Natural Gardening Made Easy

Garden Friendly Glossary Words and Definitions-

Ecology: The study of the relationship between animals, environment and plants.

Ecosystem: The complex web of life that exists in one area. there can be multiple ecosystems lives right next to one another.

Habitat: A home for a particular animal or plant.

A Plant Community: a group of interdependent plants grow together. Plant communities are very predictable: the same plants grow over and over next to each other in the same place.

Micro habitats: small habitats which differ from the surrounding habitat.

Bio Diversity: The richness and complexity of life in an area. The higher the biodiversity the more plant and animals species that will live in that habitat.

Sustainability: Our ability to continue operating without demanding too much from the plants resources or overloading its ecosystem with pollutants.

Basic rules for a natural Garden-

To have a successful natural garden you must make a effort to have as many habitats and micro habitats as possible. This will give your garden more biodiversity. It will also make your garden more visibly appealing.

One must "use what you've got" when gardening. In other words always choose plants suitable for the area you want to garden.

Choosing native plants for your area has many benefits: Native plants are already adapted for a particular area. non-native plants sometimes escape into the wild choking out the nature flora. Native plants host a good micro habitat for local insects. You can usually find a list of Plants that are forbidden in an area because they are known to cause problems, I would highly recommend doing this so you are able to decide what you would like to plant native and non-native in your garden without causing harm to the local environment.

Do you have a problem with Slugs and other insects? Install a pond, frogs and toads will come. Both frogs and toads eat large numbers of slugs and insects.

Always have complexity in your garden plants. Having a wide variety of plants not only creates corridors for natural to safely travel around in your garden but it makes sure that when something does attack your garden that your entire garden is not killed. EX: deers love eating fresh rose branches and flowers. If all you have in your garden is roses you will have no survivors.
In the area where you are going to put your garden you might have to watch and record the environments in that area for a year to find out what parts hold more water, what gets more light or less light. Once this is done you will know what to plant in the certain areas.

When you are limited in garden space you must think vertically. Growing vertically gives depth to your garden making it more visibly appealing. Example growing climbing plants on the back wall of the garden ending with moss on the ground of the front of the garden.

If the look you are going for in your small garden is a woodland look add ferns this will immediately invoke woodland in the mind of the viewer. If you are going for a meadow look plant grasses and heathers . When planting a natural garden one must keep in m ind that plants in the wild grow intertwined. Meaning many species growing together and next to each other, which looks kind of like a mosaic painting. So, how do you make your small garden look natural? You would plant the same plant in several areas of your garden or scatter it in several areas. You do not have to use a bunch of that plant the key is more to have it in several areas. Using a self sowing plant is a good way to get a natural look in your garden.