When you think of the term ‘sustainable gardening’ what is it that you imagine? A stunning paradise of glorious flowers, bountiful vegetables, fragrant herbs and heavily laden fruit trees, not a blade of grass out of place, the relaxing tinkle of water cascading rainbows in an invisible fountain and comfortable cane table and chairs, in lightly dappled shade, set with tea for two, orchestrated by fluting bird song? A garden that sustains itself or one that sustains you? Or a garden where work never needs to be done or miraculously does itself when no one is looking?

In fact, a sustainable garden is all of the above and much more, providing that you totally dedicate yourself to creating such a wonder and are then prepared to work tremendously hard — possibly for many years — to bring your personal vision to fruition: but, don’t be fooled!

As all gardeners are aware, even a susta­inable garden will always need some timely assistance in the maintenance department.

Sustainable gardening practices will, in the long-term, enable you to create a garden that you can enjoy, admire and even eat from

The time span necessary to create this special type of garden depends on which part of the country you are in, on localised soil and climatic conditions, on the availability of water and, most of all, on the gardeners themselves and the strength of their commitment to achieving sustainability.

A fully sustainable garden is one in which everything is in harmony with the natural world; a garden in which one plant sustains another (companion planting), in which micro-climates have been created to enable special plants to thrive in otherwise adverse conditions. It is one in which the majority of seeds sown have been home-grown and home-harvested and the few which have had to be purchased or preferably bartered for, are guaranteed 100 percent organic.

It should go without saying that a sustainable garden was created and is managed on organic principles, right down to using clay plant pots and banning plastic ones. There should be absolutely no reliance on artificial substances of any kind, for example: the aforementioned plastic pots, plastic sheeting, plastic watering cans, plastic labels and so on. There are always far more planetary sustainable options which, even if they cost a little more, will last much longer, and their use does not potentially poison the earth on which all life depends.

Sustainable gardening can be achieved on anything as small as a window ledge, right up to a highly productive food forest covering many acres of land, and can be created on a very small budget indeed. It is especially possible if you can obtain start-off organic seeds, cuttings, plants from organic gardening friends and are not averse to recycling natural materials such as wood and paper.

The word ‘sustainable’ is quite a buzz word these days, being attached to all manner of items as a way of catching attention and encouraging people to buy and buy. But, frankly, no matter how sustainable the source of a particular product is, purchasing something you do not need is not long-term sustainability at all.

Sustainability is more than gardening. It is an entire way of life and living on minimum natural resources to ensure that natural resources do not run out both for current and future generations. On a purely gardening level, sustainability is — or should be — of paramount importance, as it is becoming more and more apparent that the future begins at home.

A completely sustainable garden is one in which absolutely everything is either actually grown or made at home. Primary emphasis should be on indigenous plants that have, out of sheer necessity, evolved over countless generations to thrive in localised climatic conditions, in local soil conditions and on minimal moisture uptake, the latter from sporadic rainfall or simply from morning dew or overnight mist. It is such indigenous plants that should form the ‘skeleton’ of a sustainable garden, fleshed out with less tolerant species underneath and in-between their natural shade and wind protection provisions.

Over the coming weeks and alternating with the question and answer sessions, we are going to design a variety of sustainable gardens suitable for different areas of our hugely diverse country with its increasingly fickle climate.

We will look at sustainable gardening on window ledge, balcony, patio, courtyard scales and all the way up from small- and medium-sized gardens to large gardens, in which food forests can be created. In doing so, we will also discuss necessary inputs, recycling options and other related issues that pop up along the way.

How exciting!

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.Commercial enquiries will be ignored.

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 20th, 2019