Editing Garden (section)

==Environmental impact==
{{main|Sustainable gardening|Sustainable landscaping}}
Gardeners may cause environmental damage by the way they garden, or they may enhance their local environment.
Damage by gardeners can include direct [[Habitat destruction|destruction of natural habitats]] when houses and gardens are created; indirect [[habitat destruction]] and damage to provide garden materials such as [[peat]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=Higgins |first1=Adrian |title=Is this popular gardening material bad for the planet? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/should-sustainable-gardeners-use-peat-moss/2017/05/09/1fc746f0-3118-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=29 August 2022}}</ref> rock for rock gardens,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lindenmayer |first1=David |last2=Claridge |first2=Andrew |title=Wildlife on Farms: How to Conserve Native Animals |year=2003 |isbn=9780643068667 |page=25 |publisher=Csiro |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rFDuRUdn6S4C |access-date=29 August 2022}}</ref> and by the use of tapwater to [[Irrigation|irrigate]] gardens; the death of living beings in the garden itself, such as the killing not only of [[slug]]s and [[snail]]s but also their predators such as [[hedgehog]]s and [[song thrush]]es by [[metaldehyde]] slug killer; the death of living beings outside the garden, such as local species extinction by indiscriminate [[Plant collecting|plant collectors]]; and [[climate change]] caused by [[greenhouse gas]]es produced by gardening.

===Climate change===
Gardeners can help to prevent climate change in many ways, including the use of trees, shrubs, [[Ground cover|ground cover plants]] and other perennial plants in their gardens, turning garden waste into [[soil organic matter]] instead of burning it, keeping soil and compost heaps aerated, avoiding peat, switching from power tools to hand tools or changing their garden design so that power tools are not needed, and using [[Nitrogen-fixing#Root nodule symbioses|nitrogen-fixing]] plants instead of nitrogen fertiliser.<ref name="David S.Ingram, Daphne Vince-Prue and Peter J. Gregory (2008)">{{cite book|editor1-last=Ingram|editor1-first=David S.|editor2-last=Vince-Prue|editor2-first=Daphne|editor3-last=Gregory|editor3-first=Peter J.|title=Science and the Garden: The scientific basis of horticultural practice|year=2008|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford|isbn=978-1-4051-6063-6}}</ref>

Climate change will have many impacts on gardens; some studies suggest most of them will be negative.<ref name="Bisgrove and Hadley (2002)">{{Cite report |last1=Bisgrove |first1=R. |last2=Hadley |first2=P. |date=2002 |title=Gardening in the global greenhouse: the impacts of climate change on gardens in the UK. |s2cid=127801132 |language=en}}</ref> Gardens also contribute to climate change. Greenhouse gases can be produced by gardeners in many ways. The three main [[greenhouse gas]]es are [[carbon dioxide]], [[methane]], and [[nitrous oxide]]. Gardeners produce carbon dioxide directly by [[Tillage#Negative|overcultivating]] soil and destroying [[soil carbon]], by burning garden waste on [[Bonfire#Farm and garden bonfires|bonfires]], by using power tools which burn [[fossil fuel]] or use electricity generated by [[fossil fuels]], and by using [[peat]]. Gardeners produce methane by compacting the soil and making it anaerobic, and by allowing their [[compost heap]]s to become compacted and anaerobic. Gardeners produce nitrous oxide by applying excess [[Fertilizer#Inorganic fertilizers (mineral fertilizer)|nitrogen fertiliser]] when plants are not actively growing so that the nitrogen in the fertiliser is converted by [[Nitrous oxide#Soil|soil bacteria]] to nitrous oxide.