The Climate-Friendly Gardener
A Guide to Combating Global Warming from the Ground
Up
The
millions of Americans with a lawn or garden know that even small shifts
in weather can affect their outdoor plans. Unchecked global warming,
however, could force gardeners to deal with more droughts and floods,
and a profusion of pests and weeds. The
Climate-Friendly Gardener: A Guide to Combating Global Warming from the
Ground Up, shows you how to reduce the impact of climate
change in your own backyard.
Gardening practices alone won’t solve global warming, but gardeners
can point the way to climate-friendly farm policies that will have a
bigger impact. Sign our climate-friendly
garden pledge today!
The Climate-Friendly Gardener includes these tips:
Tip #1: Choose low-emission garden products and practices
Gasoline-powered
garden tools are major emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary global warming
gas. But emissions can also come from unexpected sources such as fossil
fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides and peat-based potting mixes. Use
electric or push mowers, rakes, and other low- or no-emission tools,
compost, and natural pest-control methods.
Tip #2: Don’t leave garden soil naked
Stabilize,
build, and add nutrients to garden soil that would otherwise remain bare
by planting winter cover crops such as grasses, cereal grains, or
legumes. In addition to preventing erosion and keeping weeds down, they
add carbon to the soil when they are turned under in the spring. Peas,
beans, clovers, and other legumes convert nitrogen from the atmosphere
into natural fertilizer.
Tip
#3: Plant trees and shrubs
Because of their size and long
life span, trees and large shrubs remove more heat-trapping CO2 from the atmosphere than
other plants. As an added bonus, well-placed trees offer summer shade
and protection from winter winds, reducing emissions associated with
home heating and air conditioning.
Tip #4: Recycle yard and food waste
Organic
waste decomposing in oxygen-poor landfills generates methane, a
heat-trapping gas 23 times more potent than CO2. By contrast, composting this
waste in the presence of oxygen minimizes methane production.
Composting also produces a nutrient-rich soil amendment that reduces the
need for synthetic fertilizer while helping soil store more carbon.
Tip #5: Make your grass “greener”
Lawns absorb
carbon from the atmosphere, but some studies suggest that this climate
benefit may be undercut by heat-trapping nitrous oxide emissions related
to fertilizer use and generous watering. While there is no scientific
consensus yet on the climate impact of lawns, you can make yours as
climate-friendly as possible by choosing drought-tolerant species,
mowing high, watering during the coolest part of the day, and leaving
grass clippings to fertilize the soil (and add extra carbon) naturally.
(click
to enlarge)
Carbon is constantly cycling from the air into plants and soil, and
back into the air. Global warming is largely a result of an imbalance in
this carbon cycle, due to the release of vast quantities of ancient
carbon that have been burned as fossil fuel.
(adapted from www.farmingfutures.org.uk/)
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What is “sustainability”?
The
sustainability movement in Lexington, Kentucky continues to expand and
includes efforts that are education, government, business, faith and
community based. Integrating these initiatives has been enhanced by the
creation of the Bluegrass Partnership for a Green Community which will help us move towards a more sustainable city.
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