Ecological gardens are specifically designed for the efficient and sustainable use of existing natural resources. DianaHome, a Maresme-based business explain how your eco-garden becomes a natural extension of your home.
DianaHome offer eco-renovations and home improvements to clients all over Spain. The company’s international, multilingual, and multidisciplinary team of experts works with qualified, vetted local professionals to manage works throughout the entire process. Expert, 360º support ensures renovation and home improvements improve quality of life, reduce environmental impact and increase property value.
Eco-gardens can become a natural extension of your home
Unlike conventional gardens, ecological gardens are specifically designed for the efficient and sustainable use of existing natural resources. Taking advantage of their environments’ natural cycles and biodiversity, ecological gardens have low resource consumption and are chemical and pesticide-free. Your home deserves a healthy garden where birds, bees, bugs, and local fauna can thrive. Apart from the positive environmental impact, ecological landscaping also consumes fewer resources (i.e., lower water and energy bills) and requires less maintenance. Your eco-garden becomes a natural extension of your home and ideally provides natural shade in the summer while letting light pour onto the house during the winter months.
Ecological landscaping and plant species
Before selecting specific plants, we need to look at the overall orientation of the garden and design an optimal positioning. Species that require less watering should be grouped together in sunnier areas, and those that need more water should be in shady, humid spots. This allows us to optimise the use of water.
It is also advisable to avoid seasonal plants because they generally have to be switched out each season, which is inefficient and time-consuming. Ecological gardens are based around native species because they are already adapted to the zone’s characteristics, soil and climate. They also tend to require less care and be more resilient to infections and pests and attract more pollinating insects and birds.
So how does one get going?
Suppose you want to create your own garden, apart from taking advantage of existing plants that meet the criteria mentioned above, if your garden already has native species. In that case, you need to start with ecological seeds. Ecological seeds haven’t been treated with insecticides, fertilisers, pesticides, and other poisons and genetic modifications or alterations that are often used for non-ecological varieties.
Each seed, seedling, and plant has the right season and conditions for planting. However, generally speaking, autumn is a good time as water is saved, and plants have plenty of time to take root before blooming in spring and/or summer.
Key points
An ecological garden’s optimal care and development can be summed up using three basic premises: naturally fertilised and well-aerated soil, utilising natural water and light, and embracing nature: keep your insects alive.
The nutrients of the soil
The type of soil influences fertilising and maintenance needs. It’s essential to know your soil’s characteristics to find out if it has the minerals to keep plants healthy, has good drainage, and which type of compost it requires to maintain its organic material integrity.
The process of enriching soil can be divided into 4 stages or layers. The first layer, which serves as the base, is formed by dry elements such as leaves and bark. In the second layer, we should use green clippings. The next layer is where we use our compost, a mixture of nutrient sources that is very beneficial for the soil. The final layers should contain organic elements that enrich the earth, like eggshells. This natural fertiliser should be constantly damp, and the process should take approximately three months.
After combining all of these elements, we will have helped enrich the soil in which our plants grow strong and healthy without using any chemicals. Suppose we aren’t able to create this mixture and have decided to buy dirt. In that case, it’s recommendable to always choose ecological soil, in which this process was likely followed, resulting in the final product.
Take advantage of water
Taking advantage of water is essential for any agricultural activity. If you are a DIY person, a handy and straightforward watering system that you can make consists of recycled buckets and canisters such as those used for painting. You can place them on the ground underneath gutters and/or places where you know that, during rain, large amounts of water will accumulate. Afterward, you can use the stored water for watering your plants. It is convenient to close these recipients with their respective lids once the rain has stopped. This will keep them from being colonised by bacteria, insects, and larva that come from outdoors.
There are all kinds of systems that can manage the watering and electricity requirements to keep your ecological garden thriving for those seeking a less hands-on way of watering plants. At DianaHome, we work with homeowners, and our engineers and architects help choose the best system according to each client’s home, garden, and budget.
Optimising light sources
Light is also an essential element of an ecological garden. Obviously, light is required for plants to grow. So optimising plant locations and the solar cycles and radiation exposure is paramount to a sustainable garden. That being said, we do not only enjoy our gardens at night! Efficient night lighting, which is ideally solar-powered, ensures that you can enjoy your landscape just as much at night as you do during the day. Today, there are beautiful, discreet, and fun solar lamps that charge during the day and light up automatically when the sun goes down. You can also install efficient yet warm LED lighting for additional nighttime illumination. This is the ideal kind of energy for lighting up your garden at night, and it produces a warm and beautiful effect on your garden.
Controlling pests
An ecological garden will automatically control insect plagues because you can group plants together, which means we can forget about using chemical products to exterminate. Aromatic plants such as rosemary, calendula, sage, thyme, basil, or chamomile keep microorganisms that could be harmful to our plants at bay and add a varied and colourful touch to our garden.
Family activity
Having an ecological garden is a source of pride for the people who create them, and it is an ideal activity to do as a family. It’s imaginative work that allows us to recycle furniture, old objects, and palettes to decorate a space with vases and unique planters. Taking care of your garden is satisfying and puts you in a deep connection with nature.
If you have gotten this far, you’ve probably noticed a theme in creating and caring for your garden: diversity and nature. Your garden is an extension of the environment that it exists in, so observe where it is and then tailor its growth. At the same time, encourage diversity, with different plant species, different kinds of soil, and a proactive approach to creating a healthy biosphere, rather than a reactive approach of trying to kill or cure. And if you have any questions and would like to reach out to us, we are here!
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Save Money on Eco-renovations & Home Improvement Grants in Spain
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