Gardening, planting and renewal: Carsonites can celebrate 50th Earth Day while social distancing

If there’s one thing that could be considered a positive during the mandated quarantine, it’s that nature is becoming a lot happier. From the return of dolphins in Venice, to the return of wildlife in Yosemite, and a lack of air pollution all around, Earth Day this year is certain to be a memorable one.

Our local Carson City essential home-and-garden businesses, such as Greenhouse Garden Center, Lowe’s and Home Depot, have all been very busy during the shut down as those who are stuck at home seek to fill their time with home improvement projects and garden upgrades.

Families can be seen carting out bags of soil along with baby vegetable plants and herbs, ready for Spring planting.

Any amount of gardening you can do, whether you live in an urban apartment, a suburban house, or a farm with acreage, is one step closer to self reliance and makes the earth that much happier.

Greenhouse Garden Center’s Carin Carothers, who is in charge of Special Events and Sales, said that even though social distancing is important, that doesn’t mean the outside is off limits.

“Some of the things we are looking at promoting are the same things we look at during a normal day,” said Carothers. “You can still teach your children how to plant, you can still garden or go out hiking. It’s all about sustainability and how you can help the earth. Bringing the outside into your world by planting a garden is so important for families.”

Here are five ways you can celebrate earth day while maintaining social distancing.

1. Composting

Composting should be the beginning to every gardener’s dream, as it goes hand in hand with healthy plants and reducing your carbon foot print.

Composting is the act of turning your table scraps into soil, which goes right back into feeding your plants.

According to the USDA, food waste is estimated at between 30 to 40 percent of the food supply in the U.S. The USDA and the EPA have joined together to try and reduce food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030. Composting is one way you can help the country achieve that goal.

If you live in an apartment, composting can be as easy as keeping a can full of red worms composting your table scraps. You can find an article about composting in apartments here.

If you have your own outdoor space, whether it be a side yard or an acre, there are many options for backyard composting to try. Whether you want to build your own bin, buy one from the store or simple dig a hole in the ground and put a cardboard box into it, there are endless opportunities for composting in the yard. Here’s a great article that gives five different ways to DIY your own compost bins.

2. Start your own indoor herb garden

Do you have a window in your home? Perfect! Then you can have an indoor herb garden.

A meal is not a meal without at least a few culinary herbs mixed in. And growing them is just about the easiest way to come by them! Whether its basil, rosemary, thyme, or even lavender or mint, the possibilities of an indoor herb garden are endless so long as you have enough light!

A south facing window is best to sustain, but any window will work.

Here’s an article with 14 different ways you can start your own DIY indoor herb garden.

3. Start your very own vegetable garden.

Do you eat vegetables? I sure hope that answer is yes. Did you know that vegetables taste best straight off the vine or dug out of the earth? It’s true!

That’s why you should consider starting your very own vegetable garden. Tomatoes, peppers, onions and potatoes all grow very well in our climate so long as the soil and water is balanced for them.

While seedlings are starting out, you may want to provide them with a bit of extra shade, as our dry Nevada sun is a bit hotter than other climates. I know I planted cabbage and lettuce just last week and they started to look a little crispy until I put shade covers over them, and now they’re looking much happier.

Here’s an article from the Old Farmer’s Almanac on vegetable gardening for beginners!

4. Plant pollinator friendly plants

Not ready to take the plunge into tending a garden? That’s quite alright! But something you can do to both help the environment and liven up your yard is planting pollinator friendly plants. Honey bees, butterflies and more all depend on Spring time blooms to start their season off right.

The USDA published this comprehensive study on pollinator friendly plants for Nevada.

Sunflowers, echinacea, lavender milkweed, yarrow, coyote-mint, and asters are all great Nevada-happy plants that pollinators love.

When in doubt, plant some flowers — anything is sure to help! Just resist the urge to use insecticides, which will surely kill all of the pollinators we’re so desperate to help!

5. The always classic: Plant a Tree.

Trees are incredibly important to our continued survival on earth. They create clean air and help reduce the effects of climate change. In addition, they provide necessary shade and mulch for other plants to grow!

This year, the Earth Day Network has a goal of planting 7.8 billion trees, one tree for every person on earth, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020.

You can choose a fruit tree, such as apple, cherry, or plums, which offer both blossoms for pollinators as well as fruit for your table!

You can learn more about Earth Day by visiting https://www.earthday.org