Garden

Curious about PlantHealthBC accreditations?

A province-wide program for eco-friendly garden care.

By Carmen Spagnola /

Credit: PlantHealthBC

What a PlantHealthBC accreditation means for a healthy environment

PlantHealthBC is a province-wide program designed to help gardeners choose local, environmentally aware landscape maintenance, tree, and lawn care companies. At the core is a training and accreditation program designed to help landscape professionals knowledgeably offer the most environmentally sound approaches to managing serious pests in your garden and landscape.

Pictured above: The Boundary Bay Earthwise Garden received an honourable mention from the BC Landscape & Nursery Association’s Environmental Stewardship Awards program. Earthwise transformed a historic but dilapidated farm into a welcoming and accessible public garden to demonstrate ecologically-friendly gardening, design, plant use and maintenance techniques.

Plant health is the foundation of successful, sustainable management of insects, weeds, and diseases. Landscape maintenance, tree and lawn care companies, which are accredited through PlantHealthBC, can utilize this knowledge to help you maintain healthy landscapes. Proper selection and placement of trees and plants, appropriate and timely pruning, maintenance of soil health, use of beneficial insects, and environmentally sound and/or organic pest management tools and materials are some of the ways accredited companies prefer to approach pest management. Many use only non-chemical means.

What you can do?

You can do your part to ensure a healthy environment by requesting that your landscape professional become PlantHealthBC accredited, or by seeking a professional who is accredited. For all the details, visit www.PlantHealthBC.ca.

2010 Healthy Garden Guide

More on sustainable gardening >

What does accreditation mean for you?

PlantHealthBC grants accreditation to companies that commit to a demanding Code of Ethics and Standard of Practice and each accredited company is audited annually to help it maintain these standards. Regular skills upgrades are required to ensure you access the most up-to-date, environmentally sound and effective practices.

Who is behind PlantHealthBC?

The BC Landscape & Nursery Association initiated PlantHealthBC on behalf of the horticulture industry, with a steering committee of partners from municipalities, public interest and environmental groups, health authorities, First Nations, educators, and government. The program is administered by the Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, affiliated with Kwantlen Polytechnic University. PlantHealthBC has been generously funded through assistance from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC, and BCLNA’s Industry Development Council.