Garden Footprints

With Earth Hour coming up tomorrow, it seems like a good time to look at the environmental impact of gardening.

Gardening is universally seen as an environmentally friendly pursuit – and it is, but that doesn’t mean that it is completely environmentally benign.

Last year I participated in one of Garden Organic’s members experiments, looking at the ecological footprint of gardening (ecological footprints are a way of estimating the environmental impacts of products and activities). They’re continuing their work this year – they sent me the report on last year’s experiment to read and comment on this year.

Garden Organic members are, pretty much by definition, people who garden organically, grow some of their own food and are environmentally conscious. But the report shows that growing some of your own fruit and vegetables can make a real saving on your overall environmental footprint – up to 6%, similar to installing double glazing, replacing an old boiler or cutting down on your car use.

The things which ramp up a garden footprint are buying in products that have a long supply chain, or use energy – like power tools. Making sure that you buy good quality tools, and maintaining them properly so that they last a long time, is a good way of cutting down on your garden footprint.

It’s also important to close nutrient cycles, by composting, and add fertility from home-made products such as comfrey liquid and green manures.

So the good news is that having a kitchen garden is environmentally friendly, but it’s important to keep an eye on what you buy. As in many other areas of life, adapting a frugal mindset in the garden will save the environment as well as your wallet.

© Copyright Emma Cooper, 2008. All rights reserved.

Posted Mar 28, 10:51 AM.  

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