As human beings, we have an intrinsic need to care for someone or something. In order to fulfill that need, we do different things, like showing love and affection towards family members, caring for pets, or volunteering in our communities. Gardening is yet another way of fulfilling that personal desire, which is often overlooked. Gardening offers a fantastic opportunity to be in touch with the natural world, and appreciate other forms of life around us. Apart from appealing to your compassionate and creative side, gardening helps the environment and can also address some crucial environmental concerns. If you’re wondering how gardening helps the environment, here are 5 ways in which it can make a big impact.
- We all learnt in elementary school that plants produce oxygen for us and reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, but do we realize that plants can also help reduce our carbon footprint? Growing trees and shrubs that provide shade and cooling around your home will help reduce your electricity consumption. With more green cover, your living spaces will require less air conditioning and cooling systems, which means you are automatically minimizing your carbon footprint.
- By growing your own food, you’re not only ensuring the supply of fresh and pesticide-free produce into your kitchen but also avoiding frequent trips to markets and stores, thereby reducing your fuel consumption. Moreover, foods that are produced in other countries travel long distances through transportation modes requiring large amounts of fossil fuels, which in turn contributes to your ecological footprint. Also, when you grow your own vegetables, you are less likely to rely on dairy and meat, which benefits both your health and the environment.
- By creating a home garden, you can constantly reuse your kitchen scraps to replenish soil and vegetation. Most of the green waste from gardens, and organic waste from kitchens, usually ends up in landfills, generating greenhouses gases that warm up our planet. Instead, you can compost that waste to naturally fertilize your plants and use the litter and dried up leaves in your garden to organically replenish the top layers of soil.
- A garden is more than just a group of plants. It is a community of living beings that are interdependent on each other to grow and thrive. By growing plants, you are indirectly facilitating the creation of ecosystems that are crucial for the health of our environment. Bees, bugs, birds and butterflies, they all help pollinate the flowers that produce fruits and vegetables. Worms, ants and soil bacteria are great decomposers that naturally breakdown dead organic matter and supply vital nutrients to the soil. By creating and preserving these ecosystems, you are in a way protecting our planet’s biodiversity.
- Plants help prevent soil erosion. Without plants, the nutrient-rich top layers of soil get washed away by rain and strong winds. This can happen suddenly after a heavy rainfall or slowly over a period of time. It is the roots that absorb excess rainwater and prevents flooding. Without the roots from trees and plants, the soil is pretty much bare and prone to rapid erosion, which affects the long-term viability of land and sustainability of ecosystems.
With so many environmental benefits, one cannot ignore the value of a home garden. You could have a small backyard garden, a rooftop garden, a balcony garden, or a large farmhouse! Regardless of how big or small a garden you have, know that by nurturing and caring for it, you are playing a vital part in protecting our environment.
Written By: Isha Reddy