Support the Environment: Landscape Ideas to Delight You and Wildlife

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The Activist for Activists. Author of Make a Difference with Mental Health Activism and The Happy Activist: Journey the 5-Step Activism Path to Focus Your Passion and Change the World. Teacher, Psychologist, Environmental Activist, Animal Lover.

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Support the Environment: Landscape Ideas to Delight You and Wildlife

In this post, I describe four ways you can make a difference.

Supporting biodiversity
Reducing your garden’s carbon footprint
Reducing pollution
Gardening for food

Do Your Part for Biodiversity

A ladybug on a leaf To support biodiversity, encourage pollinators and wildlife into your garden.

Supporting pollinators and wildlife is essential because of the loss of food and shelter that comes with development in our communities. We need to nurture the tiny ecosystem in our yard. Native plants, shelter, food, and water sources support beneficial insects, pollinators, and wildlife.

Transform your yard into a place to enjoy wildlife. Pollinator gardens can be beautiful. It is lovely to walk through your yard and hear birds singing, watch them splash in the birdbath, and hear the humming of bees as they flitter over your flowers. Besides bees and birds, my favorite wildlife sightings are owls, wild turkeys, turtles, and rabbits.

With a yard that operates as an ecosystem, you need fewer pesticides since the beneficial insects get rid of the invaders. Wildlife will help disperse native seeds.

Reducing Your Garden’s Carbon Footprint

You’ve probably heard a lot about climate change. Humans’ use of fossil fuels has caused a rapid rise in the average global temperature. When they burn, they release greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s heat. The world is now about 1.2C warmer than it was in the 19th Century – and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 50%.

Reducing your carbon footprint refers to ways you can make a difference in your use of fossil fuels. You can do that in many ways. For example, traveling less, adjusting your thermostat, and reducing your consumption of goods.

You can also impact the environment with landscape that reduces our carbon footprint. Here’s how.

Tending Your Lawn

Removing your lawn is the best way to reduce your landscape’s carbon footprint. Or you can transform areas into pollinator gardens. And in the process, you reduce your need for a lawn mower, weed eater, and trimmer.

If you still have some lawn, consider other ways to maintain it that use fewer fossil fuels. For example, keeping your lawn cut higher means you don’t have to mow as much. And a side benefit is that your grass will be happier, developing longer roots that hold water in the soil better.

Another opportunity to reduce fossil fuel use is a reel mower with no engine. (We have one, and it works okay if the grass isn’t too high.) Other options include electric or battery-powered mowers and tools.

Handling Your Garden Wastes

One major source of greenhouse gases is yard waste sent to the landfill. Use your waste for good instead! Transform your household waste into rich compost for your garden.

Our large maples provide a glorious red show in the autumn and shed their leaves all over our yard. If we rake them to the street, our city will come by and vacuum them up. Instead, we consider the leaves a fantastic source of fertilizer. We rake them into a pile, providing shelter for insects and wildlife over the winter. Then in the spring, we mulch the leaves to use on our garden beds.

I also bag up leaves and let them sit for a year. The result is glorious leaf mold that is a fantastic fertilizer.

Mulch your grass instead of bagging the clippings. This helps your soil.

Burying the Carbon Dioxide

Another way to help the environment is to capture the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and put it in the ground, a process called sequestration.

Plant Trees

Trees sequester carbon for us. Plant more trees. And place your trees so they shade your house during summer, which decreases your energy consumption.

Compost Your Waste

While trees are perfect for carbon sequestration, you can also sequester carbon by composting. And, of course, you’ll have an excellent addition to your garden soil that will reduce pests and clean up toxins.

Read more about the various ways to compost: How to Use Your Stuff to Make the World a Better Place

Learn about the easiest way to compost – heaving everything into a pile: How to Make Your Garden Healthy Using the Easiest Eco-Friendly Way to Compost

I have worms in my house: Worms in Your House? How To Embrace Vermicomposting and Receive Glorious Fertilizer in Return

Reducing Pollution

A traditional grass yard lends itself to many ways to pollute the environment. Maintaining a typical lawn means watering, fertilizing, and mowing. In addition to reducing air pollution caused by mowers, you can keep the water system and your soil healthier.

