URBAN GROWTH
BEHOLD MORE THAN THE BEAUTY
Encouraging the natural beautification of communities across Canada is just the tip of the shovel for not-for-profit organization Communities in Bloom. The truth is so much deeper than that.
Communities in Bloom describes themselves as “focused on environmental stewardship through enhancement of green spaces.” And it’s a great place to start if you’re looking to promote these benefits in your own community. Visit communitiesinbloom.ca and find how out you can get involved.
Plants, gardens and green spaces offer far more than beauty that meets the eye. Here are a few other benefits to consider:
Curb appeal: A well-landscaped house is more valuable. With real estate prices stabilizing in the GTA, it is important to make a good first (and second) impression. What a creative garden design and a well-maintained landscape says about the house and the homeowners is that they care. Like a well-designed logo or masthead where good graphics say a lot about the standards of the company, your front yard does the same.
Tree huggers: Studies prove that well-placed, mature street trees slow traffic. Planted around your home, they can slow you down too - encouraging you to sit more, absorb their cool shade, reduce air conditioning costs, filter toxins out of rain water, slow rain run-off and generally improve the quality of life in your immediate out-of-doors. Other than that, they are nothing special.
Food: Remember, most Canadian cities were settled for their proximity to good farmland. As populations sprawled, the farm fields became backyards. It’s amazing how much you can produce in a small- to mediumsized yard: Vegetables, berries, herbs and some fruits are obvious choices. However, there are some edibles that you may overlook. For instance, crab apples, if you add enough sugar. Dandelions for salad greens or making bad-tasting wine (our opinion). There is a whole movement across the country of embracing foraging. In any case, the value of the food that your garden can produce is often overlooked.
Good bugs: Consider that 99 per cent (or so) of bugs are not invasive or measurably damaging to your garden. Good bugs are encouraged when you design native plants into our garden scheme. Even some non-natives are effective at attracting pollinating bugs and seed-foraging songbirds. Look for pollen-rich flowering plants when you shop. We need to encourage pollinators as they help produce up to 30 per cent of what we eat.
Health and wellness: We have written much in past columns about the health benefits of plants and garden activity. Here is a reminder that kids love plants and need them as a distraction from electronics. LEED building standards are teaching us that incorporating plants creates biophilia in humans. Biophilia is our attraction to other forms of life. Green plants in an office boosts productivity and helps to create a calm work environment.
Social interaction: When you see two people chatting over a fence, consider what they’re talking about. What brought them together in the first place likely had something to do with their properties, more specifically, their lawn or garden. Questions are answered about how to get the greenest lawn on the block, the earliest tomato, the biggest blossoms. Those two people having a conversation over the fence are a metaphor for the many links between neighbours. They are an essential part of community-building.
Oxygen: All the oxygen we breathe comes from the green, living world around us. Try living without them.
It is true that a hanging basket dripping with colour emotes certain feelings within us, all good. With something this good-looking, it is easy to forget that it has many attributes that extend beyond esthetics. As we enter a new season, this is a reminder that there is more to life than mere beauty. Even in the garden.