gardener. She proved to be very helpful and personable in answering any questions that I had. This included:

What Should I Grow?

This is the million dollar question. If you are growing in an urban environment, it’s likely that you don’t have much space and want to get the most out of your veggie garden. What works for one won’t necessarily work for another, but I do have some personal veggie anecdotes to share.

· The vegetable that I had the most success with were lettuces and greens. I was able to harvest my lettuce and create my first salad about a mere month after planting them! It’s strange to say, but the feeling of being able to trace my food from fire escape to plate was overwhelming—in a very wonderful way—at first.

· Personal opinion? I’d stay away from red peppers. Nothing against them, but for me they don’t have a high enough yield. I’ve been able to harvest some, but the space could be better utilized. If you have a lot of space, then plant peppers like crazy.

· Cauliflower is another plant that I didn’t have much success with. I have thoughts on why it didn’t grow, but the fact that it didn’t turned me off. I’d rather stick with plants that are going to yield a high crop.

· Another lesson that I learned is that “cherry tomato” means a small tomatoes: not a small plant! When I started off, I bought a cherry tomato plant and thought it would work nicely on my fire escape. Now, a few months later, the plant is taller than me!

Maintaining Your Gardens

One of the virtues of self watering containers is that they are easy to maintain. I didn’t have to water them on a daily basis, and it’s easy to tell when they are filled. There’s also no need to pull weeds; compared to traditional gardening, the maintenance is much simpler.

Now that December, and soon winter, is upon us, the fire escape garden needs a bit more attention. There are definitely some plants and herbs that won’t make it through the cold season (such as basil, which died once the first sign of cold weather came). A heartier plant like kale is thriving in the cold weather so far.

Since I am working on a fire escape, I obviously can’t have a full blown greenhouse. I had to build mini greenhouses for the hanging soda bottle planters and small plastic greenhouses for the containers. They require a bit more attention, but help to prolong the life of the plants.

Those of us who live in urban landscapes tend to assume that gardening is a luxury for people outside of the city, or for friends with fancy country homes. But I hope that this post proves to you that this isn’t so. I’m doing all of my vegetable harvesting on my tiny fire escape in Manhattan, and with no prior experience. It’s been both fun and terribly rewarding.

So now it’s time for you to stop reading, and start growing! I wish you luck.

Mike Lieberman resides in NYC. He provides simple solutions for living in a complex world. He shows others how they can do the same on his own blogs and writes for others around the web. You can find them at CanarsieBK.com.

Many predict that in the not too distant future, we will be fighting over water, not oil. The problem is that the Earth isn’t generating the clean, drinkable water that it used to. The good news is that if we can use less and learn to protect our rivers, lakes and oceans, we may drink to see another day! So how can we really get a grip on our own personal situation?

There are many small changes that you can make today. Would you consider trying to cut down your home water consumption by half? Since the average American uses 151 gallons of water per day, and the French get by on just 71 gallons (Brits even less), it makes sense to give it a go. Here are some tips to get you started: Consider purchasing an Eco Drop. This is a British invention, which measures how much water you use when you shower. The little man icon displays how much water is pouring out and when you’ve used the recommended amount (which is pretty fair), a buzzer goes off for 5 seconds. Since I get carried away with all manner of scrubs and exfoliators in the shower, it makes sense to have, however annoying it is, that little man telling me when enough is enough. A shower used 2.5 to 4 gallons per minute for a conventional shower head. It might also be a good idea to get a low-flow shower head too. They are inexpensive an can cut down your water consumption by half.

The toilet uses 3.5 to 6 gallons per flush. That’s a lot of water. Consider:

a) A low-flow toilet

b) A dual flush toilet (where you press a different flush button for #1’s and #2’s)

c) Placing an old liter water bottle filled with small rocks into the toilet tank

A bath uses up to a whopping 60 gallons a day. That’s almost your entire water quota (if you’re going for 75 gallons). I am trying to give up the tub altogether, although I have to admit, it’s my biggest eco-sin.

Your Dishwasher uses 4 gallons per load if it’s Energy Star rated (6 if not). ONLY run when its choc full.

Watering your lawn can be the biggest waster of the lot. When running your hose, you are using 5 to 10 gallons per minute. Ugh – so when I’m only watering the planters on my patio, I can easily use up to 50 gallons on a hot day.

It makes sense to either rip out your lawn and landscape an edible front yard or have some eco-friendly artificial grass installed – a worthwhile investment. I love New Grass.

