CO2 Absorbing Garden: Sustainability for Ohio’s Future

Go really green! A garden that helps absorb and store (sequester) carbon dioxide (CO2) is a critical, hidden key to sustainability for Ohio’s future. CO2 is one of our planet’s major greenhouse gases.

Add native plants to your yard and community to
see these improvements:

Cleaner Air

  • Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air, store it in their roots, leaves a1nd limbs, and release oxygen as a byproduct
  • Native plants aerate our soil naturally (roughly 1/3 of native plant root structure dies off every year, locking a large proportion of the carbon absorbed during the plant’s growing season underground)
  • Lawn grass roots extend down a few inches at most
  • On average, 2/3 of most plant mass is below ground. Some mature native prairie grass roots can extend downwards 10-15 feet or more
  • Native plants capture & store more carbon than lawn because of the deeper taproots
  • Current study shows short roots cause the soil temperature to rise faster, and warmer soil stores less carbon (John Harte, 2008)

Energy Reduction

  • Evergreen trees protect your home from north and west winter winds
  • Deciduous trees shade the south in summer and lose leaves so winter sun warms your home

Native plants create their own ecosystem to care for themselves limiting use of mowers, weed eaters and other gasoline powered yard care devices

Cleaner Water

  • Filter our rainwater with deep taproots (nitrates and other pollutants) – divert your downspouts into your ‘wet footed’ native plants or place them in low areas of your yard
  • Stabilize soil erosion keeps soil in the ground and out of our water
  • Roots break up clay naturally
  • Buffer ponds and waterways from pollution runoff and reduces soil erosion
  • Require fewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides than traditional lawns and gardens because they are essential for the native predators needed to put a yard into a natural balance
  • Less gasoline spilled filling mowers is washing into our stormwater

Economic Improvement

  • Drought tolerant reducing water usage
  • Less expensive to maintain than lawn (less fertilizer, pesticides, use of mowers/weed eaters, etc.)
  • Supports Ohio’s long-term income for jobs from agriculture, tourism and recreation

Greenways for Our Food Chain

  • More fire retardant, burning slower than non-native plants to protect your home
  • Adapted to Ohio’s changing weather and soil over hundreds of years
  • Create flyways for migrating species
  • Support native wildlife, the window to Ohio’s environmental health, i.e. Eagle early warning of DDT (Douglas Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home, Timber Press, 2007)

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