Environmental Tips
Your Landscape - Your Environment
Treat your lawn as your personal piece of the environment. This is exactly what it is.
1. Keep your lawn in good condition. Grass holds the soil in place and helps rainwater absorb into the soil to replenish our ground water. Turfgrass is one of the best erosion-control plants.
2. Plant trees to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Each tree is a carbon bank.
3. Plant the right tree in the right place. Plant small growing trees under overhead lines. Larger growing trees need space to grow where they will pose less of a risk as they age.
4. When possible, allow leaves to decompose in mulched beds. Some groundcovers, like vinca major, appreciate the organic blanket that decomposing leaves can provide. However, be careful because some groundcovers can be suffocated if covered with a deep mat of leaves.
5. Separate your trees and lawn to help each do their best. Plant trees in the border around your backyard. Group large growing trees to purposefully slow their growth. Very large trees can actually be a hazard close to our homes; grouped trees can reduce this hazard potential.
6. Remember, grass doesn't like shade and trees do best when grass is not planted under their canopies.
7. Put flowers in your landscape where you want to draw attention or create focus. An example is the front door of your home. Use either tight beds close to the front door or pots on the front step.
8. Use mulch to create an artificial forest floor under trees. Limit mulch to three inches in depth.
9. Plant groundcovers in mulched beds unless you are covering the beds with shrubs or perennials. Groundcovers will reduce the need to replenish mulch on an annual basis.
10. Design your landscape to reduce edging. One way of doing this is to start mulched borders at the fence line and bring the borders in from there. Do not make borders any wider than you have plants to cover.
11. Mowers are somewhat polluting. Mow your lawn quickly, then shut the mower off. Keep the blade sharp for more efficient mowing. Also, keep grass removed from the underside of the mower deck. Pam sprayed under the deck after cleaning will help prevent grass from building up.
12. Return grass clippings to your lawn. This works if you have little thatch in your lawn and you mow frequently. When grass is actively growing, mow every 4 to 7 days. The rest of the year, mow weekly. When you mow frequently, a side discharge mower works as well as a mulching mower and uses less fuel, consequently it is less polluting.
13. Plant protection products such as Merit can reduce costly turf damage. This can save you the expense of reseeding in the fall. You will save on both the cost of seeding and watering.
14. To reduce water usage, group low water requiring plants together and high watering plants together. Water according to needs.