Smart Mowing Means Good Growing
Mowing with a power mower causes noise and pollution, and it uses fossil fuels. Mowing is dangerous. Mowing is bad. Flip to Chapter 19 to read more about the effects of mowing. In the meantime, this section provides some tips for mowing as smart and sustainably as possible. Besides watering, mowing is the other most-important lawn care practice. You should mow your lawn high and no, I don't mean under the influence . Maintaining grass at the proper height preserves plenty of leaf surface so...
Selecting plants that naturally thrive in your area
Choose varieties that are strong and well adapted to your growing conditions. Some species and even entire genera of plants are going to be weaklings, either because they're so far out of their element in your climate that they can't possibly thrive or because they've been hybridized for appearance at the expense of performance. cjABEft Make sure the backbone plants in your yard are survivors. Walk your neighborhood to see what does well and talk to local nursery staff and others who really...
Grading and drainage plans
A grading and drainage plan shows where the water goes. A simplified plan shows where to put swales long, shallow ditches and drainage systems to move, capture, and disburse the water on your property see Chapter 7 for examples of some water-harvesting systems . At the other end of the spectrum is a full-blown engineering plan that's highly detailed and that will be of considerable use to your contractor should you choose to hire one. kBEfl A good contractor often can get the grading right...
Use horticultural vinegar
Horticultural vinegar is a keen way to kill weeds without nasty chemicals. It doesn't kill every weed in the book, but it's pretty effective on many, especially the young ones. Horticultural vinegar is stronger than ordinary vinegar, so treat it with care as you would any other strong acid . Weeds sprayed with this substance often die within a couple of hours. Your yard will smell like a salad for a bit otherwise, the vinegar is environmentally benign. Some nurseries carry horticultural...
Treating special water problems
Bacterial iron slime is an organism that inhabits some water supplies. It grows inside pipes, valves, sprinklers, drip emitters, and other parts of the system. If your pipes have greenish-brown slippery stuff inside them, chances are you've been slimed. Treatment isn't easy or practical. The best thing to do is to stick with sprinklers, avoiding drip systems and mini-sprinklers, which can easily become plugged. Hard water can affect irrigation equipment, but not as often as you may think....
Keeping Lighting Environmentally Friendly
Why bother lighting your property Lighting uses energy and involves a lot of high-tech gadgetry. Certainly, you don't need to do any lighting at all. It's supposed to be dark at night that's why the sun goes down. Still, a bit of lighting can be very nice at times. Lighting used frivolously is not so good, but a fixture used to illuminate a level change and keep people from tripping is a justifiable expenditure of resources. So is lighting for security, provided that it comes on only when...
Building earthen retaining Walls
Generally speaking, using earth to hold up more earth is not the smartest thing to do. You need something stronger. Yes, you can make a low wall out of any earthen materials, but keep it 18 inches tall or less, preferably without a surcharge a slope above the wall . Refer to the earlier section Raising Earthen Garden Walls for more on creating earthen walls. One pretty amazing earth technology called superadobe really works for retaining walls, however. Visionary architect Nader Khalili...
Passive versus active water features
A passive water feature is still and pumpless, such as a lovely urn with standing water and a plant or two. Because they use no energy, passive water features are the more environmentally friendly choice they create a serene mood with no negative impacts and cost very little money. An active water feature is one that uses a pump to move water for filtration purposes or for the beauty of sound and movement of the water. The most effective filter for an active water feature is a 10-inch-deep...
Creating a bubble diagram
When you're ready to write down your landscape design ideas, make a rough sketch of your property on a sheet of paper. This rough sketch, or bubble diagram, doesn't have to be to scale at this point, but try to make it reasonably accurate. Then start writing words and phrases in appropriate locations new patio, remove tree, dog run, vegetable garden, and so on. The ideas you write down can include anything from problems, opportunities, and needs to desires and specific features you know you...
Adding an automatic irrigation controller
The busy folks at the American Water Works Association found that installing an automatic controller on a manual system increases water use by 47 percent. This statistic seems to indict controllers as being very nonsustainable. But when properly used, controllers really can save lots of water. Don't assume you need a controller. It isn't a requisite component of a good irrigation system, and there's no shame in having a manually operated system that you turn on and off yourself. Still, if you...
Exploring Lawn Alternatives
Suppose that you're ready to scrap your lawn and do something more sensible. Bravo That's a smart move, especially considering the wide of variety of low-maintenance alternatives that use much fewer resources after they're established. Everywhere you look, people are taking out their lawns and replacing them with meadows. The transformation has been described as a revolution, and it's surely one of the bright spots in modern horticulture. Instead of fertilizing and watering to make grass grow...
Controlling lawn pests Grubs bugs and other subsurface lurkers
Sometimes good conditions aren't enough to stop a problem and other times it isn't possible to optimize conditions for one reason or another. That's when you step in with some natural controls, which are available from nurseries and insectaries. The following are tips on dealing with some of the most common lawn insect pests see Figure 22-3 Grubs, armyworms, and cutworms These soil-dwelling larvae cause patches of lawn to die off and also attract varmints that dig up the lawn looking for them....
The WatershedFriendly Landscape
We all live on a watershed. The rainfall that hits your roof and land runs into the street, where it contributes to urban flooding and pollution of streams, lakes, and oceans. If you make your landscaping absorbent, the ground soaks up that good water instead of wasting it. Provide plenty of planted areas instead of just pavement, make pavement permeable see Chapter 12 , create low spots in the terrain that will soak up water see Chapter 8 , build rain gardens any planting that's irrigated by...
Nonstorage systems
The conventional landscape is often flat or mounded in shape, which causes it to spill water rather than absorb it. A water-harvesting landscape is concave bowl-shaped , with plenty of low points to hold valuable rainwater on the site and keep it out of the streets, where it can cause flooding and wash pollution into nearby bodies of water. This type of landscape is well suited to a nonstorage water-harvesting system. Nonstorage water harvesting involves making your landscape as absorbent as...
Building materials Turning one persons trash into your landscaping treasure
Your first step when trying to minimize your building material inputs is to consider how much hardscape you really need. It isn't necessary to pour a patio big enough to accommodate a wedding reception when you really just need someplace for the family to have dinner. Get into the habit of self-restraint. After deciding how much hardscape you need, determine what you already have that you can use to build it. The first place you should look for materials is in your own backyard. What you have...
Choosing a Permanent Irrigation System
After you've decided to invest in a permanent irrigation system, you have to decide what kind to get. Unfortunately, irrigation systems don't come in a nice tidy box with all the parts and instructions and special tools, as if you were buying a piece of furniture. Instead, you have to design the system to fit your particular situation, and then you have to build it from hundreds of parts gathered up from bins at the irrigation supply store. It's challenging, but anyone can do it. Your first...
The Food Forest
You eat, right Well, why not eat from your own land Growing food is easy, especially if you develop a stable food forest that uses the laws of nature to support a permanent edible ecosystem made up primarily of fruit trees and perennial plants that are durable, easy to care for, and well adapted to your climate and soil. A food forest also includes compatible animals, pollinators, water-harvesting systems, and annual food plants, such as broccoli and tomatoes. It's a complex ecosystem that...
