Everybody's going green. Even when they're not. Green is definitely in. And it IS a nice color.
But when a company that pours pesticides and herbicides on your lawn has the word "green" in its name you know something is amiss.
I've tried to come up with a better word than "green" for what I am talking about when I use the word "green." It's not easy.
So what AM I trying to convey by the word "green?" I will try to describe what I mean by "green" and how being "green" bears upon my business.
I believe personally that there is a God who created the earth and who also created man and woman in his image. He gave man and woman the responsibility for looking after and caring for the earth, His big garden.
Now a whole lot of people who otherwise agree with me about green gardening don't accept or affirm this narrative. That's fine. But they WOULD affirm the practical truth that humankind has the ability to do great harm to the earth on the one hand, or to preserve its richness and beauty and essential character on the other.
They and I would each affirm, though perhaps for different reasons, that human beings have a massive stewardship responsibility when it comes to our planet.
To me that is the core meaning behind the word "green" - stewardship. We are stewards of the earth. And though most of us don't have the power or influence to control what happens over the whole of the earth we do have power and influence over our domain, and can impact the well being of our city and our block and our local ecosystem.
And whether we just have window boxes or containers on a balcony or patio, or small patio home, or a huge yard, if we are growing things, or managing what is growing in some way, we are gardeners. We are tenders of the earth.
I guess that is what green gardening is - gardening in a way that preserves the richness and beauty and essential character of the earth.
In fact gardening can not only preserve but actually increase the richness of the earth. It does not just preserve the earth but can also enhance its beauty and character! But gardening like everything else we are up to as human beings can also do the opposite.
Gardening can foul the air, pollute the water, poison the soil, kill the creatures of the earth, disrupt ecological balances, delete precious resources, and generally create havoc for local flora and fauna.
I don't want to garden like that...
But when a company that pours pesticides and herbicides on your lawn has the word "green" in its name you know something is amiss.
I've tried to come up with a better word than "green" for what I am talking about when I use the word "green." It's not easy.
So what AM I trying to convey by the word "green?" I will try to describe what I mean by "green" and how being "green" bears upon my business.
I believe personally that there is a God who created the earth and who also created man and woman in his image. He gave man and woman the responsibility for looking after and caring for the earth, His big garden.
Now a whole lot of people who otherwise agree with me about green gardening don't accept or affirm this narrative. That's fine. But they WOULD affirm the practical truth that humankind has the ability to do great harm to the earth on the one hand, or to preserve its richness and beauty and essential character on the other.
They and I would each affirm, though perhaps for different reasons, that human beings have a massive stewardship responsibility when it comes to our planet.
To me that is the core meaning behind the word "green" - stewardship. We are stewards of the earth. And though most of us don't have the power or influence to control what happens over the whole of the earth we do have power and influence over our domain, and can impact the well being of our city and our block and our local ecosystem.
And whether we just have window boxes or containers on a balcony or patio, or small patio home, or a huge yard, if we are growing things, or managing what is growing in some way, we are gardeners. We are tenders of the earth.
I guess that is what green gardening is - gardening in a way that preserves the richness and beauty and essential character of the earth.
In fact gardening can not only preserve but actually increase the richness of the earth. It does not just preserve the earth but can also enhance its beauty and character! But gardening like everything else we are up to as human beings can also do the opposite.
Gardening can foul the air, pollute the water, poison the soil, kill the creatures of the earth, disrupt ecological balances, delete precious resources, and generally create havoc for local flora and fauna.
I don't want to garden like that...
So, when I think of green gardening I think of gardening that does not pollute the water, poison the soil, or foul the air, but gardening that helps rather than hinders the local ecosystem of wildlife that surrounds and includes every home and yard. I think of gardening that makes the plain and ordinary more beautiful. I think of gardening that uses resources such as water wisely.
For example, good healthy soil is itself a rich and dynamic ecosystem of billions of organisms which contributes to health and well being of all the plant and animal species rooted in or living above. But all too much gardening deletes and destroys this ecosystem, which then impacts the plants which the gardeners are trying to grow (think grass), and thus also the animals that thrive therein. It is not just the overuse of poisons - the herbicides and pesticides and fungicides - that destroys soil ecosystems. It is also common practices like using blowers on bare soil or not replenishing the soil with organic material and nutrients.
It may sound like biology or ecology class using the word "ecosystem." But surrounding and including your apartment or your house and yard are thousands of other apartments, houses and yards connected by trees and hedges and lawns. The wonderful American songbirds that live here for all or part of the year depend on food from trees and plants in your yard, or even more important on insects and other invertebrate creatures that live amongst and in the soil and grass and beds.
Well, except that the huge swaths of lawn that have only one species of plant and is drenched in chemicals do not support much insect life at all. Lawns and gardens can be ecological nightmares - ecological wastelands (though very green in color).
Sometimes chemical treatments are necessary to save important or expensive or treasured plants and trees. But did you know that suburban use of herbicides and pesticides is much greater even than agricultural use per acre, and the run off is greatly detrimental to the health of lakes and streams? These chemicals are also detrimental to life in the soil, and to bees and birds and other animals that feed off organisms who live along or in the ground.
Just go to any big box hardware store gardening department. Row after row after row of chemicals. The vast majority of that stuff ends up on lawns and around houses, and much of that is carried away by rain runoff.
Gas mowers, blowers, and weed eaters put an incredible amount of noxious exhaust into the air. Exhaust from these tools, in terms of air pollution per gallon of fuel used, is way way worse than automobiles. I'm not talking here about global warming. Frankly I don't know what I think about how much the globe has actually warmed or how much carbon dioxide has had to do with it if it has. But I DO know that the inefficient burning of fossil fuels by small engines puts all kinds of awful stuff into the air, chemicals which do impact the greenhouse effect and which do contribute to acid rain and ozone depletion. And...that stuff is not good for the person with the machine breathing it in either....
