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Save water and money: naturescape your yard
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Do you know how to create a sustainable garden that conserves money and energy, is low maintenance, and protects the environment?
The answer is easy. Say goodbye to your lawn and naturescape your yard.
Naturescaping is landscaping with native plants, such as snowberry and wild ginger, which are acclimatized to our specific region. A naturescaped yard minimizes the use of water, reduces or eliminates the need for pesticides and fertilizers, and takes a lot less maintenance than a traditional lawn-dominated yard once it is established.
Native plants are used to making do with natural rainfall, so you can forget the lawn sprinklers and complicated irrigation systems. Native plants tend to be hardier as well, and more resistant to disease and pest infestation.
There are other excellent reasons to dig up your lawn and naturescape your yard. According to the Mid America Regional Council in Kansas City, each year US lawns use 67 million pounds of pesticides and take 45 percent of the urban fresh water for watering. A gas lawn mower pollutes as much in one hour as 40 automobiles being driven, and 580 million gallons of gas are used in lawn mowers each year. (See this presentation, Lawn Care for Clean Air, for more facts and figures on pollution generated by lawn maintenance.)
With no need to buy lawn care products, no weekly mowing and no prolonged watering sessions to inflate your water bill, naturescaping saves you time and money. And the native plants in your naturescaped garden will attract and protect native wildlife, such as birds, butterflies and bees, providing them with much-needed habitat.
If you want to get started with naturescaping, the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District runs free naturescaping workshops.
And there is still time to register for the district-sponsored free tour of local naturescaped yards, being held this Sunday, May 31.
So, if you have a yard, you have a choice: retain a lawn that takes more than its fair share of water, fertilizer and maintenance, or plant a low-maintenance naturescaped yard, full of birdsong, butterflies, and buzzing bees hard at work at their day job pollinating flowers.
Naturescape your yard, and let nature work for you to provide a beautiful garden that's also economical and eco-friendly.
"Naturescape in 8 steps," a guide by the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. Also, you can download this colorful poster illustrating Northwest native plants.
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- Shop for locally grown and manufactured food at farmers' markets and your local grocery store.
- Replace some of your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs).
- Skip the clothes dryer and hang dry your laundry, either on an outdoor clothesline or an indoor drying rack.
- Bring reusable bags to the market. And shop the bulk food aisle to cut down on unnecessary packaging.
- Take your own mug to your favorite coffee shop for coffee to go (Some shops even give you a discount for this).
