I actually did a post for Blog Action Day called Earth Friendly Gardening Practices, so I thought I'd cast my net a little wider with my Earth Day post and consider some ideas for reducing your garden's (and your) carbon footprint. According to Wikipedia, the "carbon footprint is the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event or product". And the more emissions, the more climate change. "Mother Earth is running a fever," a friend of mine said. Actually, it seems more like malaria, with alternating fever and chills, but I'm quite sure she'd be happier if we could modify our collective behavior so she could heal.
1. Grow some edibles. Many garden bloggers are working on reducing their food carbon footprint by growing fruit and vegetables (and eating them). Hats of too you, dear friends! If I didn't live in a summer dry climate I might have my own vegetable bed. As it is, I prefer to feed the wildlife with my low-water garden and grow some fruit. And I try to eat low on the food chain. Here's a thoughtful post on how much eating vegetarian can reduce your carbon footprint.
And here some peaches from my own garden.
Regrettably, many gardeners are tempted as well. They could have perennials. They could have beautiful bulbs, miraculously reborn each year (like this Triteleia laxa).
Another alternative is propagation. Country Mouse is a passionate and competent propagator. Even with some failures and disappointments, she persevered and has propagated grasses, perennials, and annuals from seed she collected on her own property. I much admire her diligence and I'm excited about her successes, such as the river of grass project she wrote about recently.
So, next time you're tempted by an annual at the nursery, consider your options. Buy it if you expect to use the seeds to have your own home grown plants next year, otherwise, move on.
3. Consider your own transportation. I realize transportation is only tangentially related to gardening. But not one but two garden bloggers have recently sang praise to their SUV and pickup truck in a post.
Fair enough, that didn't trouble me. Different folks, different tastes. What did trouble me were the 40+ comments on one of those blogs. "This truck is so sexy! Your truck is so macho! I love my own truck and they'll have to pull it from my clawing hands when I'm on my deathbed. When I was a little girl, all I wanted when I grew up was a truck like that." That kind of thing.
I found that very upsetting. I had just assumed that as gardeners, we all share a concern for the environment. But it appears I might have been mistaken.
So let me just say what I think:
3. Consider your own transportation. I realize transportation is only tangentially related to gardening. But not one but two garden bloggers have recently sang praise to their SUV and pickup truck in a post.
Fair enough, that didn't trouble me. Different folks, different tastes. What did trouble me were the 40+ comments on one of those blogs. "This truck is so sexy! Your truck is so macho! I love my own truck and they'll have to pull it from my clawing hands when I'm on my deathbed. When I was a little girl, all I wanted when I grew up was a truck like that." That kind of thing.
I found that very upsetting. I had just assumed that as gardeners, we all share a concern for the environment. But it appears I might have been mistaken.
So let me just say what I think:
- Trucks are fine for hauling big things. Mr. W. Rat has a truck, which he uses, for example, when he builds a greenhouse for Ms. Country Mouse. He does not commute to work in his truck. (We sometimes gratefully borrow the truck.)
- Trucks are stupid for driving around.
- Trucks are not sexy. Actually, I don't think cars are sexy. I think a guy/gal just back from a bike ride, flushed and a with a happy grin, looks sexy.
- When I was a little girl in Germany, many middle-aged and older women rode their bikes everywhere. They went shopping, rode to their garden plots to pick up vegetables, or rode to the preschool to pick up their grandkids. I always wanted to be like them, strong and self-sufficient, always ready with a smile, and often with a piece of fruit or a fresh carrot. Really there, not hidden behind a few tons of steel.
- I ride my bike to work unless it's raining or I have other commitments, or I'm sick.
- I ride my bike on the weekend, for errands and for fun. You'd be surprised what you can fit into the panniers of a good bike.
- We are a two-Prius family. One of the Prius' is a plug-in hybrid, and Mr. Mouse is just doing a series on electric cars on his Netzerolife blog. I don't ride my bike everywhere, but I try to combine errands, and ask myself whether I could ride my bike with each trip I take.
Comments
Also, this is the first house that we've made a concerted effort to rid ourselves of a lawn! I know that not all lawns are 'bad', but between gas mowers, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and constant mowing...the vast majority are evil in my opinion. I can't fathom why I ever had one!
I am guilty of owning a mid-sized SUV, mostly for work, but at least at the moment, it's rarely used. I do combine trips, and use it to haul large items (including our dogs). Most of the time though, we use our more efficient car. I'm rather scared to bike around here as drivers on some of our local narrow roads don't like to 'share the road'!
Most places have wonderful bike paths or streets dedicated to bike riders that most folks probably don't know about. I would encourage anyone to look it up and try it out just for one day and see what they think.
BTW, CMouse, going vegg does make a difference, but Michael Pollan had to correct himself. A vegetarian driving a hummer does use more than twice as much carbon than a carnivore in a Prius.
As for some places not being bike friendly, I so agree! In fact, one of the reasons I won't do a 6-week training I plan to do in Kauai but in Bolder, CA, is that it's impossible to ride your bike around there. Weird? Yes.
I have a bicycle, but I confess I do not ride it around as much as I would like to, since I live in a community that can not conceive of life outside an automobile, and there are NO bike paths, and NO awareness of bicycles or pedestrians exhibited by the jerks driving their SUVs and Trucks, it is taking your life in your hands literally to ride a bike or walk around here. It is sickening in the extreme.
Also, I have a large dog and she fits into my Prius just fine. There would be room for two more of her if I had more dogs.
Another things I dislike about annuals is how they add to the garden maintenance workload, especially if you grow them from seed in the garden. By the time many of the natives germinate the weedy grasses and spurges and oxalis have had a chance to stake their territories...