Sustainable Gardening

CHAPTER 1

UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABILITY

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein

Why Write a Book on Sustainable Gardening?

Is the very act of gardening itself not sustainable? After all, gardens are spaces where people connect with nature, they are filled with trees and shrubs, and nature abounds. Green waste is even recycled in composting areas. If, however, we peel back the veneer and take a closer look at the way gardens are managed, many of the activities are far from green. There are often monocultures of grass; maintenance uses fossil fuels and water. Gravels and other materials used in hard landscaping are mined or quarried. Some are even transported from the other side of the world. The movement of plants creates biosecurity risks. The care of gardens often involves pesticides and herbicides. These practices are far from sustainable. To delve a little deeper, we could consider just one element of a garden. For example, we could consider the humble garden bench. What stories could it tell, if only it could speak? Would it tell tales of being carefully fashioned from wood produced in a carefully managed plantation? Of skilled, well-paid artisan-joiners carefully measuring, cutting and creating? Would it proudly tell of how its sale creates wealth that is shared throughout the supply chain? Of families fed, communities brought together around schools and hospitals?

If your bench could tell its story, what tales would it tell?

Or would that bench, if it could speak to the garden visitor, tell a very different story? Would it speak of illegal logging, of being fashioned by children in a dangerous factory, where life-changing injury and death is just around the corner, where the children were sold into bonded labour? Would it speak of the devastation that the illegal felling of timber has on habitat and biodiversity?

It is easy to forget that buying decisions can have profound effects throughout the supply chain. If strategies were developed to ensure that all purchases were checked off against a list of criteria to ensure principles of fairness, of prosperity for all those in the supply chain and of minimal environmental impact, then it could be argued that our gardens tell stories that we would be proud to be associated with.

The sustainable garden is filled with positive stories: of trees providing ecosystem services to people and to nature; for example, the wide number of invertebrate species supported, the provision of food for caterpillars and nectar for pollinators, or gardens that reduce the risks of flooding and that are filled with birdsong. Special places where people come and experience wellness and improved mental health.

Creating such spaces requires agility of thought. Those who manage gardens and design landscapes make a thousand decisions a day. Each one of these needs rethinking, from the application of spring feeds to the irrigation of garden areas.

Every single maintenance principle needs to be re-evaluated:

Is it necessary?

Does it enhance biodiversity?

Is it regenerative?

Every single input needs to be re-evaluated:

Is it necessary?

What is its environmental impact?

How does it impact on the lives of those in the supply chain?

This process will uncover inconvenient truths. Conventional thinking will be challenged. Scientific principles will be applied. Best practice will be developed.

This book is not intended to be the new rule book, for there are few universal rules that hold true in all gardens and in all situations. Rather this book has been written to be a map, to guide and to be a critical friend to challenge.

Containers have high environmental footprints, requiring manufacture, transport, growing media, feed and water.

Key garden-management principles will be considered. Concepts of ecological garden-management principles will be discussed, along with triggers for both minor and major interventions. These will include operational decisions, for example the management of specific plant health risks. Or strategic decisions, such as the replacement of clusters of pots and containers to reduce the garden's water footprint, or the strategic movement away from short-term plantings to reduce the plastic, peat, water and carbon footprint of the garden.

Rethinking points of intervention is a critical skill for the sustainable gardener. Every action, every maintenance decision, has an impact that is far wider and more profound than might at first be thought. The removal of a weed may deny a pollinator a vital food source. The removal of a dead tree may deny habitat to bats and wild birds. This cause and effect was recognised by John Muir, the father of modern conservation, who stated: 'When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.'

Plantings of perennials grown in border soil can be used to reduce water and growing media usage.

What is Sustainability?

It is always useful to define terms. Sustainability is no exception. Sadly, the term sustainable is often over-used as a marketing term. 'Sustainable' is often added as if it is a seasoning before almost any product. Marketeers tempt consumers with 'new sustainable tumble driers' or our 'sustainable burgers'. The question remains: what is it about these products that makes them sustainable? The roots of sustainability lie in social justice, conservation and internationalism. In 1983 the United Nations invited the former Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, to run the New World Commission on Environment and Development. One of the key findings was that economic development at the cost of ecological health and social equity did not lead to long-lasting prosperity. When the New World Commission on Environment and Development finally reported its findings, it defined sustainable development as:

Aphids are an important part of the garden food web. Lacewings, ladybirds, rove beetles, predatory midges, parasitoid wasps and wild birds use aphids as a food source. When we remove aphids, we find them connected to everything else in the universe, to paraphrase John Muir.

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This concept can be restated to apply directly to the field of garden management:

To manage gardens and designed landscapes to fully meet our current needs, without compromising the ability of future generations to have the climate, the resources and the freedom to create and manage gardens that will fully meet their needs.

The application of the principles outlined in this statement requires the garden managers of today to carefully consider the potential impact of management decisions. Many gardens pump water from deep boreholes to satisfy their irrigation needs. The water extracted is referred to by water scientists as fossil water. Its use today may deny future generations of a water source. The nitrogen fertilizer used to green up lawn turf is the result of a chemical process, the Haber-Bosch Process, which turns gaseous nitrogen into nitrate, a form a nitrogen that can be taken up by plant roots. This single process releases 1.4 per cent of global carbon emissions. Neither of these activities can be regarded as being sustainable, and so it is necessary to rethink their use. Reducing the water footprint of a garden, or the elimination of synthetic fertilizers, has profound impacts on the management of gardens. Alternative approaches need to be identified and evaluated, and the least worst option selected.

Sustainability has been further defined to include a series of pillars that uphold the core principles stated above.

Sustainability: People, Plants, Planet

The social pillar holds up or promotes concepts of fairness and respect. This includes concepts such as gender equality, gender pay gaps, human rights, the prevention of human slavery, along with striving to reduce social inequalities. This includes combating discrimination and promoting social inclusion. A further aspect of this pillar is the promotion of well-being.

The second pillar is the economic pillar, which is defined as the promotion of responsible sourcing of product, recycling of product and the sourcing of renewable raw materials. It includes the concept of fair pay and the use of renewable energy sources.

The third pillar is environmental. The key principles here are that natural habitats should be preserved, carbon and water footprint reduced, and waste properly managed.

With regard to the first pillar, the role that gardens have in promoting wellness is now widely documented. Mind, the UK mental health charity, published research claiming that over 7 million people report their mental health as benefiting from taking up gardening for the first time during the Covid-19 lockdowns. For many people, gardens became sanctuaries; the very act of gardening became important in the relief of stress and the promotion of mental health. The significant impacts of green spaces on human health have been widely documented in many studies. A consistent finding is that people benefit from being in the presence of plants. These benefits manifest as reduced stress levels, and improved mental health and well-being. Other studies have shown that increasing green infrastructure reduces anti-social behaviour. New initiatives such as green...