17,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
Created especially for the Australian customer!
Reduce your environmental footprint in the garden with this practical guide
With all the talk about the health of the planet, you've probably heard about sustainability. Now you can apply these principles in your own backyard, whether that's an Aussie apartment balcony or a sprawling Kiwi rural spread. Find out great techniques for planning your sustainable garden and keeping your plants - and you - happy and healthy.
- Plant nutrients - what are they and how can you supply them
to your plants sustainably? - Watering techniques - how much water does your garden really need, and how can you conserve and supply it?
- Landscaping and gardening materials - where do they come from and are they sustainable?
- Biodiversity - how do you help increase the biodiversity of the planet through your own gardening practices?
- Organic gardening, permaculture and biodynamics - what methods can you adopt to improve your sustainable garden?
- Weeds and pests - how are they defined, and how do you control them while being kind to the environment?
- Compost heaps and worm farms - how do you build and maintain them, and what do they do for your garden?
- Potting mix - how can you choose a sustainable product or even make your own?
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 576
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
Ähnliche
Sustainable Gardening For Dummies®
Table of Contents
Sustainable Gardening For Dummies
by Donna Ellis
Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd
Sustainable Gardening For Dummies®
Australian & New Zealand edition published by Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd 42 McDougall Street Milton, Qld 4064 www.dummies.com
Copyright © 2010 Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Author: Ellis, Donna.
Title: Sustainable Gardening For Dummies/Donna Ellis.
Edition: Australian & New Zealand ed.
ISBN: 978 1 74216 945 3 (pbk.)
Series: For Dummies.
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Sustainable horticulture.
Sustainable agriculture.
Organic gardening.
Gardening.
Dewey Number: 333.7616
All rights reserved. No part of this book, including interior design, cover design and icons, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Contracts & Licensing section of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, 42 McDougall Street, Milton, Qld 4064, or email [email protected].
Cover image: © iStock.com/Tyler Stalman
Cartography by MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane
Typeset by diacriTech, Chennai, India
Printed in China by Printplus Limited
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANISATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANISATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Making Everything Easier, dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
About the Author
Donna Ellis lives and breathes anything horticultural! Her passion is obvious as she willingly shares her knowledge and experience with whoever will listen — and this group grows larger as more people have the opportunity to hear her words of wisdom. She challenges, provokes and empowers her listeners to make changes in their gardening practices so those changes will eventually become the ordinary, everyday procedures everyone employs. The stories she inevitably tells make people connect to the subject, whether it is about botanical gardens or backyard vegetable patches. You name it, she has a story about it, and these stories keep her audiences enthralled to the very end. Ask any of her students, community members or colleagues and they’ll vouch for this.
Donna’s work experiences at the start of her horticulture career, when chemicals and disregard for the natural environment prevailed, led her to believe there had to be more-sustainable alternatives. A firm believer in common sense and practical solutions to everyday garden problems, Donna has been a leading light of the sustainability movement since the early 1980s.
She is a horticulture teacher at South West Institute of TAFE in Warrnambool, Victoria, a sustainable garden consultant, a garden designer, a writer for newspapers and a speaker to community and professional groups. She works with Sustainable Gardening Australia, delivering seminars on sustainable management of parks and gardens in metropolitan Melbourne, and with Greening Australia, developing and delivering community workshops on backyard biodiversity throughout western Victoria. In addition to her usual teaching, Donna also develops and delivers sustainable horticulture training programs at TAFE to Special Developmental Schools, a labour of love.
She is a member of a number of organisations and networks, including Sustainable Gardening Australia, the Australian Garden History Society and the Friends of Warrnambool Botanic Gardens. She is a past president of the Friends of Hamilton Botanic Gardens and was a founding committee member of Encouraging Women in Horticulture Australia.
Donna owns and has owned a large variety of pets — goats, chooks, pigs, a horse and many dogs, including a Saint Bernard called Bernadette!
