Can gardens save the environment?

There is no doubt that our climate is changing. And we know why – greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) in the air prevent heat from radiating back out into the atmosphere, trapping it on earth and causing warmer temperatures. We also know the solution – to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the air both by emitting less and by actually absorbing what is already there.

Traditionally, our gardens and landscapes have contributed to the problem. We use gas powered equipment to maintain our gardens (a leaf blower running for one hour emits as much CO2 as a car traveling 300 miles.) We water excessively (the most irrigated “crop” in America? Not soy or corn but lawns). We use nitrogen rich fertilizers which add to the nitrous oxide in the air. We spray chemicals to “improve” our gardens and keep away mosquitoes and that kills pollinators which are desperately needed in the garden and in the wild for plants to perpetuate.

New theories or solutions to climate change remind me of new magical ways to lose weight. We’re all looking for a quick solution. But really, to lose weight you just have to burn more calories than you take in. To cure climate change, we have to reduce the amount of carbon in the air.

Can gardening do that? I think yes.

Plants can absorb and trap carbon, can offer shade and cooling for homes and can offer much needed habitat, food and pollen for pollinators. But which plants? And how do we eliminate our chemical, water and fossil fuel dependence and still have beautiful gardens? And if you live in Southern California, how do you maintain your gardens without using precious water? And how do we deal with invasive plants without using chemicals? And how do we build the soil so that it becomes an effective carbon trap? What can we plant to replace lawns? And so on. I definitely have more questions than answers, but in the end, I have these goals for my nature based garden:

1.     To reduce the amount of carbon in the air 

2.     To protect and increase the number of pollinators.  

3.     To protect and improve air and water quality 

4. To bring my landscape into an environmentally balanced system and still have a beautiful, welcoming garden.

I hope that you will work toward these goals with me. I think that together we can have a powerful impact on our environment. The good news is that there are alternative gardening methods that will help us succeed. It doesn’t mean giving up your lovely landscape, it just means thinking outside the box and being open to doing and seeing things a little differently.

The posts here will reflect my journey toward attaining these goals. I’m sure I’ll have both successes and failures. But I am also sure that this journey is absolutely necessary – both for the health of the planet and my own mental health. Certainly to do something about this desperately important issue is ultimately better than doing nothing.

I’m enthused and excited about this journey and am happy that so many of you have the same goals. We all have different circumstances and different challenges. Please share your thoughts and experiences through commenting on the posts. And I’m always open to “guest bloggers!” The more information we have, the more success we will have. I can’t wait to hear about your own creative solutions to bringing our world back into balance. Happy Gardening.

Laura

The first blog, which follows, is about my surprisingly challenging efforts to get the “mow and blow” landscapers to switch to an electric leaf blower. I thought it would be so simple…….