I really don't know what can be done about this for large lawns other than not having large lawns, or having lawns where we tolerate various other plants in addition to the one plant .But there is a movement afoot to lessen the amount of space given lawn, and then, once made smaller to use tools that are less noxious.
Green gardening means tolerating a certain amount of loss or damage due to insects and other wildlife. Some of these insects like leaf hoppers will eat our grass at a tolerable rate. Others can do more damage. In the larger scheme of things beneficial insects and birds will usually keep the non-beneficial insects at bay.
For thousand and even millions of years plants and animals evolved together creating fascinating mutual dependencies. Most native bird life for example evolved along with the plants whose berries or seeds those birds eat. Generally native plants provide better food and safe haven than non native plants. Native plants are also adapted to the local weather and soil conditions such as our heat and sandy soil. We don't need to have only native plants around but we should have more of them.
Being a steward of one's space also means trying to keep things alive and beautiful in a healthy way under normal conditions without having to import materials from elsewhere. This is basically what is meant by a garden or space being sustainable. This means that we choose plants that do not require excessive amounts of water above and beyond what nature provides, or, that we find ways of capturing and using the overabundance of water that we are blessed to receive here in the midlands. This means that we use leaves for example to build up and enrich our soils without having to always be bringing in compost. This means that we try to recycle our our nitrogen rich grass clippings.
In my experience the key to green gardening is soil - soil that is healthy and teeming with life. If we can get that right the other things seem to take care of themselves.
So, for me, being a green gardener means participating with you as a steward of your space. I use mostly manual tools, and the ones that aren't manual are electric (yes, I know that that electricity is produced somewhere). I avoid synthetic chemicals as much as possible. I am learning and growing in the practical aspects of what green gardening means. I invite you to learn with me!
.
For example, good healthy soil is itself a rich and dynamic ecosystem of billions of organisms which contributes to health and well being of all the plant and animal species rooted in or living above. But all too much gardening deletes and destroys this ecosystem, which then impacts the plants which the gardeners are trying to grow (think grass), and thus also the animals that thrive therein. It is not just the overuse of poisons - the herbicides and pesticides and fungicides - that destroys soil ecosystems. It is also common practices like using blowers on bare soil or not replenishing the soil with organic material and nutrients.
It may sound like biology or ecology class using the word "ecosystem." But surrounding and including your apartment or your house and yard are thousands of other apartments, houses and yards connected by trees and hedges and lawns. The wonderful American songbirds that live here for all or part of the year depend on food from trees and plants in your yard, or even more important on insects and other invertebrate creatures that live amongst and in the soil and grass and beds.
Well, except that the huge swaths of lawn that have only one species of plant and is drenched in chemicals do not support much insect life at all. Lawns and gardens can be ecological nightmares - ecological wastelands (though very green in color).
Sometimes chemical treatments are necessary to save important or expensive or treasured plants and trees. But did you know that suburban use of herbicides and pesticides is much greater even than agricultural use per acre, and the run off is greatly detrimental to the health of lakes and streams? These chemicals are also detrimental to life in the soil, and to bees and birds and other animals that feed off organisms who live along or in the ground.
Just go to any big box hardware store gardening department. Row after row after row of chemicals. The vast majority of that stuff ends up on lawns and around houses, and much of that is carried away by rain runoff.
Gas mowers, blowers, and weed eaters put an incredible amount of noxious exhaust into the air. Exhaust from these tools, in terms of air pollution per gallon of fuel used, is way way worse than automobiles. I'm not talking here about global warming. Frankly I don't know what I think about how much the globe has actually warmed or how much carbon dioxide has had to do with it if it has. But I DO know that the inefficient burning of fossil fuels by small engines puts all kinds of awful stuff into the air, chemicals which do impact the greenhouse effect and which do contribute to acid rain and ozone depletion. And...that stuff is not good for the person with the machine breathing it in either....
I really don't know what can be done about this for large lawns other than not having large lawns, or having lawns where we tolerate various other plants in addition to the one plant .But there is a movement afoot to lessen the amount of space given lawn, and then, once made smaller to use tools that are less noxious.
Green gardening means tolerating a certain amount of loss or damage due to insects and other wildlife. Some of these insects like leaf hoppers will eat our grass at a tolerable rate. Others can do more damage. In the larger scheme of things beneficial insects and birds will usually keep the non-beneficial insects at bay.
For thousand and even millions of years plants and animals evolved together creating fascinating mutual dependencies. Most native bird life for example evolved along with the plants whose berries or seeds those birds eat. Generally native plants provide better food and safe haven than non native plants. Native plants are also adapted to the local weather and soil conditions such as our heat and sandy soil. We don't need to have only native plants around but we should have more of them.
Being a steward of one's space also means trying to keep things alive and beautiful in a healthy way under normal conditions without having to import materials from elsewhere. This is basically what is meant by a garden or space being sustainable. This means that we choose plants that do not require excessive amounts of water above and beyond what nature provides, or, that we find ways of capturing and using the overabundance of water that we are blessed to receive here in the midlands. This means that we use leaves for example to build up and enrich our soils without having to always be bringing in compost. This means that we try to recycle our our nitrogen rich grass clippings.
In my experience the key to green gardening is soil - soil that is healthy and teeming with life. If we can get that right the other things seem to take care of themselves.
So, for me, being a green gardener means participating with you as a steward of your space. I use mostly manual tools, and the ones that aren't manual are electric (yes, I know that that electricity is produced somewhere). I avoid synthetic chemicals as much as possible. I am learning and growing in the practical aspects of what green gardening means. I invite you to learn with me!
.
