As one walks around our estates my mind mulling over what would make a garden greener and touched by what I see I react and think. Conifers standing close to a hallway door make me think of how much electricity is used in lighting the house especially during winter months. Definitely one would advise not to plant evergreen species close to a house.

This brings up the concept that any garden is in an integrated relationship with the house, because it is the house is the site that will be expending the energy and the garden is in a subsidiary role to the house when it comes to energy expenditure. I will return to the gardens role in saving the energy of the house later but first one should look at the energy that the garden uses in itself.

1.     Lighting to illuminate the garden.

2.     Energy to power features such as water pumps, electrical machines: lawnmowers , hedge trimmers and power tools for drilling. Of course machines powered by petrol are equally or even more profligate than electric power.

3.     Choosing the correct plants to reduce carbon expenditure is important. Most garden maintenance jobs today are affected by machine so plants that require much machine attention are increasing their carbon footprint.

4.     A new aesthetic in the creation of our gardens is required. Take the building of boundaries .A solid wall is like spending all the carbon “money” in one go .( I need to find out what is the carbon footprint of one square meter of concrete wall ) It mustn’t use Portland cement –more research. What is wrong with Portland cement? It incorporates carbon in the making of the cement. How much?

5.     Recycled materials are required for hard features.

·       Hedges;

a.      Type of hedge is the most important factor. A hedge that grows aesthetically and fits into the landscape, and this is crucial, that is not going to cost too much maintenance in keeping it maintained. A| large chaemycyparis conifer hedge will take much maintenance and does not deserve a place in the low carbon garden. Whereas a beech hedge is a hedge that would fit into a low regime of carbon expenditure and some carbon uptake.

b.     Carbon in the ground rather in the air is the mantra for todays ecologically responsible gardener but like the person wandering the shore and marvelling at the sheer immensity of nature and mans miniscule effect on it but the throwing of one stone makes a difference so even one garden changing does have an effect. The dream would be to influence a whole gardening fraternity. What is the influence of our gardens on our planet ?

c.      Changing fashions or even exploring old fashioned gardens and do old style gardens carry within them the seeds of redemption for the planet.One thinks of William Robinson a great Prophet for the natural garden and a great writer.

d.     Crucial question is the rate any plant converts carbon dioxide in to plant material . Obviously the bigger a plant and the speed  rate of growth the quicker it converts carbon from the atmosphere .

e.      Some research indicates that carbon can be stored in trees upto hundreds of years and up to thousands of years in soils. Does this mean that shrubs store in terms of decades and herbaceous in years.

f.      It is important then that soil should be retained as it is of the most importance and within its structure carries the most potential in the use of carbon dioxide responsibly. As a mantra keep the carbon dioxide in the soil rather in the air. The more plants are photosynthesising the more carbon is trapped in plants and kept within the carbon cycle of plant and soil. The more a garden is planted the more the contribution it will make in trapping carbon dioxide. This is a passive garden but most gardens have a heavy carbon footprint especially in the growing season , what with lawnmowers cutting grass , blowing driveways and hedge trimmers both electrical and petrol driven and that is just the particular gardening jobs. With the new leisure ethos there is the barbecue and gas heater.

g.     Being proactive in reducing carbon dioxide one should grow vegetables as it will save buying vegetables which have a heavier carbon footprint . Burning the earths precious carbon reserves and then polluting the atmosphere is obvious global madness. It makes sense to use only the carbon that is available in our living vegetation and soil.

6 The compost heap in the garden is like a slightly arranged zone where what happens in nature happens . “Compost happens” but in a compost heap we can arrange it to happen in definite area and hopefully to happen quickly and efficiently and in the long run be fertile

and moisture retentive. It will save our peat reserves and the less compost bought in a garden centre the greater the reduction in carbon footprint of gardening. Also your own compost made in your own garden will tend to match the needs of your soil.

Make your garden proactive in using carbon not a place where you waste carbon needlessly. If you don’t have any interest in gardening it might be better to leave it go wild. This might seem like an extreme action but this could be moderated by having say the area nearest to the house neat and tidy and then have the area furthest fade away into wild garden,say a wild meadow or woodland which could be cut in late summer and then added to the compost heap. The seeds will drop to the soil thus nature recycling and will grow again the following summer.

7 The seemingly miniscule nature of the work of hands on gardener as he pulls out a few weeds to add to a compost heap in a kind of offering back to nature to feed the great carbon converters to save our planet . Here is a tree , in its very woody stem storing all that warmth and yet on the great motorways of the developed world we profligately burn up all the warmth stored over millions of years . Even now we turn to burn down our great forests which can save us from our foolhardy rush to imminent conflagration.

·       Hands on gardeners are eco warriors . The more we physically work to grow our food in our gardens we save ourselves , burning the planet plant  given food and weaning ourselves away from carnivores as much as possible