Gardens are living ecosystems teeming with wildlife, from small animals like insects to larger animals like rabbits, squirrels and foxes. These ecosystems need to be taken care of, and ordinary horticultural activities, on the contrary, can negatively affect the lives of animals.
For example, fertilizers are often deadly toxic to insects and even some small animals. In addition, conventional compost is made using bone meal, fish bones, or animal excrement, which are products of animal husbandry and animal abuse. These gardening habits are clearly against the principles of a vegan lifestyle, so here are a few tips on how to care for your garden while staying vegan.
1. Mulching the soil instead of digging.
The first step to vegan gardening is to turn your garden into an animal-friendly ecosystem and prevent any soil-related disturbance to the natural ecosystem. However, most gardeners regularly dig up the soil in their gardens to plant and promote plant growth, which destroys the favorable living conditions for the animals living in it.
Digging up the soil causes organic matter to break down more quickly and leaches out nitrogen and other soil nutrients, killing insects and reducing soil fertility. By digging up the soil, we can create beautiful landscapes, but in doing so, we harm the animals we seek to protect.
The vegan solution is mulching, i.e. regularly covering the soil with a layer of organic materials. Covering your garden soil with about 5 inches of mulch will help maintain soil fertility and encourage plant growth. Mulching also protects the soil from erosion by wind or rain, and naturally prevents weeds.
2. Make your own fertilizer and compost.
As mentioned, many common fertilizers and composts include animal products and by-products that go against the principles of a vegan lifestyle. For example, animal feces for compost are often collected from animals that are forced into milk production or raised for meat.
There are easy ways to make your own vegan compost and fertilizer. For example, organic food waste can be turned into compost – it will provide the soil and plants with the necessary nutrients. Organic matter from the garden, such as leaves, can also be used to care for the soil.
While this process takes longer than just buying compost and fertilizer from the store, it will help you stick to a vegan lifestyle. In addition, it will help you reduce your waste. The rotting process of compost can be accelerated by adding nitrogen-rich materials such as seaweed and grass clippings to the compost.
3. Get rid of pests and diseases in a harmless way.
Vegans strive to save any life, there are cases when predators and insects attack your garden and destroy your plants. Gardeners most often use pesticides to protect their garden, but they inevitably kill pests and can harm other animals.
The vegan solution is to prevent the spread of pests and diseases. One option is to rotate crops throughout the year, especially those that are most important to you. This will prevent the spread of pests.
However, in a large garden, this task can be difficult. In such a case, the spread of pests can be prevented by keeping the garden clean, as slugs and other animals will have fewer places to hide. In addition, surrounding the flower beds with copper tape and sharp rocks will keep pests from attacking your plants.