Casting call for all sustainable gardeners and aspiring designers

Credit: Senga Lindsay

Are you garden proud or do you know someone who has a fantastic garden, outdoor room/living space?

Do you have a great idea or sustainable design solution in your garden that you want the world to see? Well here is your chance!

I am looking for pictures and ideas to compliment my work-in-progress book, Simply Sustainable – Eco-Chic Gardens. This book is all about how to create garden and exterior rooms that are beautiful yet functional and friendly to the planet. It aims at the typical suburban/urban lot owner with anything from balcony gardens up to half an acre. We want to keep it typical and real!

Topics covered

Part 1 – How to think like a designer

The first half of the book will explain the steps in creating your own masterpiece. In essence, it teaches you how to think and design like the pros do!

Part 2 – Ten principals for sustainable landscapes

1. Hold your water
Ways and techniques for reusing water, putting it back into the ground

2. Create mini-ecosystems
Ways to bring nature into your garden

3. Create living buildings
Green roofs, living walls

4. Inspire our children
What have you done or created or gotten your children involved in with the garden? What benefits have you seen as a result?

5. Get your lawn off grass
Exploring alternative materials and approaches

6. Right plant, right place
Do you have a unique idea on planting compositions or working with challenging spaces?

7. Reduce, reuse, recycle
How do you deal with your garbage? For example, do you have a funky worm condo system, etc.?

8. Eat your way through the garden
For the foodie in all of us — ideas to weave edible agriculture into the garden. It can go beyond growing plants, such as keeping bees, etc.

9. Be au naturale
Ways to keep it simple — beyond composting

10. Think long term
How do you maintain your garden long-term so your carbon footprint is minimized on the planet? How does your landscape design harmonize with the natural processes of nature?

Part 3 – Sustainable garden themes

Do you have a garden you want to show off? Sustainable gardens have no particular look—it’s about using brainpower to pull together planet-friendly ideas into beautiful exterior spaces—be it an outdoor dining room or a wildlife garden. Show me an idea or even part of one. Examples could be anything from a Japanese garden to a permaculture garden.

Part 4 – Sustainable garden accessories

Have you turned someone else’s junk into your own treasure? Have you used a traditional material in a non-traditional way? We want to get the creative juices flowing here!

How to submit

To be considered please send the following to Senga at senga@sengadesigns.com:

1. High resolution photographs (JPEG format) of your creation
2. Explanation of how you created your masterpiece and what problem did you solve or how does your creations contribute to sustainability