When planning your yard and garden this year, consider making it an eco-friendly landscape. Choosing eco-friendly plants and features may help to sustain your landscape for years to come, creating its own little eco-system that doesn’t require great labor or intervention to maintain.
Consider some eco-friendly choices in elements and plants for your sustainable landscape:
Choose drought-tolerant plants
Choose plants that do well with little-water to conserve this resource and reduce your carbon footprint. Use mulch to help them retain moisture and cut-down on pests. If you notice something in your landscape that requires too much attention or too much water, don’t be wary of replacing the plant for something less needy. Consider each season a learning lesson and simply seek something hardier.
Protect your property’s trees
Be vigilant about watching over the trees on your property. These add curb appeal to your overall property, but also provide oxygen, shade, and a habitat for area wildlife. Take care of trees by being careful around the roots, covering them with mulch if they happen to become exposed at any point. Limit activity, weight, and traffic on top of the area where your trees’ root systems are buried.
Reap the rewards of rain gardens
Prevent run-off with rain gardens comprised of native plants and grasses that require minimal maintenance. The idea is to plant in soil depressions that will gradually return the water back to the earth without puddles and flooding.
Compost and recycle
Make an effort to commit to composting and recycling; look for materials that can be reused and buy products made from recycled matter. Cutting down on the use of commercial fertilizers by using your own compost is a great step toward reducing your overall carbon footprint.
Be wary of invasive species
Be vigilant about detecting invasive plants when they appear in your yard or gardens. Treat these invaders like weeds as they can wreak havoc in your design and landscape, but on a much grander scheme, these plants can pose potential hazards to native plant species and do damage to the eco-system.
Aim to practice sustainability
Keep sustainability in the forefront of your mind when designing and planting your gardens and landscape. Conserve water; use sensors and simple rain barrels to preserve this precious resource. Be careful of pesticides and fertilizers; don’t contaminate run off with toxins from these additives.
It takes more than choosing the right plants to ensure sustainability. Aim to use recycled materials, conserve resources, and minimize your carbon footprint to make a universal difference.
Want some ideas to make your property eco-friendlier? Talk to the professionals at Carolina Services Grounds Division, a Commercial Landscaping and Ground Services Company in Charleston, SC. Make sustainability the goal and leave the world a bit better than you found it.