She lives with her partner by the sea. Since her recent research trip to New Zealand, she is now planning a Kiwi-inspired garden for their new property. She kayaks, rides a bike, and grows her own vegetables and herbs, sustainably of course! She is also a great cook, using produce from her garden. Donna is a woman to be reckoned with, and now you can share in this huge part of her life — sustainable gardening.
Dedication
Thanks Jude, you said I could do this . . . as always, you were right.
Author’s Acknowledgements
Writing a book like this is definitely not a solo exercise. There is way too much information and expertise here for me to have in my head. This book could not have been written without those curious and committed professionals who research, promote and publish the principles and practices of sustainability — those who go about the business of promoting sustainable gardening through their research, publications and workshops. Thanks to them, I have been able to carry out the necessary research for this book.
Thanks to my best friend Judith Boyle for everything, from proofreading, typing and researching to shoulder rubs and endless cups of strong coffee, and everything in between; and to my son, William Ellis, without whose diligent research skills this book would have taken so much longer! Thanks also to Mary Blake-John, my dear friend, who taught me to teach and gave me confidence all those years ago, and still does; and to my friend and colleague Elaine Shallue from Sustainable Gardening Australia for her constant support and encouragement, and for giving me the opportunity to spread the sustainable gardening message.
I would like to thank my students, both past and present, for their unwavering support and (mostly) helpful advice. I think I learn more from them than they do from me. Their thirst for knowledge and their commitment to making the world a better place through sustainable horticulture is truly inspiring.
Baskets of sustainably grown, non-weedy indigenous flowers must go to Charlotte Duff and Bronwyn Duhigg at Wiley. To Charlotte for giving me the chance to have a go in the first place; and Bronwyn for guiding me, for always being on the other end of the phone and for the coffee. Big baskets to Kerry Davies, an inspirational, intelligent and humorous editor and mentor . . . I hope I have served my apprenticeship well.
Publisher’s Acknowledgements
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial and Media Development
Project Editor: Kerry Davies
Acquisitions Editor: Bronwyn Duhigg
Editorial Manager: Gabrielle Packman
Production
Graphics: Glenn Lumsden and the Wiley Art Studio
Cartography: Mapgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane
Cartoons: Glenn Lumsden
Proofreader: Pamela Dunne
Indexer: Karen Gillen
The authors and publisher would like to thank the following copyright holders, organisations and individuals for their permission to reproduce copyright material in this book.
• NIWA: page 48 © NIWA New Zealand. Map redrawn by MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane
• Commonwealth Copyright Administration: page 49 Bureau of Meteorology, IDCKAR5AT0 © Commonwealth of Australia, reproduced by permission. Map redrawn by MAPgraphics Australia Ltd, Brisbane; page 236 Bureau of Meteorology, 2009 © Commonwealth Copyright of Australia, reproduced by permission. Map redrawn by MAPgrpahics Pty Ltd, Brisbane
• Pioneer Water Tanks: page 53 /Pioneer Water Tanks; page 54 /BlueScope Water Waterpoint Slimline® rainwater tank
• © John Wiley & Sons Australia: page 55 (both) photos by Renee Bryon
• Edwards Concrete Tanks: page 56
• Wet Earth: page 57 wetearth.com.au
• Zoos Victoria: page 119 Frogs Australia Network. Reproduced by permission of Zoos Victoria. Map redrawn by MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane
• Amphibian Research Centre: page 120 Bonking in the Garden, p. 8 © Amphibian Research Centre
• Maria Ciavarella: page 176
• No-Dig Vegetable Garden: page 217 reproduced by permission of No-Dig Vegetable Garden, www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com
• MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane: page 237
• © Victa Lawncare Pty Ltd: page 251 (centre and bottom), page 252 (top and bottom)
• Husqvarna AB: page 251 (top), page 253 (bottom)
• Solazone: page 253 (top) www.solazone.com.au
• © NASAA: page 287 (bottom left)
• © Organic Growers of Australia: page 287 (bottom right)
• BFA Co-Op Ltd: page 287 (top) © Biological Farmers of Australia Co-Op Ltd
• BioGro New Zealand: page 288 © BioGro New Zealand Limited.
Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of copyright material. Information that will enable the publisher to rectify any error or omission in subsequent editions will be welcome. In such cases, please contact the Permissions Section of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
Introduction
Welcome to Sustainable Gardening For Dummies. Gardening sustainably helps to reduce pressure on the planet’s precious non-renewable resources and helps you get back to basics and in touch with the Earth and its cycles and seasons.
Things seem to be moving so fast, with change happening at an alarming rate. Putting your head in the sand and saying everything’s too hard and there’s nothing you can really do to make a difference can be all too easy. But you’re not the sort who waits for others to lead the way and take responsibility; you get out there and have a go.
Whether you’re new to gardening or an old hand, I’m happy that I’m able to share the journey to sustainable gardening with you.
About This Book
This book provides you with hints and tips about all sorts of areas of your garden. I cover quite a lot of ground, so you can use it as a reference when you need it. I include some useful web addresses where you can get more information about some of the topics, so you can apply what you learn to your specific location.
Sustainable Gardening For Dummies is about how you can take the lead and empower yourself, your neighbours, your community and, most importantly, your family to make a difference in all backyards.
How to Use This Book
Sustainable Gardening For Dummies is divided into self-contained chapters, so you don’t need to read the book from front to back to get the information you need, although you can do that if you want. If you’re new to sustainable gardening, you might want to start at Part I and work your way through the book.
Otherwise, you can just go to the part or chapter that has the information you need. Treat it as a handy reference book and refer to the parts you need when you need them.
At the back of the book I include a handy glossary of terms. I also give you a list of weeds for each state or region — plants that have escaped from their normal habitats and threaten to swamp native plants, as well as put agriculture at risk — so you can identify them, deal with them and avoid them.
Foolish Assumptions
All writers have to pick and choose the information they present to the reader based on some simple assumptions about who they think will be reading. Here are some of my assumptions about who you are:
You have an interest in living and gardening in a greener, more Earth-friendly way. You probably have an interest in gardening sustainably.
You want to make a difference to the planet.
If you have kids, you probably want to get some good information so that you can help them to understand the importance of sustainable gardening and treading lightly on our Earth.
Conventions Used in This Book
I want to help you get the information you need as fast as possible. To assist you, I use several conventions:
Monofont is used to signal a web address.
When this book was printed, some web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that no extra characters (such as hyphens or spaces) are used to indicate the break. So, when using one of these web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending that the line break doesn’t exist.
Italics signal that a word is an important term.
Bold words make the key terms and phrases in bulleted and numbered lists jump out and grab your attention.
Sidebars, text separated from the rest of the type in grey boxes, are interesting but slightly tangential to the subject at hand. Sidebars are generally fun and optional reading. You won’t miss anything critical if you skip the sidebars. If you choose to read the sidebars, though, I think you’ll be glad you did.
How This Book Is Organised
Sustainable Gardening for Dummies is divided into six parts, each part focusing on a different aspect of gardening sustainably.
Part I: Understanding the Basics of Sustainable Gardening
This part explains what sustainable gardening is and why you should practise it at your place. Find out why you should make a difference in your backyard. This part introduces you to the importance of soil — what it is, what makes a healthy productive soil, why you need to understand it and how you can nurture it. It also introduces you to that precious resource, water. Find out how you can sustainably use the water you have.
Part II: Designing a Sustainable Garden
The chapters in this part help you to understand the basics of designing your sustainable garden. Get to know and understand the space you have to work with, as well as what you want your garden to become. This part covers the principles of sustainable garden design, garden styles and choosing the right plants for your place. It also gets you thinking about how sustainable the landscaping materials you use really are.
