We live in Bloor West and would like to know your recommendations for carbon absorbing plants/shrubs to plant in our back yard?
A focus on shrubs is a great approach to ensuring your garden is maximizing it’s ability to absorb carbon. An article from the Royal Horticultural Society in that the UK offers a number of considerations when planning a low-carbon garden. One of these is to ‘plant for permanence’, meaning that the more you disturb the soil ecosystems through frequent cultivation, the more you release the locked-in carbon underground. The article further notes that plants with a woody structure such as trees and shrubs lock up the most carbon.
Oher points the article makes are: to ‘design close to home’ suggesting you choose native shrubs and perennials whenever you can, rather than more demanding non-native plants and, to ‘work with your garden’ meaning to select plants with requirements that match what you can provide in your garden.
Click on the link below to read the complete article.
Planting the Low Carbon Garden
So you can achieve your objective by selecting mostly native plants that will thrive in the conditions in your garden. I’m including a link to our Gardening Guide on gardening with native shrubs where you’ll find lists of native shrubs for a variety of garden conditions.
For suggestions on native perennials to compliment your shrubs, click on the link below to access our Gardening Guide on native plants for habitant which lists the plants according to the conditions in which they thrive.
We wish you every success in planting a carbon neutral garden.