5 Ways to Sequester Carbon at Home

The main way we can sequester carbon at home is through biological means. We need to be creating biologically diverse environments in which the soil has minimal disturbance and the plants have maximum stability.

Biological sequestering centers around the soil and plants growing in it locking up carbon in living cycles rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. The ultimate example of this is forests which is why reforestation is such a huge part of global carbon offset efforts.

But, carbon sequestering doesn’t only work on a large scale. It’s something we can choose to do at home. In addition to lowering our carbon footprint, we can work on helping the environment by actively reducing the overall carbon in the atmosphere.

1. Put Trees Over Lawns

Perennial grasses are good at sequestering carbon and cycling it through the soil instead of putting it into the atmosphere. However, the way we maintain lawns isn’t so good for that. Instead, we should be looking to add plenty of trees to our yards because they are fantastic at carbon sequestering but don’t require mowing and other unsavory things that a luxurious lawn needs.

2. Build Soil

Building soil is a very effective way to sequester carbon. A healthy soil will be full of life (and death) that continually cycles the carbon within it. On the other hand, disturbed and bare soil will become more and more devoid of life, will lack nutrients, and will release carbon into the atmosphere. Instead, we can build soil by…

• …composting. Compost piles will take organic matter and turn it into fertile, healthy soil that can be used to grow healthy plants that will sequester even more carbon. Again, it’s a cycle that keeps excess carbon out of the air.
• …mulching. Thick layers of mulch in vegetable gardens, around trees, and in flower beds keep weeds at bay and decompose into friable, lovely soil for those plants. Instead of soil eroding or losing nutrients, it will be continually added with organic mulch.

Use Cover Crops

Growing cover crops in empty garden beds is a good way to sequester carbon. Rather than letting the beds rest empty, they can be planted beneficial crops that will keep the growth cycle in the garden going, occupying the carbon output, and ultimately helping to make the garden soil better. The cover crops are ultimately cut and left on the bed as a soil-building mulch.

3. Practice No-Till Gardening

Tilling the soil releases carbon into the atmosphere. In other words, all those huge monoculture fields being tilled up are horrible for the environment in yet one more way. Instead, we can grow no-till gardens at home, adding organic matter atop the soil and building it rather than exposing the soil to the air, destroying the microorganisms in it, and damaging the atmosphere. No-till gardening sequesters carbon.

4. Grow Perennials

Annual plants are those that grow for one season and die. Perennials grow for three years or more. The reason this matters in terms of carbon sequestering is that perennial plants absorb and trap carbon in a living organism for years whereas annual plants must be cycled through natural decomposition processes every year. While effective composting can help make good use of the corpses of annual plants, perennial plants are much more effective at sequestering carbon.

5. Create Biochar

Biochar is basically a special charcoal made from plant matter. Dry plant material is burned at high temperatures without oxygen. That material—about half of which is carbon—becomes biochar, a very stable form of carbon. It will remain intact for hundreds of years. When biochar is introduced into the soil, the carbon will stay out of the atmosphere for centuries. Meanwhile, the biochar improves the soil quality.

To sum things up, we can all be sequestering carbon at home by doing one thing: growing our own organic food, especially with trees and perennial plants. Many of the natural ways we help these organic gardens to be fertile and productive are taking carbon out of the atmosphere and putting it into the soil and living plants.

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• Planting Trees for Climate Change Does Help, But It’s Not the Only Solution
• Startup Dumps Wood in the Ocean in Revolutionary Carbon Removal Project
• How Tree Diversity Can Help Us Combat Climate Change

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