Encouraging a thriving, chemical-free garden
By instructor Bethany Couture
Did you know there are ways to prevent pests, feed your plants, and create resilient gardens without the use of chemicals? A more gentle and sustainable approach to creating a resilient garden is to use nature’s own systems to nurture your garden for you. By taking care of the soil, managing invasive species, and encouraging biodiverse flora and fauna in your yard, you can create a garden that acts like an ecosystem. These types of gardens are healthier, lower maintenance, and more resilient to pests and climate stress.
Although chemical pesticides and fertilizers are often seen as quick fixes for garden problems, they have long-term negative effects on birds, pollinators and soil life, which discourage natural processes and turn gardens into highly human-dependent, high-maintenance and unresilient spaces.
Harness the natural relationships
One great technique to integrate into a sustainable garden is companion planting, where certain plants are grown together to harness the natural relationships between plants to improve growth, repel pests and boost yields. Companion planting isn’t new, it’s a time-proven technique that has been used in many Indigenous cultures and traditional gardeners. By carefully pairing plants that benefit each other, you can create a healthier, more productive and balanced garden.
Additionally, you can plant in layers to mimic the structure of natural ecosystems. By incorporating different layers using trees, shrubs and ground cover, you can create habitats for birds, bees, butterflies and even soil-dwelling organisms. Even adding a small water source, like a birdbath or a pond, can help increase biodiversity.
A biodiverse garden is a resilient garden, plain and simple.
The more varieties of plants, insects and wildlife in your garden, the better it can handle pests, diseases and environmental stressors. Planting a mix of native species, perennials and annuals attracts pollinators and predatory insects that will naturally keep pests in check so there’s no need for chemical pesticides.
Perennial plants are key to growing a sustainable, chemical-free garden. They require less maintenance and contribute to a garden’s long-term stability. They grow stronger root systems with every season and can become more hardy to climate stress once established. Growing perennials also helps reduce external inputs and the amount of soil disturbance in your garden, which protects the beneficial fungi and microbes essential for overall plant health.
Focus on building healthy soil
Another key practice is to incorporate regular composting. By recycling organic matter such as kitchen scraps and yard waste into food for your soil, you can create soil that holds onto more nutrients and moisture, boosting long-term plant health. This not only reduces waste but also enriches your garden's ecosystem above and below ground. Healthy soil is the foundation of a sustainable, resilient garden so instead of relying on synthetic fertilizers to feed your plants, focus on building healthy soil. Compost, leaf mold, well-rotted manure and mulch are your garden’s best friends. Over time, a well-maintained soil ecosystem can reduce the need for external inputs altogether.
By choosing sustainable gardening techniques, your garden can flourish with minimal effort and maximum benefit to people and the planet. Over time, you’ll notice how interconnected your garden’s ecosystem becomes. How the compost nourishes the soil, how the worms feed the birds, how the birds control the caterpillars, and how the plants thrive in harmony with it all.
Growing a sustainable, chemical-free garden isn’t just about avoiding synthetic products; it’s about embracing nature’s wisdom and working with it, not against it.
Learn more about how to create a sustainable ornamental garden in our upcoming course on March 1, 2025.
About the instructor
Bethany Couture is a sustainable horticulturalist from Victoria, BC and runs her business Garden Alchemist, which designs landscapes abundant with edible, medicinal, and native plants. Through her studies, she realized there must be more sustainable ways to cultivate sustenance from the land. This led her down the path of permaculture which wove together her passions for horticulture, herbalism, mycology, self-sufficiency and environmental sustainability. She holds a Permaculture Design Certificate and Permaculture Teacher Certificate, is the permaculture instructor at the Pacific Horticulture College and is the lead steward of the permaculture garden at the Horticulture Center of the Pacific.
- Posted January 29, 2025