How gardening can diminish greenhouse gases

I am fortunate to split my time between New Jersey and Florida. In Florida, I am a member of our local Garden Club. In addition, I am the chairperson for Solar and Wind on the Florida State Garden Club. My role as chairperson is to keep our membership informed about the latest trends in solar and wind. When I started the role, I didn’t know much about solar and wind. Thus began a journey to educate myself. Further, to figure out the relationship between gardening and solar/wind. However, my research led me instead to the relationship between greenhouse gases and gardening.

What are greenhouse gases? Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide CO2, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. Burning fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) produces CO2 as a waste product. Over the years we have been putting so much new CO2 into the air that the Earth is becoming warmer.

Now, greenhouse gases aren’t bad, they actually keep our planet livable by holding onto some of Earth’s energy. Too little greenhouse gas and the earth becomes too cold. Too much greenhouse gas and the earth becomes too hot. It’s about maintaining a balance. However, the burning of fossil fuels and other greenhouse gases has created an imbalance in the amount of greenhouse gases surrounding our planet. Thus making the earth warmer.

Carbon Sinks and Sources

To understand the relationship between greenhouse gases and gardening, we need first to understand the concept of sinks and sources. Since I already mentioned the sources of greenhouse gases, let’s discuss sinks. We’ll focus on sinks for carbon since carbon is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases. See the chart below.

A carbon sink absorbs more carbon than is released into the atmosphere. Two examples of sinks include forests and oceans. Forests, via photosynthesis, take more carbon out of the atmosphere than they release. Oceans absorb large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere.

Now, let’s get to the subject of this article, how gardening can diminish greenhouse gases. More specifically, let’s discuss organic gardening. Scientists have discovered fungi in organically farmed soil called Mycorrhizal fungi. “Myco” means fungus and “rrhizal” means roots. Mycorrhizal fungi grow on the roots of plants. These fungi act as a carbon sink and contribute to taking greenhouse gases out of the air. According to Maria Rodale, in her book “Organic Manifesto“, if all the cultivated land in the world were farmed organically it would immediately reduce our climate crisis significantly.

Gardening practices to sequester carbon

After reading Maria’s book, I was convinced that organic gardening is the route to follow. Here are some additional gardening practices that you can follow to sequester carbon in the soil (e.g. have your soil act as a sink for carbon).

• Follow no-till or low till practices. Tillage is the process of agitating the soil by some mechanical means. As I just mentioned, the soil is filled with fungi and bacteria. these microorganisms control plant nutrient availability, nitrogen cycling, organic matter decomposition, and carbon sequestering. Too much tillage can weaken the ability of these microorganisms to do their work. The bottom line, your soil will be more productive the less we disturb these microorganisms.
• Compost your food and yard waste. This waste is nature’s fertilizer. This natural fertilizer will build the quality of your soil and help your soil sequester carbon.
• Plant cover crops when your garden beds are not in use. Cover crops prevent the growth of weeds, can add nitrogen to the soil, and provide homes for carbon-eating mycorrhizal fungi.
• Practice crop rotation. Rotating crops breaks the cycle of disease and confuses insects enough so that chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are reduced or not necessary. The fewer chemicals applied to the plants and soil, the healthier the soil.

Additional practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Here are some additional practices you can follow to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases entering the earth’s atmosphere.

• Plant more native plants as they need less water and fertilizer
• Convert a portion of your lawn into a garden to attract wildlife, birds, and beneficial insects
• Choose local foods that are in season thus avoiding transportation costs that add carbon to the earth’s atmosphere
• Eat less red meat. Livestock takes a lot of energy to raise and feed. Cattle are one of the largest emitters of methane a greenhouse gas
• Give up the use of plastic water bottles. Not only do they take a lot of energy to produce, but they also contribute to significant pollution

These are all great practices. I like knowing that I am doing my part to reduce the amount of carbon and sequester carbon. However, for meaningful change to our current climate crisis, governments around the world will need to work together. We need to transition to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. The US Department of Energy has ambitious goals over the next 10 years. These goals include reducing the cost of solar by 60% and deploying 30 gigawatts of wind energy to power 10 million homes.

Here are some additional articles you may find helpful

• Creating and maintaining an organic vegetable garden – part one
• Creating and maintaining an organic vegetable garden – part two
• Four essential tools for working in your garden
• How to prepare raised and in-ground garden beds
• Understanding the USDA Organic Label
• Understanding the difference: Conventional vs. Organic Farming
• Recipes for Compost
• Secret Ingredients
• A charming small-scale market garden: Brookstone Garden

References

Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale

Overview of Greenhouse Gases