How To Use Your Garden For A Sustainable Christmas

Those of us who are lucky enough to have a garden have a huge advantage in making more rational decisions in our lives. Especially during the holiday season, it can be fun and rewarding to think about how we can use our outdoor spaces and the resources they provide to prepare for a greener Christmas.

continuous eating

One of the most obvious ways to use our gardens for an eco-friendly Christmas is to grow your own produce for the celebration. Unfortunately, Christmas is a time of excess, and this excess costs people and the planet by creating a huge amount of waste.

Instead of buying ingredients for a holiday feast, a little forethought and planning can allow us to grow at least some of these ingredients at home. Of course, you won't be able to raise your own Christmas turkey or cattle in your home garden for other meat dishes. But even if you're not ready to go vegetarian or vegan, you can definitely consider growing additional foods like potatoes, Brussels sprouts, kale, carrots, and other greens in your garden.

If you want to eat homemade Christmas food, you should start thinking about spring and summer. If you didn't think about it at the start of the year, you'll have to wait until next year to enjoy your house party. It is worth planning for the next growing season to reduce next year's consumption.

Another thing you can still think about, even if you don't plan ahead, is how to reduce Christmas overeating waste. If your garden doesn't already have one, start a composting system. Waste can be used in different ways. But everything else needs to go into your garden to keep your growing areas fertile and create cycle systems that will make it easier to grow more food in the future.

permanent decorations

Another thing I like to think about this time of year is what I can bring in from the garden to decorate the inside of the house. When you look around you can see a lot of natural materials that you can use to add a bit of holiday cheer to your living space: evergreen leaves, berries, perhaps dried seed heads or flowers.

We often use eco-friendly plastic decorations such as artificial trees, tinsel and sticks to decorate our homes. But by removing them and choosing to use only materials from our garden, perhaps with twinkling LEDs, we can create a beautiful, rustic, tasteful and timeless atmosphere that will make the holidays extra special.

Permanent and packing cards

You can also avoid buying laminated cards and non-recyclable paper by using natural plant materials from your garden. I never buy postcards or wrapping paper. Instead, I use natural and recycled materials from my garden to send holiday greetings and gifts.

With a little imagination, you will soon discover that there are many ways to create art cards and gift wrapping, at least in part using natural materials from your garden. For example, you can use plant materials to make pigments and dyes, make baskets, bags or gift boxes, or even make paper from natural fibers. Twine made from natural fibers is a good alternative to ribbons for tying things into a neat bow.

continuous draws

The garden also gave you gifts. Jams, jellies and other jams, herbal blends, tea blends, drinks, pastries and more for your loved ones. "Buy" foods in your garden that you can turn into a variety of edibles such as:

Collect seeds to create collections and give them to other gardeners you know. Reproduce to give plants. Plants, etc. creation of collections of plants adapted to the buyer. Use natural materials to create many objects or works of art from the plants that grow in your garden.

Instead of shopping in stores or online, the possibilities are almost endless if you let your imagination run wild and shop from your backyard this Christmas.