Ecology is the science of the natural interrelationship between organisms and their surroundings.
The ecological garden is a self-sustaining and permanent ecosystem based upon local and renewable resources.
Ecological gardening is based upon a comprehensive view that includes ecological, economical as well as social factors.
| Foundation |
|
| ▪ Knowledge based upon experience. |
|
| |
Curiosity, openness and in wonder over the natural processes. |
|
| |
|
|
| ▪ Working with and not against nature. |
|
| |
Recognizing that we are all nature and that we live in a greater interrelationship. |
|
| |
|
|
| ▪ Respect for the natural cycles. |
|
| |
Recognizing that the plants and the garden change over time and consciously taking that into consideration when planning a garden. "Black earth" does not exist in nature. After a forest fire one species will follow the next. Natural selection can be influenced by simple intervention, for example, by letting some of the species spread, others not. If a plant spreads, either by seed or by spreading roots, before one acts one can ask the question, "Is this wanted or is it a problem?" |
|
| |
|
|
▪ Realize that everything is part of the circulation and that everything is recycled. |
|
| |
Considering the garden as a self-contained unit, that is, not removing anything from the garden, making it as self-supporting as possible and independent of being supplied from the outside. |
|
| |
|
|
| ▪ Consider the distinctive character of the plants. |
|
| |
Selecting the right plant for the right place.
Using companion-planting based on knowledge about the interrelationship between plants. Insight into the world of mycorrhiza, the interrelationship between fungi and plants. For example, taking earth from a forest with oak trees to help a newly planted oak tree. |
|
| |
|
|
| ▪ Conscious use of energy. |
|
| |
Manual operations are preferable to using machines.
Leaves/foliage is considered as a resource, not a problem.
Using chip from bushes/trees as surface covering of the soil. |
|
| |
|
|
| ▪ Non-toxic. |
|
| |
Not using fertilizers (phosphate fertilizers) or chemical /synthetic means to protect the plants. This means that the nutrients are suppled as organic manure, in the form of animal manure or as green manure or compost.
Ecological gardening is based upon the principle of caution as we today don't know all the side-effects by using chemical and synthetic plant protecting substances, neither on our surroundings nor on our own health. |
|
| |
|
|
| Elements |
|
| ▪ Compost. |
|
| |
|
| ▪ Plant selection based upon a comprehensive view. |
|
| |
Selecting plants that birds, animals and insects need.
Bee-plants, nectar producing plants for bees, bumblebees and butterflies. |
|
| |
|
|
| ▪ Hedge- and shelter planting. |
|
| |
Living shelter by using hedges of useful plants which means a conscious use of shelter-plants, both to improve the microclimate and to help birds and insect life as well as small animals as hedgehogs. |
|
| |
|
|
| ▪ Water collection of rainwater. |
|
| |
|
| ▪ Garden pond. |
|
| |
In China one used three kinds of fish that lived in three layers in the pond, surface-, middle depth- and bottom-fish. |
|
| |
|
|
| ▪ Beehives. |
|
| |
|
| ▪ Nesting boxes for birds and bats. |
|
| |
|
| ▪ Wild life area. |
|
| |
Keeping a wild life area in the garden for wild animals, birds, insects and plants. |
|
| |
|
|
Four Laws of Ecology
One of Commoner's lasting legacies is his four laws of ecology, as written in "The Closing Circle" in 1971. The four laws are: |
|
| |
|
| ▪ Everything is Connected to Everything Else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, affects all. |
|
| |
|
| ▪ Everything Must Go Somewhere. There is no "waste" in nature and there is no "away" to which things can be thrown. |
|
| |
|
| ▪ Nature Knows Best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such change in a natural system is, says Commoner, "likely to be detrimental to that system." |
|
| |
|
| ▪ There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms. |
|