I’m all for the edible front yard. Even if you don’t want to rip up your entire front yard, you could build two or three raised beds and grow quite a few veggies. I’m currently teaching a Garden-To-Table class to the 6th Graders at a Charter School in Los Angeles. We have just built raised beds and last week we planted baby salad leaves and Arugula. When asking the kids, who doesn’t like lettuce, a few (many boys), raised their hands. That’s my Gorgeously Green Challenge this month: to persuade these foot-shuffling/eye-rolling dudes that baby salad leaves, drizzled with fruity olive oil and balsamic is heavenly.

Either way, even if its pouring with rain in your neck of the woods, consider the bigger picture and treat clean water as a limited and extremely precious resource.

Shawna Lee Coronado

Home gardening: it’s the best way to ensure that you and your family members are receiving the freshest, truly organic, locally grown vegetables. By growing our own foods, we teach children and family members how to connect with nature and live with less chemical exposure.

Take it from a lady who lives in Chicagoland, though: few parts of the gardening cycle are more important than closing one’s garden for the winter. Preparing your garden for next season by closing it up properly will ensure a more attractive community, healthier, well-protected plants, and a less laborious start to your spring garden.

Here are a few tips to help you close up your garden:

Fall is a fantastic time to divide perennials. Utilizing an easy technique such as cutting the plant in half while it is still in the ground will help you wrap up this chore quickly (see video). Be sure to replace any holes with fresh soil, compost, or rotted manure.

Plan your spring bulb garden now as bulbs need to be planted before the first heavy frost in the fall in order to appear next spring. Prepare your soil by working compost or other organic material into your soil. Avoid putting rotted manure on bulb beds, as it significantly heats up the beds and sometimes rots the bulbs. Plant bulbs according to directions, being sure to use organic fertilizer during the planting.

Tender bulbs such as caladium, gladiolus, canna, and dahlia should be lifted before the first frost in cold climates (as soon as the foliage has browned). Store them in a cool, dry place for the winter which maintains a temperature near 60 degrees. In mild climates, leave the bulbs in the ground, but mulch thickly.

Mulch well before the ground freezes hard for any exposed areas of garden. You’ll save water and money by practicing water conservation techniques; by mulching properly, you will have to water less in the spring. If you mulch after the hard freeze, you can sometimes warm up the soil, exposing the existing plants to harsh temperatures. It’s better to mulch before it frosts, so the plants have time to acclimate to the new protection.

Drain garden hoses and rain water barrels, reattaching all gutter connections to drain winter moisture away from the home’s foundation. Storing the rain barrel upside down will prevent additional water from leaking into the barrel, which might cause cracking during harsh freezes.

Empty container gardens and rinse all pots in a vinegar and water solution, scrubbing crustiness with steel wool. If the crust refuses to come off, soak the pot in a bleach solution that is one part bleach to nine parts water for an hour, then rinse again. This will kill fungus and allow you to reuse the pots next year. Air dry the pots, then store them in a dry space. Move all houseplants indoors when outdoor temperatures become lower than fifty degrees for nighttime lows.

Stop deadheading and collect seed from dried flower heads left in the garden. A favorite way to collect the seed is to wait until a flower begins to dry on the stem in the flower bed, put a paper bag over the top of the stem. Cut the stem just below the paper bag, tie with string or rubber-band, and hang upside down in a cool dry place for winter. In the spring, the seeds will all be at the bottom of the bag awaiting planting.

Most perennials can be left standing with no protection beyond additional mulching. In fact, cutting down perennial plants and taking away the garden brush will leave your plants open for more potential winter damage. It is far more conservation-oriented to leave the perennials standing “as is” until next season. The brush provides protection and the plants will drop additional seeds encouraging more plants to grow in early spring – surprise – baby plants will arrive and can be dug up to be given to your friends in the community. Cover special plants, such as roses, which cannot tolerate cold winter winds.

While perennial gardens should generally be left alone, vegetable gardens need a heavy cleaning and are perfect material for the compost bin. Although the composting process slows down in the winter, it is important to continue composting.

In fact, fall is a fantastic time to add leaves and garden brush to your compost bin as well as vegetable garden rubbish. To assist the process, chop and shred the materials to make them smaller before adding to the pile; you can do this with a mulching lawnmower. Many gardeners also plant a “green” cover crop at this time to help return important nutrients back to the soil without the use of chemicals.

Providing your family with a sustainable garden can be the start to a healthier, more thoughtful way of life. Living a green lifestyle begins with fresh air, nature, and plenty of family time. Gardening with attentiveness to water savings, conservation, and non-chemical use can help the overall health of your family and perhaps inspire your community to emulate good habits.

Make a difference this fall, and close-up your garden in a positive way!

Shawna Lee Coronado is an author, newspaper columnist, health, and greening expert focused on teaching and living a green lifestyle. Visit Shawna’s prime website for more information on her books and other media – www.thecasualgardener.com. Be sure to visit her health and greening blog – www.gardeningnude.com for lots more conservation, greening and health tips.