Eco-Friendly Landscaping: Why?
December 10th, 2009
Eco-friendly landscaping is defined as lawn and gardening practices that are free of chemicals, utilizes plants and flowers native to the area and accustomed to the climate and soil conditions, requires very little watering, and slows down storm water run-off. The practice of eco-friendly landscaping takes the natural habitat of an area into consideration, including plants or animals not commonly seen. These factors help to contribute to the well-being of our ecosystem and maintain a vast number of benefits for everyone.
Once you adopt an eco-friendly landscaping practice, you will find you open the door to a wide range of benefits. These benefits include those toward wildlife, health, personal satisfaction, and even monetary advantages. It is an appropriate practice for everyone, including public areas, highways, commercial us, and private residential homes. The benefits are greater when whole communities implement eco-friendly landscaping, but individual adoption can be highly rewarding as well. Above all else, natural landscaping practices lessen your carbon footprint ensuring that you are doing your part to restore the environment and promote a healthy earth.
Placing plants strategically around a building and throughout the yard can increase heat efficiency. This results in greater insulation of the building, providing a smaller reliance on air conditioning and heating which in turn can save a great deal of money in energy bills. In addition, trees can be planted to act as a barrier against winds, further reducing energy use.
Another benefit to eco-friendly landscaping comes when using native plants and researching their needs. By partaking in this simple practice, you can place plants where they will thrive without much effort. This will give you a beautiful design with minimal commitment. You can also conserve water by creating a natural irrigation system using water barrels and rain containers. This prevents excess water run-off and provides water for later times. In addition to the benefit of conserving water, this will also conserve funds and effort!
Using eco-friendly pesticides and fertilizers is one of the most important things for going green in your landscaping and has great implications. The benefits of this practice are great and include healthier lives for all. Many times, pesticides indirectly harm many species in the area that have consumed insects subject to the toxic chemicals. Benefits of non-toxic pesticides and fertilizers also include an increase in your personal health. Pesticides and fertilizers are often the leading cause of many diseases and can even be linked to serious ailments such as cancer. Eliminating these toxins will decrease your risk for illness.
Other benefits of eco-friendly landscaping include quieter living areas due to the reduction of power equipment, less likelihood of flooding due to storm-water management, more chances to appreciate and enjoy nature, cleaner water sources for drinking, swimming, and fishing, smaller strain for waste collection and water treatments, less time in landscaping management, and a reduction of landscaping costs. These benefits come in addition to less energy use, lower energy bill cost, less health concerns, and thriving wildlife. By partaking in eco-friendly landscaping, you will be doing your part to preserve your community while adding to the biodiversity of our ecosystem as a whole.