Water Pollution and Conservation

A danger to our waterways is runoff from yards. Bacteria from animal waste and dangerous chemicals make their way into the streams and rivers. Reduce stormwater runoff with plantings that keep the water in your yard. A beautiful way to do this is to plant a rain garden where you see water buildup. HGTV provides instructions and photos of rain gardens.

If you live on a lake or a stream, plant a gorgeous plant barrier on the water’s edge.

Capture the rainwater from your roof in a rain barrel for irrigation.

Mulching means less water runoff and less weeding. Try a 3-inch layer of eco-friendly mulch on unplanted surfaces.

Soil Pollution

Your soil supports your yard and vegetable garden. So make sure it is healthy. Your local extension office will test your soil so you can fertilize it appropriately. Using non-toxic fertilizers helps protect the good critters in your soil. And you can fertilize with the waste from your household.

Support the Environment: Landscape for Food

Using part of your yard for a food garden has many advantages for a sustainable life.

Enjoy better health
Protect our food supply
Reduce your carbon footprint

Enjoy Better Health

A diet rich in vegetables and fruit is a healthy diet. Add to that eating produce that is organic, and you’ve made a difference for yourself and the environment.

Protect the Food Supply

Another advantage of growing your own food is choosing heirloom varieties and saving the seeds. Buying heirloom seeds and keeping them later is a form of environmental activism.

Seed savers cultivate heirlooms over generations. On the other hand, manufacturers breed hybrids for specific characteristics, which means they can, for example, be resistant to disease. However, companies patent hybrids to protect their profit, and in some cases, saving seeds would not work because the next generation is not true to the first.

Another issue is that producers breed hybrids for shipping. Instead of choosing flavorful plants, companies select plants that won’t spoil when sending them to faraway places takes a long time. That is why tomatoes you buy in the winter have no taste.

By making the choice of heirloom plants and saving the seeds, you are making a positive impact on our environment. You are:

Increasing biodiversity by saving native plant seeds,
supporting seed availability,
better adapting varieties to your area, which require less care, and,
preserving food heritage.

When the U.S government sent the Cherokee Nation to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, the Nation preserved its heritage by sewing seeds into their clothing. As a result, I’m growing one of their bean varieties in my garden.

I enjoy growing fruits and vegetables, but you may be unable to. Instead, support your local organic farmers.

Nurture Yourself

Most people say they feel better after time spent outdoors. Now, research supports this as more than just a subjective feeling. Here is a summary of what you can get by spending time in nature:

stress reduction
better mood
increased ability to concentrate
post-traumatic stress disorder relief
fewer illnesses
enhanced immunity
better energy
better sleep
lower blood pressure
less inflammation
increased longevity
better recovery from surgery or illness
better athletic performance

That is a spectacular list.

Support the Environment: Landscape Ideas to Delight You and Wildlife

How To Get Started

I started reducing the size of my lawn, composting, and making my little part of the world more wildlife-friendly. I even received a Certified Wildlife Habitat from the National Wildlife Federation.

Then I learned about a program in my state of Tennessee focused on lawn care that prioritizes a balance between what people want from their yard and what the environment needs to be healthy. In Tennessee, this is called a ‘smart yard.’

There are many programs like Tennessee Smart Yards across the country. Each area has different challenges, of course. For example, water management may be a more significant focus in the desert. But following the program suggestions means keeping your yard and surrounding areas ecologically sound.

Transforming your yard will be an ongoing process unless you have a lot of time and money. Start by listing your goals, and then take them one at a time. Technology can help your planning.

Start by reducing the size of your lawn. By taking out sections of your lawn and adding native plantings, you accomplish many eco-friendly goals: reducing water use and runoff, reducing the air pollution that comes with mowers and trimmers, less need for fertilizers, and more visits from pollinators and songbirds.

And you add to the value of your landscape. Eco-friendly landscaping can be gorgeous.

Your local Master Gardeners can help in ways tailored to your community. They can recommend native plants, help you plan changes to your yard, and recommend ways to create a gorgeous yard that nurtures the environment. Call your local extension office for information.

Be a Steward

My program has a certification process, and I put up my yard sign when I meet the requirements. I hope my sign sparks my neighbors to consider environmentally-friendly lawn care.

You can be a role model for your neighbors, children, and grandchildren.

Support the Environment: Landscape Ideas to Delight You and Wildlife

Support the Environment: Landscape Ideas to Delight You and Wildlife

Do Your Part for Biodiversity