Why Spring Cleanups Are Better For Business Then The Environment
Home gardeners who choose to do it themselves have the opportunity to make a greater, positive impact on our ecosystem then those that hire landscape companies. Read on to learn an even greater difference that gets made when you bring these tasks in house.
Landscape companies, even if they are environmentally friendly and eco-focused, make decisions that weigh out income, time and resources. The window of opportunity to do a spring clean up, late enough to not be disrupting pollinators, early enough to maximize our growing season, is small. Their aim is to please the client so they may bend their values to keep a happy customer rather then educating the client and holding to an environmental stance.
I cover the ideal time for garden cleanups here.
The company must then choose between scaling large (employees and equipment) for a short window of time, spreading the work out over a greater window of time, or rejecting clients. To further capitalize on resources many companies will offer a fall clean up. This allows them to get the bulk of work done during a slower season, reduces the effort required the following spring and allows them to charge for two visits. From a business standpoint the decision is clear.
To further maximize time, profit, and leave their costs to clients competitive, they utilize various power tools such as leaf blowers. These tools allow a more varied physical capacity of employee to perform the job. Gardening is labour intensive and physically demanding. Tools that reduce the physical demand on a person allow faster and thorough results from older or less physically-capable bodies. There are now many studies to highlight the detrimental effects of these practices in the ecosystem on both insects, plant health and human health. To forgo these tools requires more time or bodies and costs to the client then increases.
So how can we do better by the environment?
Select better plants.
Native to Southern Ontario plants will require less support and ongoing maintenance then the imported garden fixtures we are used to seeing in gardens such as boxwoods and hydrangeas. Planting understory shrubs and perennials that thrive with leaf droppings will remove the need to clean them up.
Apply permaculture practices in Urban Gardens.
Although often applied to larger properties, the basic principles of permaculture can be applied to any size space and means that the land operates as a closed system, a cycle, feeding and sustaining itself. When we don’t work with the land we create more work for ourselves, often in the form of cleanups and protection. Read more about the 12 principles of permaculture here.
Scale back on lawns.
Also falling within permaculture practices, lawns are frequently the big reason for doing spring or fall cleanups. Residents don’t want leaves to suffocate the lawn. Lawns don’t provide much, if anything back to the environment and are often the cause for much of the water, machine and chemical use in garden. I am not anti-lawn, they play a vital role in many garden designs from a practical use to a visual form, but reducing the amount of lawn is a huge win for the ecosystem.
Support companies that prioritize ecological gains over profit gains.
There are companies that practice sustainable, native focused design, chop and drop practices and a slower more hands on approach. They may not be the cheapest option on the market, but if homeowners put their money behind their values then the industry will begin to shift. An example of one such industry leader is Sean James.
Do it yourself.
Becoming acquainted with your space and prioritizing time in nature as a family is something we strongly support at Buying Thyme. When we choose to perform certain chores as a unit rather then delegating them out we build upon many values and lessons while nurturing a connection to each other. I dive more into that here.
