What is Sustainable Gardening? My Test Case with Surprising Results

Replacing an old juniper hedge with a beautiful flowering, edible rosemary hedge that bees love is a good thing, right? In my sustainability analysis I'm surprised at my conclusions, but at peace with my decision.

Sustainability: What it is

What is meant by sustainable practices? At its core, it means taking into account the impacts of our actions on the environment, on people, and on economic concerns, so that we don't compromise the future. Deciding on whether to replace my standard- issue suburban juniper hedge with a rosemary hedge turned out to be a good test case. Here's why:

Sustainable gardening puts to use the principles of sustainability, and there is actually a document to point to for these so called Hannover Principles, also known as, a "Bill of Rights for the Planet", which are used as guidelines. They are credited to William McDonnell Architects and were developed for an  EXPO held in Hannover, Germany.

Recently I had a chance to apply these principles to my hedge replacement plan. I took a short course on  sustainable practices  through my horticultural program this summer and it was a good eye-opener that got me thinking deeper about my own approach to gardening. I have to give credit to instructor Frank Niccoli, a sustainable landscaper who teaches in my Environmental Horticulture and Design program.

My Test Case

We inherited the junipers when we bought our suburban home, and I've never found them attractive, in fact they irritate me.  They don't flower, they are prickly, and I don't like their odor. They are leftovers of gardening practices popular in the 50's and came with our house.  In contrast, rosemary is an attractive shrub with lovely sky blue to purple flowers that attract bees, has a wonderful fragrance, is useful in the kitchen and can be pruned into a hedge. It's also drought tolerant. On the surface it seems like an obvious decision to go ahead with my replacement scheme.

But I applied sustainable principles in analyzing my plan and I was surprised at my conclusions. See if you agree.

My Analysis

To remove the juniper hedge I would have to:

1. Pay someone to take out a row several feet long of these shrubs.

2. Pay to have the roots removed so that I could plant something in their place; leaving any roots means they might grow back.

3. Pay to have the waste from the shrubs be disposed of at the dump, because they cannot be used for mulch.

Additionally,

4. The energy use involved in removal and transportation to the dump are costs to the environment (pollution and use of petroleum based non-renewal energy).

5. The truckload of yard waste is needlessly adding to the landfill, which is a societal cost, since garbage keeps coming, but landfill space is limited.

The Benefits of Doing Nothing

Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing; here are the arguments for keeping the junipers:

1. The juniper shrubs have the advantage of being drought tolerant which is very important in my dry California climate.

2. There are currently no monetary or environmental costs to keeping the juniper hedge as is (I've been hand-pruning for the past several years).

My Conclusion

Sadly for my rosemary hedge fantasy, the resources required to replace the junipers with something I happen to like better far out weigh the benefits. Part of the equation is that I already have several rosemary bushes that provide herbs for my kitchen and flowers for bees. I also grow a profusion of other herbs and flowering plants that benefit my garden ecosystem.

Thinking in a New Way

“Sustainable design is not a reworking of conventional approaches, and technologies, but a fundamental change in thinking and in ways of operating–you cannot put spots on an elephant and call it a cheetah.”

- Carol Franklin, Andropogan Associates LTD.

A sustainable approach to gardening and to our lifestyles in general, means that we take a global approach to everything we do by weighing the impacts. For the gardener this means that we consider the inputs and the outputs of our home gardening practices. This simply means  that a minimum, we think carefully about the types of plants that we grow and landscape with, fertilizers we use, and what we do with garden waste.

In my test case the arguments in favor of replacing the juniper hedge with pollinator-attracting rosemary are weak when considered in the context of my particular garden.

Therefore, the junipers will live to see another day and having realized the real costs, it's a decision I can live with.

Photo: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

An American Farmer's Lament, a Poem by Hilary Hodge

Hilary Hodge, a young farmer-poet and bee-keeper, captured the struggles of the organic farmer in this compelling poem she wrote and read at the 2012 EcoFarm conference on organic and sustainable agriculture. She generously gave me permission to post it:

It’s hard to open up, to display my sad depression.

But indulge me for a while, as I share this history lesson:

During the birth of this fair nation, in 1790, just for measure,

90% of us were farmers, a new-born nation’s treasure,

And when someone went to congress then, it was a deal of sacrifice,

They had to leave their stock behind, say goodbye to beans and rice.

But now our system’s shifted: the cause for my lament,

By 1950 in this nation, we were only 10 percent,

Today we stand together, but quite alone we stand,

Today 1% are farmers across this dusty land,

As we work to give this nation, the nurture they deserve,

We are sadly undermined by the people that we serve.

There’s more paperwork than acres, more hoops than there are plants,

We fear our public policy more than aphids, more than ants,

We used to cringe at thoughts of gophers, we used to shudder at thoughts of blight,

Now it’s fear of regulations that keeps us up at night.

We pander to our buyers, tally daily what’s been spent,

We fear the strangers at our door are from the government.

We keep faith that one day congress might value things that grow,

And find a way to value farmers even much more so,

Where once we all were central, we now sit down in the back,

We hope that we can conquer, picking up the slack,

Yet they wage wars in troubled nations due to scarcity of oil,

And wash pollutants into waters from our agri-business soil.

While we give to local systems, and are stewards of the earth,

They undermine our efforts and undermine our worth,

They take our money for Monsanto through tax austerity,

But true homeland protection needs food security.

Farmers have enough to fight with, the truth of climate change,

We’ve yet to see a winter here, this weather’s very strange,

Last June our dear tomatoes were underneath the snow.