Part III: Developing Healthy Habits in Your Yard
If you’ve ever wandered out into your garden only to be confronted by a sick plant and wondered what to do next, this part is for you. I show you the importance of biodiversity, the difference between good and bad bugs, and how to keep your garden healthy without resorting to chemicals. If compost is your thing, this is where you find useful hints and tips on making your own. Here you also get to know what mulch is best for your sustainable garden and why you should use it. But that’s not all — I finish this part with a chapter on the often-neglected but important player in your sustainable garden, the humble yet vitally important worm.
Part IV: Growing Plants Sustainably
Part IV gets down to what gardens are all about, the plants. I give you some pointers on how to choose the right plants for your place and the difference between water-wise and climate-friendly plants. If growing food is your thing, I include a chapter here exploring the how, what and why of food gardens. This part also guides you through sustainable lawns, successful container gardening and some other great ideas for gardeners with limited space.
Part V: Other Schools of Thought
Many different philosophies are practised by sustainable gardeners; the chapters in this part guide you through three of those different approaches, with tips on where to find out more about these great ideas.
Part VI: The Part of Tens
It is a long tradition of For Dummies books to include a compendium of short chapters listing useful facts and simple tips. My chapters list some ways gardening sustainably rewards you, some weeds to look out for and some simple ways to keep your garden healthy and looking good.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout this book you can find useful icons so you can note specific types of information. Here’s what each icon means:
Wherever you see this icon, you find helpful strategies for implementing sustainable gardening practices.
This icon flags concepts and facts that I want to ensure you remember as you build your sustainable garden.
When I give this icon I’m serious. Some stuff can threaten your garden’s health, not to mention yours.
Here I flag useful websites for you to find further information.
Potentially interesting but non-essential stuff that you can skip over if you want.
Here I give you inside stories about real people and their experiences — often more like a good bit of gossip over the back fence!
Where to Go From Here
You can use the information I give you in Sustainable Gardening For Dummies in a number of ways. You may want to read every chapter at your leisure and have a good think about everything before planning your new garden or changing the way you do things in your existing garden. Or you may prefer to use it as a reference book to guide you in particular practices, trying out new techniques as you read the chapters that interest you most.
Whichever way you choose to use this book, at some point it’s time to get your hands dirty. Please take this opportunity to make a difference in your own backyard that could just make a difference to the whole planet.
Part I
Understanding the Basics of Sustainable Gardening
Glenn Lumsden
‘This garden was designed to remind me of the size of my carbon footprint.’
In this part . . .
Sustainable gardening is about more than plants. It’s about your soil, your water and how everything you do in your garden can have either a positive or negative impact on the planet.
In this part of the book, I first look at some of the main principles of sustainable gardening, and how sustainable gardening practices seek to respond to today’s challenges, including climate change, regardless of its cause.
I then delve into the foundation of your garden — the soil — and show you how to assess and solve common soil problems. I also explore the vexed issue of water, its quality and how to use it effectively, as well as systems for recycling and harvesting this special resource.
This part starts you on your journey to embrace sustainable gardening.
Chapter 1
Introducing Sustainable Gardening
In This Chapter
Making a difference
Starting with good design
Watching your water use
Developing healthy habitats
Growing your food
Getting to know other philosophies
Checking out the changing climate
I read an article recently that said, ‘Sustainability is the new black’. It seems everywhere you turn these days the word ‘sustainable’ appears. Is it a bandwagon that has become trendy to jump on? Does sustainability really matter? Sometimes it seems that all is doom and gloom, and you’re constantly bombarded with mixed messages about this or that sustainable method or product. Everything gets very confusing. You want to do the right thing but, amid all the seemingly conflicting advice, knowing what the right thing might be is hard.
Basically, though, sustainability is about living in a way that helps the planet rather than harms it. On a broad level, if the population consumes more of a particular resource than exists or can be replenished, that resource will run out — that level of consumption isn’t sustainable. On a personal level, you can choose to live more sustainably in all aspects of your life, to do your bit for the planet (Michael Grosvenor’s Sustainable Living For Dummies has a wealth of information about choosing a sustainable lifestyle). One very satisfying place to start is in your garden.
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
