Closed-loop gardening focuses on eliminating waste, keeping materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.
In gardening, adopting circular ecnomy principles helps create closed-loop systems where every material has a purpose, ideally, more than one purpose. Once I started thinking about what I was personally going to have to do with my trash–or what I could do with my trash– I actually produced less of it and upcycled a lot more. I adopted the motto, “Use it up. Wear it out. Make do. Or do without.”
Last year I spent hundreds, maybe even close to $1,000 trying to cultivate a backyard oasis. I cheerfully went to Home Depot and loaded up my cart with garden soil, potting soil, fertilizer, mulch, and transplants for everything that went in the ground. I impatiently shoved those poor, leggy plants into what was essentially nothing more than clay, overwatered them, and burned them up. I gave up by July when it got too hot to care, and that is when I let my yard go to chaos. I couldn’t be happier.
Since then, I’ve been working with nature to achieve the results I want. Hauling in soil, fertilizer, and mulch is almost never the solution to your backyard gardening problems. It is an example of a broken system that fails to utilize natural resources responsibly or economically to rebuild the health of our soil through regenerative methods.
Instead of hauling in bags of chemically treated garden soil, why not build soil through regenerative methods, such as composting and sheet mulching, and collect leaves and branches for natural mulch and borders to mimic natural systems. Harvest rainwater and shape your landscape with natural berms and swales to divert rainwater to rain gardens, dry creek beds, or another natural irrigation system.
These are truly the simplest, most convenient, and most economical solutions for some basic backyard gardening problems, or the first steps if you are just digging into regenerative gardening principles and thinking about your sustainable backyard design.
Composting, Recycling, and Upcycling
I started composting kitchen waste as a first step. There are so many ways to compost that require nothing more than a shovel and some yard space, but you can get more sophisticated if you want with tumblers or even vermiculture.
Composting keeps organic waste out of landfills, which creates methane and contributes to climate change, and it sequesters carbon, actively helping to reduce carbon levels.
Where I live in Georgia, food waste residuals are the largest category of solid waste being sent to landfills, making up 12% or 800,000 tons of waste that is sent to landfills. This includes unsold food from stores, plate waste, uneaten food, restaurant and cafeteria excess, and by-products from the facilities that process and package food.
I simply put a bowl on my counter and fill it up with scraps throughout the day: coffee grounds, egg shells, orange peel, apple core, trimmings from veggies used to cook lunch and dinner, etc. And then at the end of the day, or after a couple of days, it goes out to the tumbler and I scoop some leaves and twigs in with the scraps. I haven’t had any issues with odor from the food (except onions sometimes) or pests. If you like to cook, you can keep some of your veggie scraps in a container in your freezer to make a stock.
While many of my neighbors bag and discard them, I do the opposite—I blow them back into my yard. Leaves are nature’s mulch, protecting soil, retaining moisture, and slowly breaking down to feed the ecosystem. I keep a pile of leaves right next to the compost bin to maintain the proper ratio of browns to greens.
I have two large trees in my yard that are constantly casting off branches. It used to be a chore to drag them to the curb, but now I use them as borders for my beds. They provide a natural barrier that breaks down over time feeding the soil. They also provide a natural habitat for insects.
Cardboard Boxes for Sheet Mulching
Another discovery has been the incredible utility of cardboard boxes from deliveries. They’ve become my new best friend when it comes to building soil and controlling weeds. By layering boxes over problem areas, you can create a base for sheet mulching, or lasagna gardening, which saves effort and regenerates the soil over time.
I also have a few areas in my yard with visible erosion. By laying cardboard and mulch on top of these areas, I stop the process of erosion and help give the soil the opportunity to regenerate and begin absorbing some of that water that would normally run off of the compaction.
Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater harvesting is a great way to conserve water for irrigation or other non-potable uses, especially if your home has a lot of impervious surfaces, or artificial structures that are water resistant, such as asphalt, concrete, brick, stone, and rooftops.
My home, for example, has my roof, a building, and a storage awning. The general formula for measuring rainwater collection is that 1 inch of rain on 1,000 square feet of roof yields 623 gallons of water. In one year, I can capture around 30,000 gallons of rainwater off of my roof alone. The previous owners of my house left two rain barrels and some of the system gear, but they weren’t installed or established. I’m curious to set them up, but I don’t have anywhere for all of this water to go yet.
Rain barrels are an example of active harvesting, but what happens when the barrels are full? For most of us backyard gardeners, the solution is a simple rain garden, or a sequence of rain gardens that are directed by a series of swales and berms.
Build a Sustainable Garden by Closing the Loop
Adopting circular economy principles in your garden transforms waste into resources, builds healthier ecosystems, and fosters a more sustainable way of living. By focusing on regenerative practices like composting, sheet mulching, and rainwater harvesting, you reduce dependency on external inputs while working in harmony with nature.
These methods not only save money but also restore soil health, support biodiversity, and reduce environmental impact. Every step you take—whether composting kitchen scraps, using fallen leaves as mulch, or upcycling branches and cardboard—contributes to a thriving, closed-loop system in your garden.