How to Keep Your Garden (and Your Conscience) Green:

Easy Ways to Be an Eco-Friendly Gardener and Flower Farmer

If you’re like me — a.k.a. someone who talks to her plants, saves rainwater like it’s liquid gold, and occasionally feels personally offended when someone uses weed killer — then you’re probably at least trying to be a little greener in your gardening life. Even if you’re not ready to live off the grid and churn your own butter (same), there are easy ways to grow beautiful flowers while being kind to the planet. Spoiler: You don’t even have to give up paper towels. You just have to use the leftover cardboard tubes like a wizard.

Let’s dive into the simple, weird, wonderful ways you can garden greener — even though I have no business telling you what to do.

Reuse and Repurpose: Give Old Vases (and Other Stuff) New Life

This weekend, I was a lucky lady & picked up a huge donation of old vases — the kind you shove under your sink and forget about until you knock ten of them over trying to find a sponge.

Instead of letting these poor vases die a dusty death or end up in a landfill, they’re getting a second life holding fresh flowers at my farm stand.

Many thanks to Claire and the residents of Blue Bell Country Club for participating in their community day clean-up.

Pro tip:

If you’ve got friends, family, neighbors, or random acquaintances who feel guilty about their vase hoarding tendencies, let them know you’ll happily take them off their hands. It’s good for the planet, good for the cluttered cabinet situation (theirs, not mine!), and good for my slightly questionable obsession with mismatched glassware.

You can also reuse seed trays, nursery pots, and basically anything that will hold dirt without immediately dissolving. Rustic? Yes. Pinterest-perfect? Not even close. I’m not made for aesthetics.

Good for the Earth? Absolutely.

Pesticides Are Out, Good Bugs Are In

I know it’s tempting to blast every aphid into oblivion at the first sign of trouble, but hear me out: good bugs exist.

Ladybugs, lacewings, praying mantises — they’re nature’s pest control squad, and they work for free.

By skipping chemical pesticides and planting flowers that attract these helpful little creatures, you’re basically setting up a bug-sized Avengers team in your garden.

Plus, it’s way more satisfying to watch a ladybug army move in and handle business than it is to spray chemicals and hope for the best.

Also: less spraying = more time for important tasks like googling “how do you harvest celosia?” at 11 PM.

Grow for the Pollinators: It’s Not Just About You

Listen, I love a perfectly symmetrical bouquet as much as the next over-caffeinated flower farmer.

But growing flowers isn’t just about human eyeballs — it’s about helping the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds survive, too.

Planting native flowers, mixing in wildflowers, and letting your garden be a little wild around the edges can make a huge difference. I have a perennial and wildflower bank this year and I am far too proud of it.

Pollinators are essential for food crops, wild ecosystems, and, frankly, my mental health when I see a monarch butterfly doing its thing in the zinnias. I also answer the phone, answering “what are you up to?” with “aw, nothing. Just chasing butterflies around the yard”. (No lie.)

So go ahead and let that milkweed grow, even if it looks a little scrappy. You’re basically saving the planet. You’re welcome, Earth.

Seed Starting with Trash: The Glory of Toilet Paper Rolls

There’s nothing quite like that moment when you realize your trash is actually treasure.

Case in point: paper towel and toilet paper rolls make amazing biodegradable seed-starting pots.

Here’s how you do it (no Pinterest account required):

• Save up your rolls (yes, you’ll look mildly unhinged with a giant bag of cardboard tubes in your kitchen. Embrace it.)

• Cut them in half (for toilet paper rolls) or into thirds (for paper towel rolls).

• Fold the bottom slightly to make a little “floor” if you’re feeling fancy. (This is all for you as we know I am not doing this step.)

• Fill with soil, plop your seeds in, and watch the magic happen.

When it’s time to plant them outside, you just plant the whole thing — roll and all — and it breaks down naturally in the soil.

It’s easy, cheap, better for the planet, and gives you yet another reason to feel smug when you walk past the $5 plastic pots at the garden center.

Water Wisely: Save the World (or at Least Your Water Bill)

Water is precious — especially if you live somewhere that gets approximately three drops of rain all summer (hi, it’s me in the summer of 2024).

You don’t have to go full rain-dancer to be smart about it.

Easy wins:

• Water early in the morning or late in the evening so less evaporates. (I’m heading out

• Use soaker hoses or drip irrigation to send the water straight to the roots.

• Plant some drought-tolerant flowers that won’t die dramatically the first time you forget to water.

Bonus points if you set up a rain barrel and channel your inner “off-grid homesteader” without actually giving up running water or Target runs.

Small Steps, Big Impact

Look, none of us are perfect. I still buy more seeds than is remotely reasonable, and sometimes I kill plants that were specifically labeled “hardy and unkillable.”

But every little choice we make — whether it’s reusing an old vase, skipping pesticides, or saving cardboard tubes like a goblin — adds up.

You don’t have to be a full-time crunchy granola earth goddess to make a real difference.

You just have to care a little, try a little, and not be afraid of looking a little weird while you do it.

(Spoiler: weird is the new cool. At least at my flower stand.)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go rescue some cardboard tubes from the recycling bin before someone throws away my future seedling empire.