Why does nobody talk about how community gardens can actually fight climate change

I used to think community gardens were just a nice hobby for retired folks. Then I visited one in Portland last spring, the Sunnyside garden on 45th Avenue. They have 30 plots and they've been running for 12 years now. The soil there is dark black, full of organic matter that traps carbon deep in the ground. The volunteer coordinator told me they've diverted over 2 tons of food waste from landfills just through their composting program. That food waste would have rotted and released methane, which is way worse for warming than CO2. So these little plots are actually pulling carbon down and keeping methane out of the air at the same time. Has anyone else seen real numbers on what local gardens can do for carbon storage?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin_hill2722d ago

You said the "carbon math adds up fast" but I'm not so sure it does when you look at it from a bigger angle. I mean, my neighbor has a garden and he uses a gas-powered tiller every spring that probably cancels out a lot of the good he's doing. The city trucks that bring in soil and mulch and then haul away extra stuff are burning diesel too. I'm not saying it's pointless but I think people overestimate how much carbon these small plots actually trap compared to the fossil fuels they take to run.

jessica_ross3823d ago

My neighborhood started a small garden three years ago and we already see the difference in our soil. It went from that sad gray clay to rich dark earth that holds water way better than before. We keep a log and last year our 12 plots pulled in over 400 pounds of kitchen scraps that would have gone to the dump. The carbon math adds up fast when you think about how many of these gardens could exist in empty city lots.

owens.cameron23d ago

Our block in Portland did the same thing. @jessica_ross38 we started with four plots and now have 18. We measured a 30% drop in our stormwater runoff last year. The city even gave us a small grant to add a rain barrel system. The scraps add up way faster than people think. One household alone puts out about half a pound of veggie peels and coffee grounds each day. That's 180 pounds a year from just one kitchen.