To have your own garden — is it really green?
Growing herbs in the kitchen, enjoying the smell of flowers on the balcony and cultivating your own strawberries on the terrasse — isn’t it a dream of many people with good, eco-resposible intentions?
I have just recently bought new pots to plant my basiclic seeds and a couple of geranium forthe balcony. And then my friend asked me, why I am doing this and the answer was immediate — this way is more eco-friendly. Is it really so?
From one point of view it makes sense: if you have a garden, you grow plants that capture CO2, you preserve the planet, you grow your own vegetables and therefore avoid industrial production, you feed the birds etc… In short, having a garden seems to be GREEN by default.
The problem is that it is not that black and white.
Biodivercity
Actually, asmany natural parks and reservations have showed us, the most ecological thing we can do towards nature is to leave it alone. But gardening is, on the contrary, the art of organizing nature: we put grass, we water, we mow, we cut and weed, we plant… And all this is not necessarily good for the ecosystem. In fact, several studies conducted by a research consortium on biodiversity in gardens show that the more we “garden”, the more the biodiversity of the environment tends to decline.
For example, mowing your lawn too regularly, pulling out weeds, trimming trees or hedges are disturbances of the natural environment that are actually the habitat of dozens of wild species (insects, small animals, birds …). Making a path in the garden, placing Japanese pavers, gratings, or any other “hard” surface is another way to artificialize the soil, which reduces the population of insects or small rodents.
Sometimes rare garden species can be invasive for indigenous environment so it is one more point to consider when buying an wonderful exotic plant.
Water
Not to mention that most gardens are not at all eco-responsible from the point of view of water consumption. Of course we can employ water-collecting and reusing techniques, planting drough-resistant plants and use automatic ittigation.
CO2 emissions
One of the benefits frequently mentioned about gardening is the ability of plants to capture CO2 in the atmosphere and therefore contribute to the carbon neutrality. Many gardening practices are actually not suppporting it though: composting, for example, can emit a lot of methane if not prepared properly. In a study RDC (2004) it is estimated that methane emissions from individual composting vary according to the way the process is conducted: for a well-conducted process that guarantees good aerobic conditions, emissions are equivalent to those from industrial composting.
These assumptions are supported by an Australian study (Lundie and Peters, 2005) that conducted an LCA (life cycle analysis) study of various food waste management options, measured in an annual emission in g CO2-eq/tonnes of food waste :
- for individual composting under aerobic conditions: 2,614
- for individual composting under anaerobic conditions: 7,142,857
- for centralized composting: 340,133
- for landfilling: 1,857,666
Seems like even growing your own vegetables is not always a good idea: you have to choose endemic vegetables, and know how to take care of them properly, without waste. Most gardens are less productive than a small farm and waste more land. In the end, we see that having a garden and having a green thumb is rarely synonymous with ecology.
Better way to do
But then, how to have a garden that respects biodiversity and the environment? Here are some tips to at least make your garden more eco-friendly and biodiversity-friendly:
- Prefer community gardens. It will descrease the impact of occupying the natural surface with not natural ecosystem. Ans its better than urbanisation :)
- If you absolutely want an individual garden, try not to have artificial grass, avoid hard terraces and other pathways that artificialize the soil. No swimming pools (or consider natural pools).
- Get to know your soil and your climate to plant adapted species.
Do as little as possible: let it grow, let dead leaves, let grass and weeds grow. - Avoid industrial products, from pesticides to herbicides and even composts like peat. Favour natural regulation methods (insects, endemic plants…).
Really learn how to do an efficient and quality gardening (including for your vegetable garden!) - Choose trees and large, dense, bushy groves of plants: they are a refuge for biodiversity. Avoid large areas of empty grass that are completely useless from an ecological point of view.
- Install a water reservoir if possible, such as a small pond. But be careful not to put fish in it. Let the natural biodiversity develop there: insects, amphibians etc…
