I have presented sustainable gardening practices (another term for these practices is permaculture, as in permanent agriculture) to gardeners of all ages over the last few years. The ideas behind these practices are not difficult and make sense intuitively. What is often the more difficult part is helping people separate from what they have done or even seen for generations. Most vegetable gardeners grew what their parents or grandparents grow, in the exact shape and growing habits. Concepts like companion planting , green mulching, or cover cropping can be difficult after generations of straight lines of tilled monocropping efforts. Explaining what that does to the soil long-term and the impact on future generations is critical to helping current gardeners and farmers make a change.
I had a client that wanted to pay me to haul away truckloads of leaves from their property. Removing the leaves would have been a waste on multiple levels. Leaves are a free, natural mulch regulating soil moisture and temperature and they provide necessary nutrients for the trees that produced them. The real issue the client struggled with was the apparent volume of the leaves. Routine lawn management pushed all leaf litter to one small section of the property. The solution we decided upon was to chop the leaves in place with a push mower. This reduced the apparent (not actual) volume while saving time, money and a significant biological resource. A ten-minute conversation was enough to educate the client about the value of what they wanted to pay to discard.
I once had a client who insisted on a pristine, weed-free lawn maintained with herbicides and frequent watering. To demonstrate sustainable alternatives, I created a small demonstration plot using native plants and diverse grasses that required less water and no chemicals. Over time, this area thrived with pollinators and stayed lush during dry spells, while the traditional lawn struggled. Seeing this tangible example, the client became enthusiastic about sustainable gardening. We gradually transformed their entire lawn into a low-maintenance, eco-friendly landscape that reduced water usage and eliminated chemical inputs.