Happy (belated) Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, I thought we should talk a little bit about sustainable agriculture. I decided to look at some of the basic methods farmers use to promote sustainability and see how these methods can be adapted for very small-scale sustainable agriculture in a vegetable garden.

What I'm trying to show with this list is that sustainable does not necessarily mean more expensive, which I think is a common perception. If you want to know more about ways that farmers can cut costs and be more eco-friendly at the same time, you can check out this article (pdf) by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, which looks at how technologies like wind and solar power can be both energy- and cost-efficient for farms. And if you want to know more about how you can create a cost-effective, eco-friendly garden...just keep reading!

1. Compost. Who needs Miracle-Gro when you can make your own compost? By composting you can produce soil chock full of nutrients and turn waste that would otherwise be going into a landfill into something useful. Plus, compost improves soil percolation, which then reduces runoff- so even if you wanted to pour a bunch of nasty chemicals on your lovely composted soil (which you don't!), the impact wouldn't be as bad. Don't have enough space for a compost pile? Try worm composting, which basically involves putting some shredded newspaper, dry leaves, kitchen waste, and a little bit of soil in a big plastic box and then throwing in some worms. Awesome!
2. Use organic substances like bone meal and blood meal to add nutrients to your garden. I know that this stuff sounds gross, but it's part of sustainable agriculture: blood and bone meal are slaughterhouse byproducts. We can argue over the ethics of killing animals for food another day, but I definitely think it's a good idea to use every part of the animal we can if we're going to kill it anyway. Blood and bone meal are both compost activators, and blood meal also keeps animals like rabbits away from your garden.
3. Rotate crops. Farmers do it so they don't deplete the soil. In a vegetable garden, that's not really an issue, but it's still a good idea to switch it up every few years so that crop-specific pests don't move in permanently. By discouraging harmful insects from returning to your garden, you also avoid having to use dangerous pesticides.
4. Efficient irrigation. Try placing water barrels under your drain spouts and using what you collect to water your garden. You can collect a lot of water really fast, and it's easy to then use a watering can to water your garden. Another way to reduce water waste is to water in the early morning to limit evaporation. Also, think like a farmer and pay attention to the weather so you'll know when you can skip watering and let nature take care of it.
5. Pick your crop carefully. Whenever possible, try to pick plants that are native to your area. Native plants generally don't require as much work from you in terms of water or fertilizer, since they're already suited to the climate. They're also more likely to get help from insects native to your garden.

Once again, happy Earth Day, everybody!