This is possibly the easiest green tip you will hear: do nothing. Or at least, do nothing or only very little in your garden. Your garden has a big potential to become a so-called carbon sink – an entity which absorb more CO2 than emitting. Whether you have two square meters or a whole farm, there are options to make your garden or parts of it more climate and nature friendly. Just follow these few steps.
Choose many different plants so your garden will be more diverse, and choose hardy plants so the garden can take care of itself without use of pesticides and fertiliser.
Let it be
The best way to turn your garden into a climate-garden is actually to just let nature do its own – it has done this for millions of years and is actually quite good at it. Remove green “waste” from your vocabulary and keep those delicious leaves, grass clippings and broken branches in your garden for animals, insects and microbiology of the soil. Because, when organic matter is decomposed it will bind some of the CO2 from the living matter into the soil, thus turning the garden into a climate sink.
A Danish professor tested which difference it made to keep his garden wilder, and he discovered that his 600 m2 garden had stored 6.5 tons more CO2 than a normal garden after 27 years, corresponding to the same as driving all the way around the Earth in a car.
Large trees and bushes take up more CO2. They can also be used to hang a swing or hammock.
This also has an advantage for the biodiversity of your garden – by making space for more wild nature in your garden you allow small animals and insects to hide between the branches, in result inviting more birds into the garden and in general allowing a more diverse life. Remember, biodiversity is as or even more important than climate change, and we are still trying to understand the true relationship between a healthy Earth and biodiversity.
Plant trees and bushes
It might not come as a surprise, but vegetation ‘pull out’ CO2 from the atmosphere when doing photosynthesis. The more biomass, the more CO2 is stored, and thus trees and bushes can take up more carbon than smaller plants. If you plant fruit and berry trees you can also save some CO2-emissions from transportation by producing your own fruits rather than those from the supermarket.
You don’t even need a garden to get more nature on your land. Be inspired by urban rooftop gardens like Østergro and turn your rooftop or balcony into a small wild gem in the city.
Choose plants for all seasons
If you choose plant species which grow in different seasons you ensure to bind CO2 into the soil for most of the year. It also makes an exciting and living garden all year round! A wild garden does not need to be an ugly garden. Nature is beautiful when wild, so be inspired by your nearby nature, and allow it to expand into your garden as well. On behalf of the Earth we thank you!
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