Earth Day is a day to act positively in support of our generous host, planet earth. Here in Vancouver we have a lot to be thankful for and have many opportunities to give back. There are numerous educational and fun activities planned in neighbourhoods throughout the city to mark this Earth Day as an important day that I encourage you to participate in.

In our Vancouver landscape gardens, we are never very far away from nature to remind us of it's importance in our lives. We all love having birds visit our gardens and consider their nesting spots as sacred places but do we consider where their food source is coming? What about bugs? Do we want to kill them all or can we see that they have an important role to play? How do we make sure that we consider and include nature that isn't always pretty?

North American cultural standards state: a beautiful garden is a "clean" garden. An ecologically rich garden environment can certainly be beautiful but hardly ever is clean. We shouldn't just consider the beauty of the gardens that we create as the only important element. If we include sustainable practices into our gardens we can encourage life. Composting, leaving seed heads over winter, mulching and planting diverse species into our backyard or community gardens can make a positive important to our environment. Take this Earth Day as motivation to open your mind to unconventional beauty and encourage life of many different forms into your garden environment.