Cool Your Home Naturally with Creative Landscaping

Landscaping is a natural and beautiful way to shade your home and block the sun. A well-placed tree, bush, or vine can deliver effective shade and add to the aesthetic value of your property. When designing your landscaping, use plants native to your area that survive with minimal care. Trees that lose their leaves in the fall (i.e., deciduous) help cut cooling energy costs the most. when selectively placed around a house, they provide excellent protection from the summer sun and permit winter sunlight to reach and warm your house. The height, growth rate, branch spread, and shape are all factors to consider in choosing a tree. Vines are a quick way to provide shading and cooling. Grown on trellises, vines can shade windows or the whole side of a house. Ask your local nursery which vine is best suited to your climate and needs.

Besides providing shade, trees and vines create a cool microclimate that dramatically reduces the temperature (by as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit or 5 degrees Celsius) in the surrounding area. During photosynthesis, large amounts of water vapor escape through the leaves, cooling the passing air. and the generally dark and coarse leaves absorb solar radiation. You might also consider low ground cover such as grass, small plants, and bushes. A grass-covered lawn is usually 10 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) cooler than bare ground in the summer. If you are in an arid or semiarid climate, consider native ground covers that require little water.

Planning Your Planting

Placement of vegetation is important when landscaping your home. The following are suggestions to help you gain the most from vegetation.

• Plant trees on the northeast-southeast and the northwest-southwest sides of your house. Unless you live in a climate where it is hot year-round, do not plant trees directly to the south. Even the bare branches of mature deciduous trees can significantly reduce the amount of sun reaching your house in the winter.
  
  
• Plant trees and shrubs so they can direct breezes. Do not place a dense line of evergreen trees where they will block the flow of cool air around or through them.
  
  
• Set trellises away from your house to allow air to circulate and keep the vines from attaching to your house's facade and damaging its exterior. Placing vegetation too close to your house can trap heat and make the air around your house even warmer.
  
  
• Do not plant trees or large bushes where their roots can damage septic tanks, sewer lines, underground wires, or your house's foundation.
  
  
• Make sure the plants you choose can withstand local weather extremes.
  

Source:
U.S. Department of Energy

Environmentally-Friendly Landscaping Tips

The largest component of most home landscapes in this country is the lawn. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that there are more than 20 million acres (or 32,000 square miles) of cultivated lawn in the United States, covering more land than any other single crop. Statistics outlined in the book, Redesigning the American Lawn, show that our current lawn practices must better balance our need for lawns and our need for a healthy environment:

• A lawn mower pollutes as much in one hour as does driving an automobile for 350 miles.
  
  
• 30 to 60% of urban fresh water is used for watering lawns.
  
  
• $5,250,000,000 (that’s Billion!) is spent on fossil fuel-derived fertilizers for U.S. lawns.
  

There Must Be a Better Way

There are better ways to maintain our landscapes. Below is a list of ideas that can reduce the air, noise, and water pollution generated by our traditional maintenance activities, and reduce the amount of time you will need to spend in your yard to keep it healthy.

1. Limit disturbance of existing native vegetation.

If you have naturally occurring native vegetation on your property, protect it! It takes a lot of time, effort and money to recreate what nature has already provided. If you are planning to build a new home, make sure the amount of space cleared for home construction is just the minimum necessary. Also make sure that as many existing trees as possible are protected during construction.

2. Use Well-Adapted Native Species.

One benefit in using native plants is that, once they are established, they do not require a lot of maintenance. This is because they are adapted to our local climate and soil conditions. This means fewer or no fertilizer and pesticide applications, less watering, and less time dealing with plant problems!

3. Reduce storm water runoff.

Beautiful landscape features can be added to your yard and improve the quality of our surface waters at the same time by capturing storm water off your roof. If your downspouts are connected to an underground drain, you can disconnect them and direct the storm water away from your house into a rain garden or dry stream bed constructed out of cobble stones. This is good for our streams because it reduces the velocity at which the rainwater enters the stream bed, protecting its banks and wildlife habitat. You can also put rain barrels at the bottom of your downspouts and use this water to irrigate your flower gardens and lawn. (Note: Water from your roof may pick up pollutants and other impurities that you may not want on your vegetable garden!)

Another way to reduce runoff is to increase the ground’s infiltration capability. Water filtered through your soil will be cleaner than water that goes directly from your roof or driveway to a wetland or stream. Infiltration also recharges ground water, which in many regions is the source of drinking water. A lawn absorbs 10% of the amount of storm water that a woodland can absorb. Reducing the amount of lawn and replacing it with garden beds rich in native plant species will increase infiltration.

4. Plant Lawn Alternatives.

Much of the bad news about current landscape practices is due to lawns. Most turf grasses used today are exotic species that require a lot of pampering to look good. Long-term, low maintenance lawn alternatives include Buffalo Grass (Buchloe dactyloides), Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pensylvanica) and Wild Strawberry (Fragraria virginiana).

Also, some native plant companies sell a “no mow” lawn mix that reduces the need for constant mowing and fertilizing. These are all low growing plants that can tolerate
some foot traffic.

