Carbon in the Garden: Using Your Garden To Reduce Your Environmental Foot Print

The Science Behind The Carbon Problem & How Gardeners Can Help

The most important concept the gardener needs to grasp here is that global warming is largely (if not totally) due to ‘enhanced’ atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has always been up there in the atmosphere and is in a constant cycle, between being released as a gas and being locked up safe and sound by plants in its liquid or solid form.

The problem is that humankind is doing two things to destroy the balance of the natural carbon cycle; firstly we are burning once locked away fossil fuels which are adding to the quantities of carbon being released into the atmosphere and secondly we are reducing the planets ability to lock up carbon dioxide by cutting down trees and burning vegetation. The gardener can help balance carbon on both fronts by using less carbon burning inputs within the garden as well as by planting ever more carbon hungry plants to lock away atmospheric carbon.

Planting Carbon: How Woody Plants Lock Up Atmospheric Carbon

All plant material contains a carbon, locked up safe and sound in its inert solid form, as opposed to being in its global warming gaseous state. It is the thick woody material laid down by trees and shrubs that really soaks up atmospheric carbon. Plants need to extract carbon form the atmosphere to create tissue, and even a handful of shrubs or a tree or two will make a considerable difference to your own carbon balance. In fact it is conceivable that if your garden is large enough you could make yourself carbon neutral, offsetting all the carbon you burn driving to and from work, heating and lighting your home and even flying overseas for your holidays once in while.

Research has shown that the average carbon consumption of an average human could be offset by planting 40 trees at their time of birth. Two questions spring to mind here, how much carbon does the average person create and what sort of trees are we talking about?

That aside plant lovers get extra points for offsetting their carbon by nurturing plants and the more the plants and the larger the plants the better. The opposite is true if your ripping out plants or hard pruning your garden vegetation, especially if you are cutting back large woody trees and shrubs.

How To Dispose Of Woody Plant Waste While Minimizing Effect On Your Carbon Balance

Technically all garden waste materials that are burnt are within the present carbon cycle and, as such, far less damaging than say burning coal, which is made from petrochemicals which where created and locked away under-ground during past carbon cycles (that being the very root of the global warming problem). That said it is better if you can use timber in construction or pile it up where it can be used by wildlife as a habitat as opposed to burning it, but if you must burn woody waste burn in the home in a wood burner where you can offset your use of fossil fuels in heating.

Compost Your Household Waste, Don’t Landfill It!

You can compost almost all of your organic waste as well as much of your paper and card, all of which can be mixed with garden waste for composting.

Compost also wins hands down when put up alongside peat in environmental terms. Peat bog, like coal or oil, is yet another way that carbon has been locked up naturally by planet. Draining peat bog allows the peat to breakdown releasing huge quantities of gaseous carbon. Using peat in the garden not only creates a market place for exrtracted peat but it will also release atmospheric carbon as it breaks down. Peat use should be totally cut out if possible in favour of homemade or brought in recycled garden / household compost. Such composts can be used for conditioning the soil when pit planting or mulching – leading to healthy vigorous plants that will in turn lock up more atmospheric carbon. To replace seed raising or potting compost a mixture of worm compost and leaf mould mixed with a clean sandy soil will surfice.

Gardening Without Concrete

Believe it or not 10% of humanities carbon dioxide is released during the creation of cement dust. This makes concrete possibly the most environmentally damaging product you can use in your garden. The only sensible option here is to keep concrete paving and concrete based construction to a very minimum, preferring instead to look for greener alternatives materials and building techniques.

Here Are A Few Garden Alternatives To Using Concrete:

• Avoid paving, preferring instead timber decking, gravel or better still good old fashioned carbon munching lawn
• Use locally sourced round wood timber or recycled sleepers to create walling as opposed to block or brick work
• Investigate using rammed soil or subsoil mixed in a low ratio with cement or informally stacked rocks for walling or for retaining bank work
• Plant low clipped hedging such as box or lavender to create the effect of walling; its cheap, attractive and its locking up carbon.
• Source recycled paving materials such as old bricks and use recycled rubble or rocks as a sub-base
• Plant climbers or wall shrubs up against your house to help improve thermal insulation within the house
• Plant trees and shrubs around your garden to further screen your property from chilling winds during winter as well as provide cooling shade during the summer
• When it comes to minimising your carbon use you really have to think outside the box for sustainable alternatives. Sub base is as good an example as any when it comes to expressing how useful a bit of lateral thinking can be when finding a use for unwanted materials in the garden; I excavated some ancient paving where old teeth had been used as a sub-base. It turned out that the property had once been owned by a dentist. That’s the spirit!

Natural Light And Natural Heat In The Outdoor Room

If you have just read this article and your thinking that your not going to do anything as a result then please – do, sorry, don’t do one thing; don’t invest in one of those dreadful outdoor gas heaters. Surely the act of heating outdoors can only be seen as a mistake and should only be seen as acceptable if it you are using a local supply of timber which should ideally be prunings from your garden.

I would also dismiss garden lighting at the same time only the reality is that great leaps have been made with the use of LED technology. LED’s are not only far safer than conventional lighting but much more efficient. So if you are going to invest in garden lighting then do so sparingly, using LED’s to create intimately lit areas where you can eat and sit as opposed to halogen lighting which is both energy consuming and overly bright being better suited to spot as opposed to ambient lighting.

In Conclusion

Gardeners by the very act of gardening are potentially helping lock up atmospheric carbon. Quite how much good you are doing will depend on how you go about your gardening and a often some simple tweaking to how you garden will make all the difference. Growing more and building less is the best policy, but that said, garden construction need not be a bad thing just as long as you look into low carbon techniques. Also paying attention the trimmings such sourcing local materials, composting your household waste and eliminating damaging products such as peat will make a world of a difference.

© Matt Hewes
All articles are written by freelance horticulturist Matthew Hewes and can be re-printed or replicated by permission only. If you wish to use findmeplants copy on your website then this will be considered in exchange for a link and inclusion of the author’s name. Matthew Hewes works as a freelance garden writer and is happy to write gardening articles to order.