Environmentally friendly gardening tips for Earth Day

It’s Earth Day! Here are five ways to show the Earth some love in the garden today and all season long.

1. Practice integrated pest management

Integrated pest management, or IPM, is the practice of using the most-benign control possible as a first defense against weeds and harmful insects, and escalating only when necessary. The premise is that there is a certain pest presence that can and should be considered tolerable. But because common sense should prevail, it’s up to you to determine a risk-benefit balance, consider what an acceptable threshold should be and act accordingly.

For example, if there are a few ants in your house, set out traps. If there is a literal ant invasion, and traps aren’t proving effective, you might have a case to escalate to pesticide spray. The only exception I would make is for roaches. If you see one, you have my blessing to pull out the big guns. Where there is one, there are many, and they do not respond to gentle measures, unfortunately.

Similarly, we should pull weeds up by their roots instead of dousing them with herbicides, even organic ones, which are not completely without risk. Consider buying a box of ladybird beetles and set them free in the garden to keep aphids in check. And if you notice Japanese beetles on your plants, pick them off by hand and drop them in a bucketful of soapy water.

Chemical controls cost money, expose people, birds, wildlife and plants to potentially harmful ingredients and often kill beneficial insects, such as bees, butterflies and ladybugs, which pollinate our plants or prey upon harmful insects. Pesticides should be used only as a last resort or in the case of severe infestation, and when it is absolutely necessary, start with the least toxic product available.

2. Start a compost pile

Many people, even longtime gardeners, tell me they are intimidated by the thought of composting. They say it sounds complicated and believe it’s a lot of work. Truth is, it’s neither. You can start composting whether you have acres of land or a single garden bed, a fancy compost bin or simply a chicken-wire enclosed pile in the back corner of the yard.

If you’re not using a bin or a tumbler, designate an area, preferably away from the house, to pile up your ingredients. Collect and add at least 50 percent “browns” (dried, spent perennials, autumn leaves, leather, twigs, paper and hay) and less than 50 percent “greens” (grass clippings, fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps and freshly picked weeds). Keep the pile moist, but not soggy, and turn or toss it periodically.

Your compost could be ready in as little as a few months, and can be used as mulch and added to planting holes.

3. Recognize beneficial insects and take care of them

Not all insects are pests. In fact, many are beneficial — to the garden as well as the entire ecosystem — so care should be taken to encourage and even lure them. Some are natural predators that keep harmful insects in check, like ladybugs, which prey on aphids, white flies and potato beetles. Others are pollinators, upon which we rely for survival. Without bees, butterflies and other pollinators, our grain, fruit and vegetable crops would dwindle, as would the livestock population that depends on them.

To attract them to your garden, select plants of varied shapes, sizes and colors with different bloom times, and avoid or limit the use of pesticides. Consider clover, sunflowers, mint, coneflowers, asters, hellebores, dahlias, tomatoes, sweet alyssum, catmint, yarrow, buckwheat, cilantro, dill, parsley and milkweed.

4. Save water

The most important way to save water is not to waste it. And a lot of water is wasted by improper irrigation practices. Lawns should only be watered in the morning, ideally between 6 and 10 a.m. This allows water ample time to reach thirsty roots before evaporating, as it would if applied in the afternoon, when the sun is at its strongest — but not so much time that fungal growth is encouraged, as it is in the evening and overnight.

Opt for less-frequent, deep waterings over daily sprinklings. Better still, consider allowing the lawn to go dormant during summer. As long as drought doesn’t last more than three to four weeks, the grass will be just fine.

Snake soaker or drip hoses over tree roots, and through vegetable beds and flower gardens. They’ll direct water where it’s needed most — at the root zone.

Plant drought-tolerant, native plants instead of exotics and non-natives, which typically require more maintenance and water and often can become invasive. And use mulch to retain moisture.

Consider using a rain barrel to collect runoff and use it to water beds and borders. And don’t discard water from drinking bottles or boiled vegetables and pasta; pour it over your plants.

5. Grow your own food

Yes, there is a carbon footprint associated with transporting produce from farms across the country to a grocery store near you. And, yes, the use of chemical pesticides and other modern commercial farming techniques has an even greater effect on the environment. But I grow produce for selfish reasons: there is no better-tasting tomato than one that is homegrown, and the cost of a packet of seeds, which can produce dozens of plants, each bearing dozens of tomatoes, is lower than the cost of just a pound of store-bought fruit or a bunch of basil. So choose your own reason — they’re all valid — and plant a garden this spring. The Earth — and your summer salads, side dishes and sandwiches — will thank you.