The sun is shining, days are getting longer and nature is blooming. Between February and March is the best time to start preparing your garden for spring. The flowerbeds require preparation and seedlings need to be brought up. But when choosing plants, what should you pay attention to?

A sustainable garden benefits both you and nature.

Easily said, but how does this apply to your own garden? Select plants that will be useful to you: Vegetables, fruit bushes, herbs. If you choose native plants, there is a good chance that animals will also profit from them.

A blackberry hedge not only provides you with delicious and healthy fruits in summer, but many birds also like to snack on the dark berries. And the thorny bushes have another purpose as well: they are an ideal retreat for lizards – and maybe scare off a burglar or two 😉

A sustainable garden is animal-friendly

Besides your choice of plants, here are a few other tips on how to make your garden more sustainable: Flowering areas, for example, not only make your mowing life easier, they are also a delicious feast for insects. Bird, bat, and insect houses are a great retreat for animals that can no longer protect themselves in the stone deserts of our cities – and they visually enhance your garden.

Of course, our Green Pearls® partners also strive to make their gardens as sustainable as possible. And they have a few tips for you on how this can best be achieved:

Nibbling garden for animals and humans

At Biohotel Sturm in the Rhön, a particularly large hotel garden awaits you. And here, not only the fruits and herbs are edible – most of the flowers are as well. Especially popular, for example, is jewel weed. The colorful flowers are highly adored by bees, bumblebees and butterflies, but they are also a real highlight on your plate.
French tarragon and chervil are two special recommendations of the sustainable hotel in Mellrichstadt.

These flavorful plants go well with numerous dishes and are healthy at the same time. Tarragon has a digestive effect as a tea, while the root is traditionally used against toothache. Chervil, on the other hand, has ingredients that have a positive effect on kidney and bladder function, as well as regulating blood pressure and digestion.

And when you are hungry and fancy a snack, the Biohotel Sturm invites you to taste your way through the selection of the hotel’s own nibbling garden. You can also experience the taste of the treats for yourself at dinner in the hotel’s own restaurant, Otto’s. The menu here is made up exclusively of organic, regional and seasonal dishes, including those from the hotel’s own garden.

Like in the Rhön, so also high up in the mountains: because also in the Swiss Zermatt there are hotel-owned herb gardens. Here, the CERVO Mountain Resort’s special recommendation is sage, rosemary and thyme.

Herbs aren’t solely for cooking

Rosemary and thyme are especially delicious for cooking when they are fresh. However not all herbs like one another. CERVO’s tip is to learn (at least a little) about permaculture. You will see then that some herbs can either support each other’s growth – or hinder it. So, in any case, make sure that your favored species are able to tolerate each other.

CERVO uses its sustainably grown herbs not only in the delicious dishes served in the five restaurants and bars that are part of the resort: Sage, for example, is not only for cooking, you can also use it to smoke out your home. 

This is not only to expel evil energies, as some cultures believe. Some researchers have found that you can also remove bacteria.

A longer term option to plant your yard in a sustainable manner is trees, of course. At Okelmann’s, you can find various varieties of apples, cherries, and plums, in addition to many herbs and spice plants.

Plenty of animals also love the sturdy retreats and food that fruit trees bring. Moreover, such a selection can be used to make delicious jams and syrups.

Making jams from your sustainable garden

The Okelmann’s café and restaurant in Warpe, Lower Saxony, serves such homegrown treats. The herbs and fruit come from the hotel’s own garden. Asparagus and blueberries from the neighboring farm. Plus, if you”d like to take a bit of that vacation feeling with you: You can rummage for other specialties in the adjoining concept store.

The Creativhotel Luise in the middle of Erlangen also focuses on local fruit trees. The Franconian hotel, however, attaches particularly great importance to near-natural green spaces consisting of bee- and insect-friendly plants.

They also uphold this principle when it comes to garden maintenance: removing leaves or keeping the grass too short – this is not beneficial for the environment at all. On the one hand, you deprive small animals of food and shelter, and on the other, the soil dries out more quickly. So the next time you feel guilty that your grass is too high, just remember: it’s much better for your environment!

Incidentally, there is a better use for the green waste that is produced throughout the year than putting it in the garbage can. You can compost it and thus produce your own natural fertilizer. Or you can bind long shoots together using jute and lay these bundles under your shrubs. The result: all-natural “insect houses.”

There is even more info on the subject of gardens coming up this week. On Thursday we continue with diy signs for your garden beds and on Friday with the hotels’ own gardens. Take a look!

You want to upgrade your garden a little bit? Then keep reading here: PALETTE UPCYCLING: VERTICAL GARDENING

DO YOU LIKE THIS ARTICLE? SHARE IT!