Sustainable Gardens (CSIRO Publishing Gardening Guides)

This book is designed to reduce the environmental impact of horticulture by providing horticulturists, both amateur and professional, with a resource for making informed decisions about how they design, construct and maintain their gardens and parks.

Our gardens are a microcosm of nature; the ecological processes that go on in a garden mirror those operating on a global scale. The better we understand and quantify these cycles and processes, as they operate on both large and small scales, the more effective will be our management strategies.

The book introduces the reader to the historical context of the global, national and local environmental issues that confront us and examines the idea of sustainable living as a means of addressing these issues. It draws attention to the new discipline of sustainability science with its emphasis on environmental accounting, and how this is being applied at the global, national, country, household and individual levels to establish benchmarks, set management goals, assess trends and measure progress towards sustainability.

The contribution of parks and gardens to sustainable living is assessed by quantifying the horticultural consumption of energy, water and materials. The book also discusses how gardens can make a major contribution to a sustainable future through increased food production and a close connection with the local environment.