Gardening for Clean Air


Many thanks to my daughter Catherine S. Zimmerman, Natural Resource Specialist, Broward County (FL) Department of Planning & Environmental Protection, who pursued me with tantalizing Internet gardening and air quality links until I persuaded her to take time from her busy life and kindly co-write this article for my topic. Catherine has over the past several years introduced me to the beauties of south FL natural history and of course gardens! She and her husband are in the process of revamping their yard that includes a successful butterfly plant section.

Warning!
Reading This Article May Radically Change the Ways
You Garden and Maintain Your Yard!

Gardening is a great way to help keep the air we breathe clean while enjoying a favorite pastime. However, some of the gardening equiptment we use may negate the very efforts we wish to make to ensure positive air quality.

We nurture the plants while they help in the air-cleansing process by filtering quantities of carbon dioxide, a known air pollutant and greenhouse gas at high levels, out of the atmosphere. Grass, trees and other plants take in carbon dioxide, and utilize it in a process known as photosynthesis, in which carbohydrates necessary for plants' survival are manufactured.

Plants then release oxygen, a by-product of this carbohydrate manufacturing process, which humans and other animals need to exist, into the air. There have been many scientific studies showing correlations between superior plant growth and high levels of carbon dioxide.

On the other hand, while increased carbon dioxide might be great for plants, a continuing increase of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants is not beneficial for planet Earth as a whole. Plant scientists say that the optimal level of atmospheric carbon dioxide for plants and people is anyone's good guess. Carbon dioxide increase is still considered very important to the whole process of climate change.

A major increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide might affect many variables such as rising temperatures and redistribution of water routes. We just don't have the entire story yet. Gardening in the Global Greenhouse: The Impacts of Climate Change on Gardens in the UK, a report recently published by the British Royal Horticulture Society in cooperation with other British gardening and environmental groups, conjectures that climate change will affect millions of domestic gardens in the UK. This change could also ultimately threaten the long-term survival of some historic and public gardens and parks and their plant collections.

The copyright of the article Gardening for Clean Air in Landscape Design is owned by Georgene A. Bramlage. Permission to republish Gardening for Clean Air in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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