You can easily make your garden party sustainable with our ideas. We give you tips for the food, the drinks and the decoration.
A successful garden party primarily includes good food and refreshing drinks. You should make sure that you choose seasonal, regional and, if possible, organic quality in order to make your menu sustainable and environmentally friendly.
For your garden party, you can use our seasonal calendar for vegetables and fruit as well as the organic seals from Demeter, Bioland and Naturland, which stand for strict criteria in organic farming and animal welfare.
Garden party: tips for food and drinks
These snacks and drinks are ideal for your garden party:
Food: If you grow your own in your garden, you can use your own fruit and vegetables to make delicious food for your party. Raw vegetables with homemade dips for vegetables, quick salads or finger food are particularly suitable for this (tip: finger food recipes). Make sure to use local foods that are in season at the time of your celebration. If you want to grill, then you will find more tips here: Grilling, but sustainable: 10 tips from charcoal to vegetarian.
Drinks: It is also important for the drinks at your garden party not to forego regionality. Of course, nothing beats domestic tap water, which is the most sustainable drink. For the warm summer months, however, homemade ice tea, various homemade lemonades and other summer drinks are also available.
Little waste: You should produce as little waste as possible during your garden party. You can achieve this by avoiding unnecessary packaging – especially plastic. If you need straws, skewers for finger food or similar, you should use them in a reusable form (glass straws are available at **Avocadostore, for example). Glass bottles are also recommended for drinks, which you can either return as deposit bottles or continue to use yourself after the party.
Sustainable decoration for your garden party
With creative decoration you can give your garden party a unique atmosphere. Your celebration will be particularly sustainable if you recycle or upcycle old and used materials for your decoration. Here are a few ideas:
Flowers as a natural decoration: If you throw a party in your own garden, not so much decoration is necessary. After all, your plants and trees create a unique atmosphere in your garden. If you are still in the process of planting your garden, wildflowers are worthwhile. They not only make your garden shine in bright colors, but you can also use them for a salad.
Sustainable lanterns: When night falls, glowing tea lights bring cosiness to your garden party. You can make these yourself in a sustainable way. For this you can recycle old jam jars as well as cardboard and paper remnants or natural materials such as leaves. With our instructions you will be able to make a lantern. Alternatively, you can also make new candles yourself from old leftovers.
Lanterns as light decorations: Fairy lights and lanterns are as much a part of a garden party as the Christmas tree is at Christmas. You can make your garden particularly beautiful and sustainable with handcrafted lanterns. They are a great way to recycle old packaging or toilet paper rolls.
More ideas for your garden party
These tips can also help you when planning your garden party:
Sustainable children’s corner: If you invite guests with children to your garden party, a sustainable children’s corner makes sense. Depending on the age of the children, this can consist of a sandbox made of wood (tip: build your own sandbox) or a mud kitchen. There is also a whole range of movement games for children that can be fun. A painting corner is also welcome. You can, for example, lay out “scratch paper”, which would have ended up in the waste paper anyway. More useful information: The best colored pencils without poison, paint or solvents.
Make short journeys sustainably: Your celebration will be particularly sustainable if you point out to your guests that they can also reach your garden on foot, by bicycle or by public transport and should avoid using the car if possible. It is best to show directions and the departure times of any nearby trams or buses on your invitation card.
Reusable crockery: If possible, do not use disposable crockery for your garden party. This is often made of plastic and produces an unnecessary amount of waste. Instead, you should use normal crockery and cutlery – and only use more environmentally friendly reusable crockery in an emergency. If you don’t have enough dishes for a larger celebration, you can certainly borrow some from friends or family members. If you want to buy new tableware, it is worth doing without plastic tableware and choosing wooden ones instead.
