Why is Gardening Important for the Environment?

Gardening provides numerous health, food security, environmental stewardship and social cohesion benefits to health, food security, environmental stewardship and social cohesion. Gardeners can reduce water consumption and carbon emissions; increase biodiversity; build resilient communities.

Implementing sustainable gardening techniques such as using rainwater for gardening purposes, mulching, reducing fertilizer and herbicide usage and adopting no-till techniques are all ways of creating an ecofriendly garden space that promotes biodiversity within urban environments and can even contribute to protecting endangered species by creating diverse microhabitats in urban environments.

Soil

Soil is an organic substance made up of minerals derived from weathered or decomposed bedrock that acts as a medium for plant growth, habitat for animals and recyclers of nutrients, purification of water supplies and storage of carbon.

Soils are full of life. Millions of bacteria and fungi reside within just one teaspoon! Together they create an intricate ecosystem which interacts with plant roots by breaking down organic material to release essential nutrients into the environment for uptake by plants. Furthermore, bacteria play an essential role in turning atmospheric nitrogen into forms that plants can use.

Reducing soil disturbance will benefit the microbes that make up your garden’s food web and aiding its resilience. Tilling can disrupt mycorrhizal networks and interfere with natural soil structure; low-dig planting techniques should be utilized and fall cover crops may also help.

Water

Home gardens provide food security and nutrition while decreasing carbon emissions and supporting biodiversity conservation and sustainable land use.

Gardening is an engaging physical activity with low risks and intensity levels that helps build strength, balance, and flexibility while simultaneously burning up to four times as many calories than walking at a moderate pace.

Gardening practices such as mulching, no-tillage sowing vegetables away from roads and no-till gardening help reduce soil contamination with metals and organic pollutants such as PAHs while also helping capture and store atmospheric carbon into the soil. Furthermore, decreasing fertilizers and agrichemical use reduces GHG emissions while composting or mulching used leaves, grass clippings or woody garden waste reduces methane emissions significantly.

Air

Home gardening makes an important contribution to sustainable development goals, such as wellbeing and health (Helena Moreira), nutrition and food security (Alfredo Aires), carbon footprint reduction and biodiversity preservation (Mario Santo).

Digging in the dirt releases endorphins that boost your mood and relieve stress, as well as strengthening your hands, muscles, and even helping prevent arthritis. Gardening offers an alternative form of exercise perfect for people with physical limitations – studies have found that gardening for 120 minutes each week was associated with increased handgrip strength and improved physical fitness [202].

Urban and suburban gardens present gardeners with chemicals such as pesticides and heavy metals that could endanger their health, so it is vital that when working in the garden it is done wearing protective gloves and keeping up-to-date on tetanus vaccinations.

Plants

Gardening covers an expansive spectrum of activities, from cultivating small plots to managing sprawling ornamental landscapes. Gardening can bring together communities or families for shared learning and growth experiences.

Cultivating plants provides an enjoyable form of natural stress-reduction and mental wellbeing promotion. Gardening activities, such as digging, planting and weeding provide moderate exercise that increases heart rate, metabolism and strength.

Gardeners tend to consume fresh produce they’ve grown themselves, which provides children with essential vitamins and minerals they may otherwise not receive from other sources. Gardening also encourages kids to become more adventurous eaters by providing an opportunity to experiment with new flavors. Finally, early exposure to dirt has been linked with decreased allergies and autoimmune disease later on.

Wildlife

Gardening with native plants and restoring biodiversity in your garden helps wildlife to flourish. All wildlife needs four essential resources for survival: food, water, shelter and space to breed or raise young – gardeners can provide these in an organic garden without using harmful fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides that may harm wildlife and pollinators alike.

Home gardens play an increasingly vital role in nature conservation. If designed, managed, and scaled properly, gardens can act as conservation islands within more intensive agroecosystems by supporting wild species and habitats; helping reduce food miles and carbon emissions; as well as offering numerous ecosystem services (soil protection/nutrient cycling/regulating water supplies/sequestering carbon in the ground etc) [214]. Especially prolific are garden ponds in these terms – providing high productivity landscape features which attract birds, amphibians/amphibians/insects/mollusks as well as plants (e.g. herbs) [153]. Garden ponds offer great biodiversity opportunities [157-160].