We need to wake up before the plants do, and think about the garden we’re going to make. Ready to get smarter about every action you take, and every area of the landscape? Before we get to the self-test on our own gardens, I started by asking Vincent for a quick 101 on sustainability. My question, and his answer:
Q. What does sustainable mean in the garden?A. The key is to think about the long term—as in the longterm care of the garden, or the environment around you.
We’re too infatuated with the now, and we don’t think about the future. Unfortunately, we see a lot of “disposable landscapes” going in, where if we get a couple of years out of those, we’re happy.
We shouldn’t be satisfied with that. We should be thinking about the longterm care of our gardens—and that will be generally a healthier garden, if we think of all the things that go into it such as water management and conservation, proper irrigation techniques, proper pruning and so on.
Who thinks even 5 or 10 years down the road in the garden? Not many people. But if you think of the great gardens of the world, the landscape designers were really thinking generations ahead, never mind just a couple of years. We should certainly think years down the road.
With things like proper spacing, for instance: So many times I see improper spacing, and in 3 or 5 years you have a jungle. Things shade each
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