Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Environmental Leader and Innovator | Page 14

Sustainable Landscape
Management at Mount
Auburn Cemetery
By Candace Currie, Director of Planning & Sustainability
Throughout Mount Auburn’s 183 year s of
existence, one thing has remained constant: decomposition.
Every year, tons of plant matter falls upon the cemetery
grounds and becomes food for organisms large and small.
With advances in soil science, we now know that there is
a symbiotic relationship between plant roots and certain
species of soil bacteria and fungi. More comprehensive soil
testing has demonstrated improvement in Mount Auburn’s
soils—improvement that can be tied directly to changes
in our landscape maintenance habits and procedures. The
cemetery uses composting and on-site production of useful
by-products to help improve plant health and to advance
our goal of zero waste.
Transformation through Decomposition
A bench made from a fallen tree pictured above is an example of the