The Power of Compounding on Your Yard

I recently wrote about the importance of making a commitment to regularly planting and/or gardening.  As with developing any habit, it takes consistent, recurring effort to form a new habit and make it stick.  Over time, the effort required decreases as the habit becomes a more natural, automatic part of your schedule.  In regard to planting, each addition to your yard makes the next one easier because it becomes a routine habit, knowledge and experience is gained with each planting, and because each plant helps to create better conditions for the next plant to survive and thrive.

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Commentary:

Compounding is a concept typically encountered in relation to a 401(k), retirement account, or investing in general. Per Investopedia compounding is defiined as:

• The ability of an asset to generate earnings, which are then reinvested in order to generate their own earnings. In other words, compounding refers to generating earnings from previous earnings. 

Basically, if you take the interest, dividends, or other earnings of an investment and invest them, your return will grow more and more quickly, as you are earning money not just on the money you contributed but also on the earnings that money generated (earnings on earnings). This idea is the basic premise behind most retirement planning today.  Here's a graphic representation of the idea of compounding.

The concept of compounding equally applies to creating a healthy, flourishing environment in your yard.  If you start with a yard that is nothing but pavement, it's going to be pretty hard to get the first plant to grow.  However, if you can get one plant established, the next plant will be able to benefit from a host of ways the first plant improves growing conditions, including:

1. Quieter environment
1. May promote growth and presence of pollinators and seed disbursing animals
2. Improved usage of water resources present
1. Denser vegetation encourages more dew to form
2. Plants can also benefit from transpiration of nearby plants 
3. Increased soil quality through decomposition of leaves, berries, etc.
4. Habitat for birds, bugs, insects, etc.
1. Provide pollination, seed dispersion, source of fertilizer
5. Increased shade and protection from strong sun
6. Improved air quality

Essentially, these improvements to the conditions in your yard are the 'earnings' on your initial investment and can be 'reinvested' in additional plants.  This reinvestment occurs through the lower input costs required (fertilizer, physical effort, water) the new plants require and the higher 'returns' (growth rate, health of plants) possible.  Lower costs and higher returns both lead to an increase in the growth of the investment made.

These benefits impact not only your yard, but also your neighbors, city, and larger region. Although we apply many lines to the world - property lots, city limits, county and state borders, etc. our actions easily cross these borders and impact those on the other side of them.  This is readily seen on a large scale here in San Diego where there are regular beach closures (more than half the year, 239 days, in 2010) in the southern part of the county primarily due to polluted water entering the ocean from Tijuana, Mexico.  

On a smaller scale, I often find disoriented dying bees on my driveway and yard.  Most likely these bees have been sprayed with a poison by someone nearby and then found their way to my yard.  Decreasing the bee population, and the beneficial effects they provide as pollinators, harms my yard and plants.  More importantly to me, I also worry that whatever was sprayed on the bees may drifting into my garden, patio, yard, etc. where it may directly impact my health.  Actions like this also decrease the returns I can realize on my investment in my yard and garden.

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Suggested Action Steps:

1. Make a regular commitment to adding plants to your yard or garden
2. Consider the plants already in your yard when selecting new plantings
1. For example, if you have a shade producing tree find part shade plants to install below, or climbing vines to climb the trunk and branches
3. Enjoy the quieter, more enjoyable yard you've created and the returns on your investment

My neighbor's yard - first plant is going to have a tough time (if it ever happens).

Part of my backyard - not great, but getting better. (Which yard do you think a new planting would do better in?)

Lawn Mowers + Air Quality

A gasoline-powered lawn mower running for an hour emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time.

- Union of Concerned Scientists 

Over 17 million gallons of fuel, mostly gasoline, are spilled each year while refueling lawn equipment.  That's more than the entire amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez spill.

- Environmental Protection Agency

Garden equpiment engines create about 5% of the nation's air pollution and a good deal more in metropolitan areas.

- Environmental Protection Agency

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Summer is upon us, which brings to mind thoughts of fireworks, grills, and mowing the yard.  As with many other American youth in the bucolic lands of rural or suburban America one of my first 'jobs' was mowing our yard during the summertime.  Usually a chore I tried to avoid, but also occasionally enjoyed, a field of emerald green grass is a vision almost as classically American as an apple pie fresh out of the oven or a white picket fence.  I enjoy working in the yard and garden but was surprised to learn how detrimental some of the tools we use are to our environment, despite the seemingly pristine yard they can help to create.

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Commentary:

The standard gas-powered lawn mower creates a disproportionately high amount of air pollutants for their size, compared to cars.  I was surprised by the figures at top - I would not have expected lawn mowers to produce 5% of our national air pollution.  Thinking of air pollution brings to mind images of freeways, large trucks, and large boats - not lawn mowers.  Air pollution is of specific concern to me because although San Diego is known as a beautiful place with gorgeous weather it is also regularly ranked as having some of the worst air quality in the nation.  In a recent study by the American Lung Association San Diego was ranked in the worst 20 cities in the nation for both ozone and short-term particle pollution.  

I use an old school 'reel-style' push mower (pictured at right).  It works well for me, although I have a small yard.  If you have a larger yard there are rechargeable mowers available on the market today that are much more powerful than the plug-in types of yesteryear.  In San Diego there is an annual event where you can trade in your old mower for a greatly discounted electric mower.  This year's event was last Saturday, May 19, but you can put it on your calendar for next year or keep an eye out for specials at local retailers for the Memorial Day holiday.  If you live elsewhere, check with your city to see if similar programs are available.  My mower cost less than $50 and requires very little maintenance - an occasional blade sharpening, and a little big of oiling to prevent rust.

Although electric powered tools still typically rely on fossil-fueled power stations that are detrimental to the environment, producing power in a central location and then distributing over power lines allows for better pollution control measures.  

Additionally, Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards are helping nearly every state to make their overall energy production cleaner and more environmentally friendly.  Here in California, we have a commitment to producing 33% of our energy from renewable sources by the year 2020 (following an original commitment to 20% by 2010).  For information on your state, please see the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions website and consider supporting renewable energy in your state.

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Suggested action steps:

1. If you have a grass lawn and use a gasoline powered mower, consider switching to a push or electric mower to reduce air pollutants
1. If you hire a landscaper, consider an environmentally friendly provider that uses these kinds of tools
2. Consider reducing the size your grass lawn and utilizing native plants and trees to reduce the amount of time, energy, resources, and money required to maintain your yard
3. Enjoy your summer!