Our gardening practices directly affect our community and our environment. There are many healthy gardening habits we can adopt that will lessen our personal impact on our surroundings, and in the process create a healthier environment. There are basically eight areas of garden sustainability: Protecting water quality and quantity using climate-appropriate plants building healthy soils adopting less-toxic pest management reducing waste and recycling conserving energy creating habitat for beneficial wildlife, and growing food for your family and your neighborhood Within each of these concepts, there are a myriad of things you can do to make your garden more sustainable. Start with small steps in your garden. Many of these ideas are simple and free — and even one change makes a difference. So starting with the first concept, protecting water quality and quantity: one important thing to do is to adjust your irrigation controller at least four times a year, if not monthly. Don’t hose off