We can’t hire willing workers, who want to learn and grow,

We live in fear that regulators will come knocking at our door,

We have had to tell our neighbors we can’t sell them eggs no more.

Front-yard gardens on our streets, face the fear of fines,

Money’s being siphoned from our farms into our mines,

Our seeds are all but tainted with GMO contamination,

Our trees struggle to bear fruit from a lack of pollination,

Our bees are disappearing; our birds have all flown south,

And millions in this country have no food to feed their mouth.

The amber waves of grain, are all but gone and lost,

And it’s happened all so quickly, we can’t tally up the cost,

We give to warring nations, weapons that serve ourselves,

And we import berries for our grocers to line their winter shelves.

And we subsequently wonder why resources are gone,

Looking for new ways to pick up and carry on,

We have taken mass production to the standard of our trade,

Small farmers stand and watch, saddened and dismayed.

Our officials wonder why there are problems they can’t manage,

Are they too busy playing golf to see the awful damage?

I have a message for our nation; I’m not trying to be rude:

But when you destroy your farmers, you destroy your food.

We can no longer plant our seeds and just hope that they will grow,

Putting our last dream into the vegetables we sow,

We are facing great demise, perhaps a mass starvation,

But we care enough about our people and enough about this nation,

That we put into each gesture a prayer that it might spout,

We are a group of faith: That’s what farming is about.

And it’s not about religion but it begs a higher power,

That we’ve committed all our lives to wish upon each hour,

To put seeds into the soil, and keep our fingers crossed,

To keep growing year by year, witnessing what’s lost,

We continue planting pumpkins in a world of chocolate bars,

We see a light that shines before us, under a sky devoid of stars.

We have dirt beneath our nails and a problem on our hands,

But we are working towards solutions for the providence of lands,

And when we hold each other up, we hold the world as well,

We have come to wage our peace with the produce that we sell,

We are still the sacred backbone, it’s not broken, but it’s bent,

We are our nation’s farmers, we are the one percent.

Hilary Hodge is an organic farmer from the tiny and amazing town of North San Juan in Nevada County, California.  She graduated with a degree in English Literature, and after 7 years in social services, quit her job to return to the land.  She blogs about sustainability, sharing her passion for farming, social justice and localism.  You can read her work at her web site here.

Photo of Hilary Hodge: Stevie Ellis

Other photos: Urban Artichoke

 

Transform your garden, transform your life

About a year and a half ago we finally started transforming our front and back yards from lawn dominant to low water, native and Mediterranean climate type of plants. Another focus was creating spaces for edible plants that were safe from our much loved greyhounds.  Here are views of our lawnless front yard, which now has a planting bed for edibles and flowers (above) , and the other side of the front yard (below) is planted predominately with herbs and native plants.


We feel fortunate to live on the San Francisco Peninsula, where even though it's definitely urban, there is so much natural bounty to enjoy: backyard wildlife, gardens of various types, and easy access to locally produced food of an enormous variety. And the climate, of course, is fantastic for growing food, from vegetables and herbs, to fruit.

On these pages I'd like to share our experience turning our traditionally landscaped gardens into prolific kitchen gardens and as a bonus, creating habitat for the numerous birds, bees, lizards and other wildlife that naturally inhabits our area. I'll tell you about our favorite resources and lessons learned, and I hope to hear about yours in turn.

Here is our story as written when we participated in Common Ground's "Edible Gardens Tour" in the summer of 2009:

"When we bought our home in 2001, we inherited traditional ornamental landscaping in the front and backyards, including over 20 rose bushes. We have gradually redesigned the yards with fruit trees, vegetable and herb beds, and native and drought tolerant plants. We both grew up in households where cooking with fresh basic ingredients was the norm (Thierry immigrated from Belgium, and Patricia from Chile), and we enjoy growing a variety of vegetables and herbs organically for daily use year round. Our love of nature and a desire to maintain a thriving habitat for wildlife of all types, has also been a factor in our approach to landscaping, therefore we do not use chemical herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers.

Initially we consulted with two different landscape design firms, but ultimately decided to create our own plans. Our gardener and his crew worked with us to implement our vision by doing the preparation, drip systems, installing flagstone and crushed granite paths, and building the planter in the front yard. Thierry put his computer skills to use by drawing up the designs using Google Sketchup which provided detailed plans for the workers. We researched, acquired, and planted all of the plants, and we consider our gardens works in progress, as we make new discoveries on our favorite edibles.

The front yard features a large and very productive Meyer Lemon tree and a thriving ten year-old avocado tree nurtured from a sprouted pit from the compost pile. A planting bed constructed from “green” materials provides additional space for seasonal edibles, including a kumquat tree as a centerpiece. A spectacular stand of Matilija Poppy, and other natives have replaced a side lawn along the driveway.

We eliminated all of the lawn in the backyard (above) with the help of our two beloved greyhounds, and redesigned the yard so that it is compatible with four-legged family members while providing spaces for vegetable gardening, wildlife habitat, and an outdoor dining area under the pergola. A key feature is the raised bed planting unit we built from a ready made kit which includes a watering system, trellis, and a gate to keep the edibles safe from curious canines (below). 

Young apple and pomegranate trees have been planted, as well as herbs for the kitchen. The pergola is framed by grapevines and is the perfect spot to enjoy the diversity of birds that share the garden. The shrubbery along the backyard fence was preserved as nesting habitat for them. An organically maintained rose garden supplies food for the soul (blueberry bushes have replaced some of the roses)."