Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to plant a ton of big trees to sequester carbon; many urban residents don’t have the space anyway.
In that case, some small changes to your gardening practices can build
soil that will sequester carbon in your urban yard for centuries.
So, how can you turn your small space into a carbon sink?
How Does the Soil Sequester Carbon?
Carbon in soil comes from the organic matter from trees and other vegetation in varying degrees of decomposition. Soil carbon represents about 50 percent of the total carbon stored in forest systems in the United States.
Like vegetation, soils release carbon dioxide while soil microbes break down organic matter. Some soil carbon can decompose in hours or days, but most reside in soils for decades or centuries. In some conditions, carbon resides in the soil for thousands of years before fully decomposing.
Soil carbon is generally considered very stable, meaning it does not change much or quickly in response to vegetation dynamics. Exceptions are when soils are disturbed significantly, such as tilled for agriculture, soil erosion, extreme fire events, or permanent changes in certain vegetation cover types.
Soil Aggregation and Carbon Dioxide Storage
Soil can hold onto carbon dioxide when leaf litter and debris layers form a crust over the soil surface. This process happens every year, trapping more and more carbon over time.
Fall: the leaves fall, and plants die, creating a layer that covers the soil.
Winter: the moss grows, and mushrooms and bugs break down the new leaf layer
Spring: New growth uses the nutrients from the previous year to establish roots and grow.
Summer: the leaf layer protects the soil, fertilizes the plants, and helps hold moisture during dry periods.
Mycorrhizal fungi produce sticky compounds that facilitate soil aggregation―when tiny particles of soil clump together and shelter carbon particles inside the tiny spaces―and can transfer 15 percent more carbon back into the soil than other microbes.
Some carbon, made up mainly of plant residue and the carbon excreted by plant roots, remains in the soil only for a few days to a few years. Microbes can easily digest this “fast pool” of carbon, emitting a great deal of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.
But the “slow pool,” where carbon can remain for years to decades, is below the “fast pool.” It is composed of processed plant material, microbial residue from the fast pool, and carbon molecules protected from microbes so they can't digest them and release the carbon back into the atmosphere.
A third “stable pool,” comprised of humus—decomposed organic material, not the dip—and soil carbon that is well protected from microbes, is found three feet below the surface of the earth and can retain carbon for centuries to millennia.
So, for all intents and purposes, if carbon is captured at the surface level of the soil, it will, over time, travel down into deeper layers and become trapped for long periods. Still, it can't sink into deeper layers if not captured at the surface.
5 Ways to Make Your Soil Sequester More Carbon
There is hope if you feel like your soil is sad and dead. And a double bonus: it's free. You can bring your soil back to life without chemicals, amendments, or fertilizers.
You have to follow these 5 easy steps and watch the magic happen.
Add more biodiversity to an existing lawn by overseeding with native grass or flower seed in the fall.
Cover exposed soil with mulch or bark dust.
Leave Debris/ put grass clippings on the afflicted areas
Water less. The less you water, the fewer weeds grow.
Plant more trees, bushes, plants, mosses, etc.
We Can Help You Get Started!
Urban Rewilding can help with landscape designs, builds, and gardening services.
So, no matter what point you are at in your rewilding process, we can give you a hand. We don't use any chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides at any point. All our plants are native to the Pacific Northwest and do not need to be watered after the first year.
Landscape Design:
We're happy to give you advice, resources, and native plant landscape designs.
You can book a one-hour consultation with us at a time that is convenient for you. We will look at sun exposure, soil quality, and existing plantings to create a detailed, personalized plan to follow as you continue your rewilding process.
Landscape professionals can advise on what plants work best in which part of your yard and how to make your soil healthier. And where to source plants, seeds, and soil.
Landscape Installation
Urban Rewilding is licensed, bonded, insured, and super excited to plant native trees, bushes, shrubs, ferns, mushrooms, and moss in your urban garden!
Adding biodiversity to an urban garden creates a resilient ecosystem that supports native birds, bees, bugs, and other wildlife. It also creates the potential for healthy, sustainable, organic food production that requires no water or chemicals.
We can solve invasive species, erosion, water damage, and pollution issues with native plants.
Book a one-hour consult with a professional native plant landscaper to find out how we can fix your problems with native plants.
Gardening
Urban Rewilding aims to create beneficial native plant ecosystems in urban areas to protect vulnerable wildlife and humans from the issues that arise from dense urban areas.
Hiring us to maintain your urban yard will mean that we will add native plants from other yards wherever we never use chemicals and create lush, healthy soil, remove any overgrown or unwanted native plants, and use them in other yards! We will cultivate a healthy yard that will become part of rewilding more and more and more!!!!
Book a consultation with a gardener, or send us an email with photos, and we can get you on our regular maintenance schedule today!
We protect native plants at all costs!!!
Comments