Green VS Grey Gardens and YOUR Carbon Footprint

Gardens are amazing!

Once a space for spiritual experiences and gatherings, gardens are not used too differently to this today. Gardens are still to this day a place to gather to enjoy both other people's company or simply to enjoy the environment itself. Gardens encourage positive emotions, increase creativity and cognitive function, and create a sense of achievement, which in turn helps improve mental health. 

This is why it is so important to preserve the sparse and shrinking environment that we have left. Every garden can be viewed as its own habitat to help maintain and preserve our shrinking biodiversity issue. Private gardens/backyards are a key component of the ever-developing and changing urban ecosystem. Vital for the food security of humans and animals, aesthetic value, providing ecosystem services, and the landscape quality of an area. 

"Grey Gardens" are the enemy of a balanced garden ecosystem. When a garden is dominated by impermeable hard surfaces such as concrete pavers and concrete, it is dubbed a grey garden. This type of garden limits vegetation, ecotones (transition between two biological communities), and overall habitat, increasing the need for inputs like water. Grey gardens also increase the chances of flooding and contributes to urban heating.

"Green Gardens" are the balance a gardener needs to aim for. A high proportion of vegetation allows for lower inputs and retains resources, mimicking natural vegetation, allowing for ecotones to be developed in urban ecosystems. Green gardens cool the local environment using shading and evapotranspiration (evaporation), improving thermal comfort. Garden plants typically cool the air by 2–3 °C and surface temperature by 10–15 °C. Developed gardens also insulate, retaining heat in winter, which helps small mammals and invertebrates through the winter. Wind protection is another benefit of a green garden! Overall, improve building energy efficiency by 20–30 % due to these protections. Air pollution is also proven to decrease with more vegetation. Plants with fine leaves, hairs, or waxy leaves are more efficient at absorbing pollution.

Intensive green gardens can also cause the same issues as grey gardens. Due to the use of non-sustainable resources such as petrol. The continual reduction of foliage reduces the development of ecotones and overall ecosystem maintenance. Additionally, rely on bulky or heavy materials such as compost and mulch, which are commonly transported considerable distances. Sourcing materials from your local area helps reduce emissions, speaking with your local tree loppers or landscapers to source mulch and other natural materials for your garden. The overuse of pesticides and fertilizers also decreases the local populations of birds, lizards, and insects, as well as increased emissions due to the production of said chemicals. 

Less-intensively cultivated areas provide refuge for invertebrates and small mammals. Mimicking nature by providing natural features such as logs, ponds, and leaf litter also increases support for your local ecosystem. Alternating a mosaic of vegetation types also supports a diverse biome. 

Single-use products like pots can also reduce a gardener's carbon footprint. The pots we use are sourced from Garden City Plastics, who use a closed-loop packaging program, working with PP5 plastic to collect used pots at participating garden centers and melt them back down, turning them back into new pots! If your pots, labels, and trays have a number 5 recycling symbol on the bottom can be put into these collection bins. 

A green garden is a good garden! Helping the enviroment one plant at a time!

To read more about Urban Green Gardens, click here & here

Top-left ‘Grey Garden’, Top-right ‘Intensive Garden’, Bottom ‘Green Garden’