You’ve purchased your home, unpacked hundreds of boxes and created the indoor living space of your dreams. However, there is one thing standing in between you and your housewarming party – your unsightly front yard.
Landscaping can be an overwhelming part of homeownership. The overgrown grass, empty flowerbeds and overall unattractive appearance can leave you feeling stressed and not knowing where to start. What if you could create a beautiful outdoor area that is eco-friendly? What if you could have a front yard you are proud of, while helping make a difference in 2018 and decreasing your economic footprint? Great news is, you can!
Better Homes and Gardens defines green landscaping as “sustainable or eco-landscaping — is a method to design, create, and maintain your landscape to save time, money, and energy. Green landscapes nurture wildlife; reduce air, soil, and water pollution; and make healthy recreation spaces.”
Check out the wonderful tips and tricks on green landscaping and create the eco-friendly lawn of your dreams.
Fill Up Those Flower Beds
A wonderful place to start when creating a green landscaping implementation plan is to decide which flowers are best for your yard. Flowers are a wonderful addition to any outdoor living space. They hold many benefits beyond their assistance in purifying the air, maintaining healthy soil and creating oxygen. They also add color among the forest of green, increasing your curb appeal. Likewise, they can make for beautiful center pieces and gifts for family and friends. However, when making your plant selections it is important to consider which outdoor plants best fit your state/environment. Do some research to find out which plants are best suited for your region.
Goodbye Concrete
If you look around any suburban neighborhood in America, you will see driveways, sidewalks and roads of concrete. When building a driveway, path or outdoor living space, consider more sustainable and environmentally friendly materials. Avoid those warm summer afternoons when your driveway is so hot you could cook sunny side up eggs. Natural materials such as turfs, grass paving or wood are economically friendly, assist in maintaining proper water runoff and reduce heat production.
Ready, Set- Compost
Whether it be your initial landscaping or yard maintenance, an abundance of waste can occur. If you’ve ever driven past a neighbor’s house post yard-day, you’ve likely seen a beautiful yard and a curbside of black trash bags. Luckily, this can be avoided. Creating a compost is a fantastic way to reduce your contribution to America’s landfills, while also creating rich “Black Gold” soil. The best part is, this can extend way beyond the backyard. Your compost can include sawdust, flowers, dead leaves and plants, extra potting soil, fruits/vegetables, coffee grounds and grass clippings. Check out BackyardGrower’s list of 23 Ingenious DIY Compost Bin Ideas to find the perfect compost bin for your family.
Bugs Are Not Bad
While you might not want to welcome insects such as caterpillars and snails to your garden, not all bugs are bad. Insects such as ladybugs, mantis and bumblebees can provide many healthy benefits for your garden. For example, ladybugs eat mites, scales, leaf hopper, mealybugs and aphids which can be very harmful to your garden. By planting plants such as calendula, sweet alyssum, cilantro or butterfly weed, which naturally attract ladybugs, you will find yourself with a beautiful and thriving garden. You can even get a jump start by purchasing a container of ladybugs to add to your garden. These are available at many garden stores or you can order them online.
Every Drop Counts
During those sizzling summer months, you may feel the urge to turn on your sprinkler system daily to maintain your nice, lush green grass. However, every drop of water counts and overwatering can result in surface level roots which have a harder time surviving. Implementing deep root water techniques helps conserve water, create strong and healthy grass and can save you money in the long term. You use less water over a longer period. Check out Home Guide’s tips on how to develop deep roots in grass to lean more.
Create the backyard of your dreams, while feeling proud of your environmental efforts. It’s time to do a little Pinterest-ing, pull out your watering cans and shovels and head to your local nursery. You got this!
