This is just one post in the Drought Tolerant Landscaping Category

Green “eco-friendly” gardening: small changes can equal big payoffs

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 29, 2007 at 3:28 pm

From the San Jose Mercury News:

If your lawn could talk, would it tell of wasteful midday watering or simply cough because of chemical treatments and pollution from gas-powered leaf blowers?

The greenery outside your window may not be as eco-friendly as you think. Yet small changes to your landscape can equal big payoffs in maintenance spending and environmental health.

“In the past couple of years, interest (in native plants) has really spiked,” says Stephanie Morris, a landscape architect for HLD Group, an environmentally responsible landscape architecture firm in Los Gatos. “A huge reason people are interested has to do with water conservation.”

During the past eight years she has noticed that more mainstream customers are joining the discussion on sustainable landscaping. The practice is designed to tread lightly upon the earth by incorporating techniques to conserve water and utilize materials already on site.

For instance, instead of hauling concrete to a landfill, architects can reuse it in either crushed or painted form elsewhere in the new design, Morris said. Landscaping with plants native to California can also be a significant cost saver, Morris says, because the species do not require as much water. While a typical lawn is watered about three times a week for at least 10 minutes-at minimum-an established native garden only needs to be watered once a month.