KEY POINTS:
Spring is here and with it, the time to plant new gardens. Making the garden greener is also a priority in this era of environmental crisis and minimising individual carbon imprints.
Gardening guru Wally Richards says the key to green gardens is in the soil.
"Garden your soil, not your plants," he says. "If you get your soil right, your plants will be sweet."
Mr Richards, author of the weekly Garden News, says to get healthy soil, gardeners need to stop using chemical fertilisers and start supplying soil with ample compost.
The best compost uses more than green waste, combining kitchen scraps, animal manure and garden lime with lawn trimmings for a nutrient-rich mix.
Worms are also a key component in good soil, providing nitrogen for plants and neutralising fungi that ruins crops.
Natural products can be used to deal with plant diseases, Mr Richards recommending one tablespoon of baking soda dissolved in a litre of water to attack powdery mildew and oxalis, a difficult-to-eradicate weed. The spray can be fortified with one millilitre of Rainguard, an organic product which lengthens the effectiveness.
Neem tree granules and oil work wonders on bugs including caterpillars, aphids and white fly, Mr Richards says.
Healthy soil is in itself environmentally friendly, he says, acting as a carbon sink, but putting chemical-filled water on it destroyed the balance and hindered plant growth.
Urban water supplies are high in chlorine, which kills bacteria harmful to humans but also wipes out good microbes in the soil.
The problem is worse in summer, when water supplies tend to be depleted and more chemicals are needed to keep them bacteria-free.
Mr Richards says putting a filter on hose taps is a way to avoid the problem, as is standing water in sunlight to dissipate chlorine.
Another method is collecting rainwater in barrels for use in the garden.
"There's a hell of a difference between the two types of water," Mr Richards says.
"If you do use non-chlorinated water, you find that you have a constant growth [of plants in the garden] because you're not knocking back all the billions of microbes in the soil."
While good soil is crucial to a green garden, so too is the choice of plants.
The first place to start is an organic fruit and vegetable garden.
"People should be looking to grow as much as they can of their own food crops, and growing them without the use of chemicals, so they're getting good, tasty vegetables and fruit, as compared to what you buy, which is tasteless and full of pesticides."
Native plants are environmentally friendly because they have adapted to local soil conditions over thousands of years and have few problems with pests.
"Besides that, you're going to attract the wildlife and birds back into the garden, so you're creating a green environment," Mr Richards says.
Planting flowers attracts bees, which forms a crucial role in pollinating crops. Raw sugar dissolved in water and sprayed on fruit trees, and yellow, blue and purple flowers attracts the creatures.
For gardeners with little space, such as apartment-dwellers, Mr Richards says it is still possible to plant a green garden.
He suggests growing lettuces, spinach and spring onions in containers, which can be made more attractive by interspersing the vegetables with flowers.
