What can your garden do to tackle climate change? By yourself it might seem like little, but a new paper by Kelly Wittemans and colleagues shows that private gardens could make a big difference when you examine a whole region. The scientists studied Flanders, where an eighth of the land is in private gardens to see how they help combat climate change. They also found some differences in whose gardens were better for the climate, some of which were surprising.
Some of the differences won’t surprise you. Urban gardeners had a tougher task being climate-friendly due to having smaller gardens, and often with more paved surfaces. In contrast, families with children typically have fewer paved areas and more grass in their gardens. Depending on your view of society you may, or may not, be surprised to learn that wealthier isn’t always better for climate. In suburban and rural areas, neighbourhoods with higher incomes actually had gardens that were less helpful for climate adaptation.
Kelly Wittemans and colleagues got their results by examining 2.4 million gardens. Rather than spend an eternity on fieldwork, they used aerial photographs and land records to map the gardens. For each garden, they measured different features like trees, grass and paved areas. They then gave each garden a climate-friendly score, with trees and ponds scoring highest, grass in the middle, and paved areas scoring lowest. They could then combine this data with demographic data to spot patterns in how gardens varied across Flanders.
Most previous studies of gardens only looked at single cities. By examining an entire region – from cities to countryside – the researchers could see how gardens differ across these areas. Their findings suggest we need different approaches for different places. What works for improving city gardens might not help rural ones. They do have one finding that offers hope. Education makes a difference, so it is possible that sharing your gardening knowledge could help us all create greener neighbourhoods.
Wittemans, K., Dewaelheyns, V., Teerlinck, J., Heremans, S., Lange, F., Raymaekers, P., Van der Linden, S., Van Valckenborgh, J., Strosse, V., Steen, T., & Somers, B. 2024. From Gardens to Neighbourhoods: Characterizing the Climate Adaptation Contribution of the Garden Landscape in Flanders. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2024.128588 ($)
