 Gardening & Landscaping
Table of Contents
Introduction
Gardening is not only great for your mental health, but for the environment too. Or at least it can be if you avoid using toxic chemicals, peat moss, or (over)using gas powered equipment such as lawn mowers, and leaf blowers.
Planting natives instead of invasives helps boost biodiversity, but you can also grow food, medicine, even textiles and dyes right outside your door or window.
This page is indented to help get planeteers onto the path of sustainability in one of the simplest and mutually beneficial practices.
You can compost kitchen and yard scraps to make your own nutritious soil, you can use plants to help passively cool your building, and you can inspire people young or old to join in and discover the wonderful world of local biodiversity.
Types of Garden
The following are general definitions, guidelines, and resources. Gardens can be very versatile, and even a small space can often host multiple types of biomes, and serve multiple purposes. The following descriptions often overlap or have very similar definitions. For example to create an effective Pollinator Garden, you'll want to choose native wildflowers, forming a Wildflower Garden, and by creating space for pollinators, you may inadvertently create a Wildlife Garden that many other species can benefit from in addition to your local pollinators. To help protect delicate pollinators and their predators such as amphibians and birds, you would want to focus on designs and materials that are used in the creation of an Ocean-Friendly Garden.
I Turned a Boring Patch of my Garden into a Wildlife Pond!
10:26 minute video shows English garden transformation with a very simple pond project.
Grass Lawns
Lawn equipment produces 4% of the USA's emissions, but running a mower for an hour can produce as much pollution as driving a car 350 miles.
According to the EPA, lawn equipment produce 13 billion pounds of toxic pollution per year.Â
"It is estimated that Americans use ten times more fertilizer on lawns per acre than they do on food crops." - ONE
Much of this simply washes off into water ways where it causes algae blooms which suck oxygen out of the water, causing mass die offs all the way to our oceans. The gasses emitted from fertilized lawns also produces a considerable about of CO2. When the pollutants from lawns get into our drinking water they cause congenital birth defects, blue baby syndrome, cancer, and other dangers to human health.
"Using lawn equipment also significantly adds to noise pollution. The World Health Organization recommends that general daytime outdoor noise levels should not go above 55 decibels. According to Lawn and Landscape Maintenance, the average leaf blower produces 70-75 decibels at 50 feet. And the time spent mowing lawns is disliked by millions of Americans. A study conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center in 2008 found that 58% of those polled do not enjoy mowing their lawns." - ONE
Why Lawns Must Die 11:50 minute video about the aristocratic invention of lawns, the boom in popularity after heavy advertising for new pesticides (chemicals previously used in chemical warfare), till now when wildlife numbers have plummeted and people are suffering the health consequences of lawn pollution including cancer.
Click the Landscaping Pollution button to learn more about the dangers caused by lawn care equipment, including weed whackers, hedge trimmers, and the toxic air pollution caused by leaf blowers
Click the Libraries button to see if you can borrow tools from your local tool library or library of things, instead of buying new equipment. Literary libraries may also offer books about your local ecosystems and plant species.
Tools
Greener LAND "This tool helps you decide which landscape interventions are best suited towards landscape restoration for the landscape you operate in. Start by selecting the characteristics of your landscape on your left." Because of their infrequent and often very limited rain availability, making sure that your landscape has ample opportunity to capture rain helps reduce run off, but also boosts biodiversity. Capturing water in soil means less watering through out the year, and that plants will be more robust against drought conditions.
Yard Waste Tip:
Save Money & the Environment!
Save Money & the Environment!
Leaves & Grass Clippings
Between 30-50% of landfill waste is garden waste such as leaves and grass clippings. This produces a crazy amount of emissions, and means endangered insects have no where to nest. If you want to see species like fireflies and birds flourish, the best think you can do is rake or wheelbarrow your unwanted leaves and branches to an out-of-sight leaf pile. Make sure to keep it moist (reduces fire risk, and helps the larva stay healthy), and avoid any unnatural lights in the area.
Missouri Prairie Foundation: Leave Leaves Sign signs like this can help your human neighbors understand that you're not just being lazy, but purposefully leaving leaves for our wild neighbors.
Sticks & Branches
These can be broken up into mulch, or you can save longer pieces for crafting or construction. If I don't have a project, I break sticks up where I'm working and drop them around the roots of the plants to return nutrients to the soil and improve moisture retention. It's free mulch! If I have a fence or other project I want to weave or otherwise create, then I'll gather my wood and set the pieces somewhere dry that dogs and bugs shouldn't be able to find easily.
