Hobbies are a great way of utilising time and doing something creative and fulfilling and its true that people with hobbies find themselves leading happier and more gratified lives. What’s more, when the hobby turns out to be one that saves money as well as turns into a lucrative pursuit that reaps rewards for you, the immediate surrounding as well as for the environment at large, then that is the day when you can truly say ‘it’s been time and effort well spent’…

A hobby that rewards

It couldn’t have been truer when Audrey Hepburn said ‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow’, for gardening is one hobby that spreads joy and positivity like nothing else can. And when you’ve infused your gardening hobby with special techniques that cares and nurtures the habitat and Mother Nature itself, it represents your love and commitment to mankind too.

Caring for your habitat

Very often time-pressed people find the task of implementing eco-friendly gardening techniques very overwhelming as it involves a great deal of time and persistent devotion, besides which most urban cubby-holes don’t really allow for space to put into practice these kind of techniques. While some bit of this argument is true, there are certainly some ideas that can be experimented with as a trial and error method towards achieving the ideal eco garden.

In the case of villa plots there’s usually a dedicated gardening area wherefrom it’s easier to follow through new ideas as well as committed space allocations that allow for green habitation thriving with priceless flora and fauna. Moreover, villa plot owners often find themselves sitting on the greener side of the fence as there is a considerable amount of money saved by way of home grown vegetables, fruits, flowers not to mention the valuable compost made in house that earns a few extra bucks on the side.

If you’re a villa plot owner…

There are a number of smart ways to plan your considerable garden and you don’t really need to get into space saving methods, instead you can contrarily focus on making the garden such that there are several centrepiece attractions. To illustrate, you can implement a – raised garden flower bed, ornamental fruit mini orchard rows and root and salad vegetable hanging planters.

However, most importantly you’ll also have enough space so as to correctly plan out an eco-friendly garden that works for you intelligently in a multitude of ways, namely, maximising vertical/ horizontal space and sprinkler design to conserve water, promoting utmost use of sunlight and available energy resource, allowing for composting and recycling kitchen waste, supporting birds and helpful insects to proliferate and controlling the application of harmful pesticides and encouraging the use of greener alternatives.

How to eco garden

– Upcycle not because you can but because you must

Here, by upcycle we mean literally using up all the crates, industrial plastic buckets, large soap boxes, big and small containers that come as packaging for yoghurt and other food items. These large or small containers come in great use for composting, placing of small planters, creating a vertical garden and for starting seedlings.

The giant sized ones can be redone a bit by painting in synchronous colours so as to create an ornamental mini fruit orchard. The smaller ones will serve up well for a flower bed.

– Raindrops falling in…

No one likes to keep ugly looking barrels in their homes and its only natural to chuck these mammoth containers somewhere out of sight, however, they are of great use when you’re planning your eco-friendly villa garden. You see, these drums (even PVC water buckets will do) can be placed in the garden for collection of rain water, which can later be used for watering the plants or washing off the garden when need be. Do remember to cut out a large hole so that you can push through an appropriate sized hose pipe in it.

– Keep out the pests

Leafhoppers, thrips and greenflies are just a few of the creepy crawlies that you wouldn’t want to see around your garden, especially if it’s an edible one. Do a bit of research and encourage the proliferation of helpful bugs such as damsel bugs, ladybirds, Soldier & ground beetles and lacewings among other garden pest warriors.

Yellow sticky traps are useful for trapping harmful bugs such as Whitefly, Leaf Miners and Greenfly. Place them near the flower and vegetable gardens and keep those pests out.

– Encourage birds to come visiting

It is a joy to behold when a bird comes chirruping in your garden but it is an even greater joy to see them becoming regular visitors. For not only does it make a pretty picture but these fluttery beauties also help in keeping the slugs and caterpillars out by munching on them while posing for a picture once in a while. Make your own birdfeeders and create a few cosy corners for them to make their nests and enjoy watching them perch and chirrup away.