Earth Friendly Gardening Tips

Keep it simple in your garden by avoiding chemicals, using compost and mulch, and planting the right plant in the right place. It’s easy (and thrifty) to improve soil, conserve water and reduce waste. Slight changes yield big results. Everything counts. Get started today.

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Gardening Timeline

We all garden in our own way and on our own timeline. Here are a few basics from our playbook.

Spring - Summer

• Don’t tackle garden cleanup until you have several days of 50° weather and it’s early or mid-April. Small insects often over-winter in brush or leaf piles and we don’t want to disrupt them or their eggs.

• Cut back last year’s stems in April. Watch for buds on clematis, hydrangea, and other budding plants; it helps to know a bit about your plants.

• Don’t trim your shrubs until after they bloom. One of the few early bloomers is the forsythia so let her be. Most other shrubs have buds and should be left for Fall pruning.

• Planting can wait until at least after mid-May and into early June. The weather is better and more plant selections are available.

• Give your grasses a haircut by the end of May.

• Some plants get leggy and tall. I trim back sedum, monarda, catmint, and some herbs to 8-10” until July 4. After that, they grow not only tall but wide.

• Birdhouses get opened and cleaned in March. Remove the old nests and give the house a good dusting. No chemicals.

Fall - Winter

• Need to prune? Cut back 1/3 of the stems or 1/3 of the height.

• Cut back plants that are susceptible to sooty or black mold: roses, monarda, phlox, and peonies.

• Leave plants with seed heads standing all winter. They are good for wildlife.

• I keep leaf cover in my garden spaces unless they are waxy leaves (magnolia, some fruit trees). It eases fall cleanup and is good for overwintering your soil.

• If you imagine a new garden space for next year, look into creating a ‘lasagna garden’ with layered brown and green organics. It’s easy to do and when done right, you can plant right away in the Spring.

Improve Soil Content

• Mix shredded newspaper into the top 3-4” of garden soil to prepare the bed before Spring planting and before you close the beds for winter.

• Use sections of newspaper (1” thickness) as weed screen instead of cloth and plastic alternatives.

• Consider mixing chopped leaves and grass clippings into garden soil in the Fall. Chopped leaf mulch also makes great fall mulch. Ask the local lawn maintenance guy to drop his quarry off at your house.

• Consider a compost bin for your kitchen waste (coffee and filters, teabags, vegetable and fruit waste) and plant clippings.

• Avoid colored mulch (it leeches into the soil) and cypress mulch. It’s irresponsibly harvested from coastal shorelines. Stick with natural hardwood mulch.

Use Native Plants

Adding natives and perennials and reducing annual flats can save the gardener money. Native plants:

• provide great color, texture, shape and scent

• tolerate hot, cold, drought, flood

• have Winter interest

• come back every year

• cost less over the long run

• bring balance back to an unbalanced eco-system

Water, Water Everywhere

Water early, deeply, infrequently. Use a soaker hose. Don’t water if rain is predicted within 8 hours. Don’t water when it’s windy unless you want to water the neighbor’s yard. Reclaim ice cubes from your son’s fast food cola cup into a hanging pot or container plant. Pour ‘used’ water from the fish tank, vegetable steamer, pasta pot and humidifier into the garden.

So Much Paper

• Share plants by repotting them in origami paper cups folded from newspaper (an origami cup requires just a few simple folds). Or use stale ice cream cones to repot plants. Plant the cup making sure to cover the top completely.

• Fill the bottom third of containers and window boxes with cut up paper egg cartons for drainage. You will need less potting soil and the container is easier to handle.

• Exchange garden magazines and books with friends instead of renewing or buying new.

Too Much Plastic

Delay putting plastic in a landfill by finding new things to use them for.

• Cut off the bottom half inch of an empty water bottle and punch a nail hole in the lid of a water bottle. Fill with water and place the bottle upside down in a houseplant to keep the plant watered while you’re away.

• Fill the bottom third of containers and window boxes with crushed water bottles (with lids) for drainage. You will need less potting soil and the container is easier to handle.

• Cut the top and bottom off of plastic bottles (two liters, water, sports drinks) and place around new plants to shield them from nibbling critters. They will get enough air and sunlight.

• Cut plastic newspaper sleeves into long strips and use them to hold climbers and vines to a trellis.

Switchin’ from the Kitchen

Find new uses for kitchen and household items.

• Use kitchen forks and slats from plastic blinds as plant markers.

• Consider Grandma’s coffee pot as an heirloom container for kitchen herbs. Don’t forget Junior’s rain boots and Dad’s straw hat, either.

• Place a cheese grater around a citronella candle to prevent smoke from blowing in your eyes. Place a few graters on the patio table for an interesting centerpiece.

• Put soap slivers in a mesh pouch (reuse the pouch that packages fresh strawberries or small potatoes) and hang it from an outdoor faucet. You can wash your garden hands before coming into the house.

• Badminton racquets and croquet mallets make wonderful plant stakes.

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Jackie Riffice, founder of Prairie Godmothers, is a Master Gardener and long-time collaborator of Chicago Bungalow Association. Watch recordings of past gardening webinars presented by Jackie on our Gardening YouTube playlist.