Another popular alternative is replacing lawn with a meadow of prairie plants, where these plants are native to the region. This is a great option for those with large properties and lots to mow. The tall grasses and wildflowers will not give you the active recreation space your turf grass did, but it will provide hours of entertainment as you and your family watch the plants change, and the insects, butterflies and birds visit your yard.

5. Compost and Mulch.

These activities recycle the nutrients in your garden and make it self-sustaining. Composting has many benefits. It reduces the amount of organic material in our landfills (currently, 20% of our landfills are made up of grass clippings and leaves!) Composting and mulching with organic material returns important nutrients to the soil, helps conserve water, controls soil erosion and reduces the number of weeds in the lawn.

6. Better Lawn Practices.

For the lawn that remains in your yard, here are some tips that will keep it greener, healthier and weed free.

• Keep your lawn at least 3” tall. Taller blades of grass shade out weeds, help the grass plants resist drought, cool the ground and inhibit the evaporation of water from the soil. Keeping the lawn taller also makes it more disease and insect resistant. If you have a small lawn, consider a reel-type push mower.
  
  
• Mulch your lawn with clippings. Don’t remove the clippings from your lawn. They are made mostly of water and will decompose quickly. Mulching mowers speed this process by cutting the clippings into small pieces.
  
  
• Reduce the use of fertilizers. Before you fertilize, get the soil in your lawn tested. This is an easy process that can usually be done for a nominal charge through your local Cooperative Extension office. If you need to fertilize, most lawns only need it twice a year: once in late spring and once in the fall. Instead of using synthetic fertilizers, use organic, slow-release formulations. The slow-release fertilizers work over a long period of time and encourage more moderate growth, which requires less mowing.
  
  
• Reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides. If your lawn is healthy, you will have few problems with insects. If you discover an insect problem, first identify what it is, and the extent of the problem. If it is a minor one, concentrate on improving the health of your turf and try to tolerate a few imperfect areas. If the problem demands more attention, research Integrated Pest Management techniques through your local Cooperative Extension service. These techniques combine prevention and ecologically-sensitive solutions to plant problems. If your only recourse is a pesticide, make sure you choose one appropriate for the problem, and use it according to directions during the insect’s most vulnerable life stage.
  
  
• Reduce watering. It is not widely known that a lawn can go dormant during a dry spell, and then green right back up when it rains. But, if you can’t tolerate even a little brown in your lawn, follow these tips to reduce watering:
  
  1. Water in the early morning or evening to minimize water loss through evaporation.
  
  2. Water your lawn deeply, and less frequently.
  
  3. Be sure to keep the water on the lawn, and not on hard surfaces like the driveway. Chop up fallen leaves in your yard with the lawn mower and leave in place or add to the compost pile.
  
  

Source:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Benefits of Landscaping with Native Plants

If you haven’t worked with native plants before, you may be wondering how natives are different than daylilies or hostas. The following information answers these questions and explains why using at least some natives in your garden can be beneficial to the environment.

What are native plants?

Native plants are the trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, ferns and other plants that have evolved in a particular area over thousands of years. In the United States, “native” plants existed here before European settlement. Over this long period of time, the plants have adapted to the particular growing conditions present here, including temperature, rainfall, winds, soils, slopes and wildlife.

Without our native plants, we would lose many of the places that renew us emotionally and spiritually. We would also lose much of the natural beauty that defines our culture. Can you imagine a world without our native plants? A world without bluebonnets stretching across Texas or fields of California poppies? Without native plants, no maples or aspens would spread their colors across the mountainsides. No rambling wild roses would adorn the fencelines of the countryside. And no irises would grace the banks of our waters.

The animals we love to watch and photograph - birds, deer, bears - rely on native plants. Some, like the grizzly bear, face extinction themselves because of the loss of their native habitats and foods. Native plants benefit hunters and anglers by providing food and shelter to game animals, from ducks to fish to elk. Gardeners rely on native plants such as azaleas and rhododendrons, roses and orchids, and black-eyed susans.

Using native plants in your landscape will bring you many benefits, including the following:

• Native plants are beautiful, providing an entirely new palate of plants to a traditional landscape.
  
  
• They are well-adapted to local conditions, therefore requiring little maintenance once established. They eliminate or significantly reduce the need for fertilizers, pesticides, water and lawn maintenance equipment. They also often attract beneficial insects, which prey upon pests, decreasing the need for pesticides.
  
  
• Most native species are perennial, or self-seeding biennial plants.
  
  
• Native plants attract our native songbirds and butterflies. Just as the plants have evolved and adapted to your region over time, the local wildlife has evolved alongside them, depending on these plants for food and shelter.
  
  
• Using native plants promotes biodiversity. Planting a small meadow that once was lawn replaces one plant species with many, increasing the opportunities for beneficial wildlife and insects to live.
  
  
• Natives reduce air pollution, improve water quality and reduce soil erosion. Using native vegetation, unlike cultivated landscapes, does not require the use of lawn maintenance equipment, a major contributor to air pollution. They improve water quality by filtering contaminated stormwater, and reduce soil erosion by
  stabilizing soils with their deep root systems.
  
  
• Native plants are less expensive to maintain. Studies by the U.S. EPA show that a prairie or wetland costs approximately $150 a year per acre to maintain, while the same amount of lawn costs $1,000 per year per acre to maintain.

Sources:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. National Park Service