Inspired Design: Living Lightly on the Land

Environmentally responsible design principles for home and garden

perchance it ’s the optimist in me , but I feel as though we ’ve reached a tipping point with esteem to the public ’s awareness and credence of our responsibility to do something about spherical heating . Former Vice President Al Gore ’s documentary , An Inconvenient Truth , help entrap the word and piazza it squarely in the public optic . Many businesses are beginning to embrace environmental responsibility . Now it ’s our turn to check that we survive lightly — and responsibly — on our estate . We gardeners , after all , dig our hand right into the worldly concern , so we should be the first to steward it properly . Employing the survey recommendations is just a little footstep but one in the right direction .

How to reduce your home’s impact

Look south . One manner we can keep our embossment on the Earth light and clear is to use less fossil fuel by being smart about how we site our homes . If you are planning to progress a house , situate it so that it faces south , maximise sun photo in wintertime and southwest breezes in summer .

institute for tad in the good afternoon . If your household is already built , you may turn down your fuel use by planting a deciduous shade tree to the Mae West of the house to filter harsh afternoon Lord’s Day . Allow for an orbit of sunlight.a basking topographic point . in the southeast morning sun .

Protect from winter air current . Locate evergreens to the compass north to provide protective cover from severe winter winds . Ancient cultures also built accord to these principles : Feng shui masters paint a picture that a property face and drain to the Confederacy and be backed by hill or flora to the north , E , and west , with the tallest tree or high Alfred Hawthorne located to the nor'-east to guard off evil spirits that were thought to come from that direction .

How to reduce your garden’s impact

Attract wildlife . Another way to live lightly is to respect the satellite and all its inhabitants , so consider your property ’s potential as a wildlife habitat . For representative , will that dead tree podium as a perch and an insect buffet for bird . make mixed hedging with aboriginal plant to give birds and small animals intellectual nourishment and protection . peculiarly in an otherwise overly manicured residential area . Thickets and bamboo groves may also provide safe , exploratory habitats for neighborhood baby , as well as critter .

Be waterwise . Reducing water utilization will serve sustain one of Earth ’s increasingly scarce resources . utilise the right flora in the proper place to minimize the pauperism for irrigation . Selecting plants native to your area ( thus adapted to your environment ) will also reduce excess pee use while bring home the bacon the additional welfare of impart the natural landscape painting into your own small piece of the world .

pick out a unlike lawn . employ native grasses such as buffalo grass ( Buchloe dactyloidesand cvs . , USDA Hardiness Zones 3.11 ) , rather than a conventional seed mix , to create a sustainable lawn . Buffalo grass is cold hardy , drouth tolerant , and thrives from Arizona to the Dakotas . It will raise into a dense , green lawn needing minimum pee and little or no mowing .

Make your own grime . If you grow your own herbs and veg in pocket-sized kick upstairs beds , you may manipulate the soil quality from the beginning . Compost your kitchen vegetable waste and garden clippings , and occupy your raised beds with organic land , constituent compost , and earthworms to do away with the pauperism for synthetical fertilizers .

Use your own power . Using environmentally responsible maintenance equipment is another elbow room to confine your use of fossil fuel . Rather than employing a leaf electric fan , electric hedge trimmer , or riding lawn mower , get more out of alimony by raking , clipping , and pushing a Virginia reel lawn mower . You ’ll be do while saving the satellite and yourself from the noxious fumes . In Los Angeles , a new practice of law has banned the use of accelerator - powered leaf blowers because they not only are randomness polluter but also pump huge amount of carbon copy dioxide and gas fumes into the atmosphere .

Select fabric carefully . Your material option also make an impact in the world . New decking and fencing materials include recycle plastics . While I personally favor the look of sustainable hardwoods , such as ipe and mahogany , I spat the effort . One problem that I ’ve found , for example , is that recycled decking is well-nigh impossible to regenerate or repair once scuff or stained . Mulch made of reuse rubber tyre sound corking , but how good is it to pollute garden soil with a mulch that will never break down ?

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