Your Garden of Eden

Create a Landscape Legacy

Green…plants…ahhh!

It is a proven fact that people live better, relax better, and heal better in the company of plants.

Now that we have arrived at the beginning of the growing season in the temperate zones, why not share a landscape listicle?

Here are some recommendations for making landscapes healthier, happier and more beautiful:

• Buy smaller plants. The nursery trade has been under a lot of pressure, with climate irregularities, pest proliferation, and economic stress. Smaller plants have a better chance of adapting and thriving, and they’re cheaper, too. Small trees look great planted in groups, like mini-forests.
• Promote diversity. A diverse garden is a resilient garden. Plants have different types of “architecture.” Some have tall, thin leaves, others are broad and flat; texture, height, and density all provide choices for habitat and cover.
• Respect soil. Stop buying peat moss and topsoil. Other landscapes, sometimes delicate ones, need to be disturbed to extract them. This releases carbon and destroys infrastructure. Make your own compost instead.
• Skip the bark mulch. When a tree falls, it releases carbon slowly. When the wood is chipped, it releases the carbon quickly. Creating mulch is an expedient way for a contractor to get a rid of a tree (and sell it), but it is a terrible practice.
• Reduce lawn areas. Unless you play badminton, you don’t need a turf lawn. Do you really want to spend every Saturday behind a lawnmower? If you insist, plant the new “eco” fescue blends that are are drought and shade tolerant. You can let it grow taller and cut it only occasionally, like before your bocce party.
• Collect water. We’re obsessed with pitching the land away from our houses and sending our precious freshwater right into storm drains. Think concave surface, dips, and valleys. You want to soak that water up. It makes for sexier landforms, too.

Aesthetic quality is directly tied to biological function. Creating beauty and surrounding ourselves with beauty is our natural inclination. What are you waiting for?