Snags & Logs
These are important microbiomes that provide food and shelter for insects, amphibians, and reptiles. Snags are dead trees which are particularly important for various species of birds and other species to nest in. As we constantly clear away these natural resources we increase the reproductive difficulty those species face, and make it harder for them to find food.
Make sure to have a professional deal with a snag that might spread disease or pests to other trees, or that is at risk of harming people or property.
Don't Sabotage Your Project With Inappropriate Equipment, Fixtures or Chemicals
Choosing the right equipment, fixtures, and pest control methods can make your time in nature much easier and more enjoyable. Our choices and reduce our emissions, noise pollution, light pollution, and costs, while boosting plant growth and biodiversity.Â
Click the Landscaping Pollution button to learn about the worst types of equipment for your hearing, your health, and the environment.
Before You Start: Choosing the Right Biomes
When we think about the biomes we want to cultivate it's much easier to make plans like where to plant certain thing, build certain amenities, and even what types of tools we'll need.
You may realize you want to avoid a lawn all together, but that some grassy walkways for wandering through your meadow or tending your crops will be easier. For this it may be handy to own a push real mower, for some low-impact maintenance.
Methods and Useful Tricks
IntercroppingÂ
Intercropping helps reduce erosion caused by wind, can reduce chill and other types of weather damage such as strong winds. Intercropping can help provide light and shade at needed times of day, but it can also effect the behaviors of insects, allowing gardeners to avoid using harmful chemicals.
Guides & ResourcesÂ
Bee-Friendly Gardening
Autumn/Winter Garden Maintenance Guide "The autumn and winter months can be challenging for our hardworking pollinators, but we can all do something in our outdoor spaces to help bumblebees survive and thrive!
Download this guide to discover how you can create and protect potential hibernation spots for bumblebee queens, prepare for next year with some easy maintenance jobs and autumn/winter planting, and feed the bumblebees who do remain active over winter." The planting suggestions are specifically for UK residents, but could also work in other places. Just be careful to pick native plants whenever possible to avoid introducing anything invasive.Bee Score: Flower Finder "Select the flowers you have in your garden, then hit continue to find out your current bee kind score. If you’re not sure exactly which plants you have, try clicking the filters on and off to help identify the bee-friendly flowers in your garden." This is hosted by and for UK residents, so you won't get a bonus for "native species" if you live outside the UK, and might see your local natives listed as "non-native" or get an "invasive penalty" even if those plants are fine where you live, but this is still a fun and educational resource.
How-To: Seed Bombs
Make Your Own Bee-Friendly Seed Balls (PDF) be aware that the planting suggestions are specifically for UK residents, but could also work in other places. Just be careful to pick native plants whenever possible to avoid introducing anything invasive.
Nature-Friendly Gardening
Gardening for Nature Recovery Poster (PDF) "The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has teamed up with We Have The POWER to bring you these 11 simple actions you can take to support wildlife in your outdoor space – whether it is a window box, balcony, garden, or allotment or community green space."
Apps & Tools
North America
USA
Louisiana
Good Weed Bad Weed? "NPI's Good Weed/Bad Weed database – the only one specifically for volunteers found in the southeast Louisiana ecosystem – provides reliable information so that you can make an informed decision to keep, observe, move, or pull out a particular plant. The database contains species description, habitat, photos, and guidance on how to care for desirable species, eradicate undesirable ones, perhaps just observe others."
Organizations & Resources
North America
USA
Ashoka's Community Greens A non-profit organization that empowers citizens to create and manage shared green spaces where people live and work.
Wild Ones "promotes native landscapes through education, advocacy, and collaborative action."
Maps
International
Butterfly Conservation: Wild Spaces: Put Your Wild Space on the Map "Our interactive map shows the number and types of Wild Space near you. When you sign up in the UK, your Wild Space will also appear on the map so you can show everyone that you're taking action and encourage others to get involved too."
Europe
UK
Butterfly Conservation: Wild Spaces: Put Your Wild Space on the Map "Our interactive map shows the number and types of Wild Space near you. When you sign up in the UK, your Wild Space will also appear on the map so you can show everyone that you're taking action and encourage others to get involved too."
North America
USA
Stormwater Management and Restoration Tracking (SMART) Tool (Interactive) Tool tracks storm water management practices in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed which spans, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia