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Healthy Yard

Healthy Planet

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Three components are essential to maintain a healthy yard and, consequently, a healthy planet:

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  • Protect our water supply and create a healthy yard by Taking the Great Healthy Yard Pledge

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  • Plant native plants and create a natural habitat for pollinators

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  • Compost for organic gardening

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The Great

Healthy Yard Pledge 

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The Garden Club of America partners with The Great Healthy Yard Project. The Great Healthy Yard Project is a way you, your family, and your community can improve your water quality and contribute to the health of our families and natural environment.

 

Wait, what? Our water quality is compromised?

Pesticides from our lawns and gardens wash into our drinking water, and together with pharmaceuticals that we flush down the toilet, are the most widespread source of pollution in our drinking water. Even tiny amounts have recently been found to cause serious harm, and the exposure adds up.


Click HERE to learn how you can make a difference.

Protecting Pollinators

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Planting Native Species 

 

 

What is a pollinator?

Pollinators are bees and butterflies most notably, plus birds, bats, flies, wasps and beetles.

Pollinators are essential to our environment. The ecological service they provide is necessary for the reproduction of over 85% of the world’s flowering plants, including more than two-thirds of the world’s crop species. 

(source: The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation) 

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Why are we concerned about pollinators?

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Unfortunately, in many places, the essential service of pollination is at risk from habitat loss, pesticide use, and introduced diseases.

 

Planting species native to your local region provides a proven habitat for the pollinators because the native plants are already adapted to the local temperature and rainfall. Once established, they require less water and feeding, saving essential natural resources, time and money.

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Click HERE to learn how you can make a difference. 

Composting 

 

Why is composting vital to your yard and our planet?

  • This is the number one reason to compost: Composting is a natural climate change solution. By diverting compostable food scraps from your home to the compost pile, you prevent them from going to a landfill where, because the landfill doesn’t get “turned” like a compost pile, they emit methane, a greenhouse gas, a major contributor to climate change. For more information: Does Composting Contribute to Climate Change?

  • One last reason to compost is to create your own organic fertilizer for your garden. It’s the ultimate win-win: your yard/garden and our planet benefit from this natural process.

 

Click HERE to learn how you can make a difference.

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