Greening your garden while protecting the planet

I'm ordinarily not much on self-promotion. But my latest book, "The Green Gardener's Guide," is so timely that I feel compelled to tell you more about it.

Plenty has been said and written about the global environmental crisis we're in. And the news is not terribly positive. Yet, encouraging and helpful ideas for change are scattered at best. As an avid gardener committed to environmental stewardship, I wanted to offer useful yet practical ways we can have an influence.

In the process of creating beautiful gardens and landscapes, we gardeners and weekend warriors unknowingly often waste a lot of water, use harmful chemicals that run off into waterways and put people and pets at risk, indiscriminately kill beneficial insects and emit greenhouse gases into the air.

Still, people ask about suggestions for what they can do in their own yards and gardens to be better environmental stewards.

"The Green Gardener's Guide" is my answer to them and to everyone else. Accordingly, here is a summary of five concepts of critical importance:

-- Right plant/right place: The right plant in the right place allows it to thrive in its preferred growing environment. When plants are sited properly, they are naturally healthier and hardier, making them much more resistant to pests and diseases, reducing or eliminating the need for pesticides and fertilizers.

-- Feed the soil, not the plants: Healthy soil is the essence of creating a growing environment that promotes chemically free plants. Soil has a life of its own, with billions of microorganisms, all working together to support and promote its own ecosystem. By adding soil food, such as compost and organic matter, we enrich the soil, which, in turn, helps plants thrive.

-- Make compost/use compost: Compost is the single best thing we can add for creating healthy, living soil. Even better, we can make it for free with waste from our homes and yards, keeping a significant amount of waste out of landfills.

-- Conserve, retain and use water properly: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, we waste about half of all the water we use, and a lot of that applies to irrigating our lawns and gardens. We tend to over-water and irrigate at the wrong times, wasting much of it to evaporation and runoff. As water washes across our properties, it carries sediments and contaminants, which can make their way into watersheds. This leads to more problems, such as habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity.

-- Be proactive, not reactive: Stay ahead of any developing problems. Pay attention to your plants, keeping the garden free of weeds and leaf debris. And if you do see a developing problem, be it pests or disease, know the most eco-friendly way to deal with it.

(Joe Lamp'l, host of "Fresh from the Garden" on the DIY Network and "GardenSMART" on PBS, is a Master Gardener and author. For more information, visit www.joegardener.com and www.DIYnetwork.com. For more stories, visit scrippsnews.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)