What's Your Microclimate? Can Knowing Make You Greener?

Above and beyond being an impressive term that makes you sound really savvy, your microclimate can be the key to a smarter, greener way to live, and can be used as a guide to making eco-friendly choices about everything from your landscaping to your power source. Get to know yours, and you?re well on the way to a sustainable tomorrow.

Microclimate means, in the most basic sense, the environment right around your house. Not your regional climate, which you can describe in ways like "it has four seasons," or "it?s pretty warm," but your very immediate area, which you can describe in ways like "here?s the part with all the anthills," or "this patch of the backyard gets the most sun in the mornings."

The more you really know about where you are, the better you?ll be able to capitalize on your spot?s unique strengths, making eco-choices that blend seamlessly and harmoniously into your surroundings. For example, you can place solar panels that work particularly well with the sunlight patterns on your property, choose eco-friendly siding built to last in your natural rain environment, select native plants that will thrive in shady or bright spots, or pop a wind turbine right in the sweet spot in your yard where it can tackle the strongest breeze. If you?re building a new home, talk with your green architect about how to place the structure to capitalize on your microclimate?s advantages. If your house is already standing, you can work around it, and reduce your energy usage by gently altering your microclimate by installing cooling pools or gardens, or keeping trees pruned to let as much warming sunlight through as possible.

So, what?s the best way to get to know your microclimate? Basically, spend time there, and notice what?s happening. That?s right: go outside. Not just this once, either! Go outside on a regular basis, and pay attention to what?s happening in your microclimate over the course of the day, the week, the month, the season, even the whole year. Try keeping a journal and jotting down notes about what you see, or grab your camera and snap some photos that will help you track details and changes, like where moss is sprouting up in a wet area, or when you?re getting a lot of bird feeder action because of seasonal migration patterns.

This post was inspired by Planet Green?s show World?s Greenest Homes.