If you are like an increasing number of people in Australia, you’re concerned about the state of the environment. You may have made the decision to incorporate sustainable practices into different aspects of your life, including your landscaping efforts. With this in mind, these are eight important sustainable landscaping strategies to consider implanting at your home.


Have a Landscape


The most important strategy associated with sustainable landscaping is very basic. You need to landscape! The mere presence of plant life on your property provides ecological and environmental benefits that include:

  • absorb carbon dioxide
  • release oxygen
  • prevent erosion
  • filter water
  • reduce dust
  • provide shade


Use Pots and Planters


Even if you lack ground space at your residence that doesn’t mean you cannot landscape. Take advantaged of pots and planters to create your own container gardens. You truly can grow a wide variety of lovely vegetation in pots and planters, including flowers, vegetables, herbs, and even small bushes.


Recycle and Compost


An important sustainable gardening or landscaping practice is to take advantage or recycling and composting. Not only does this permit the productive use of certain items that otherwise would go into the waste stream, it provides plant nourishment in a manner that permits the avoidance of chemical treatments. A key objective of sustainable landscaping is to reduce the amount of chemicals that end up being utilised on vegetation. Multiple from ground stumps can maintain moisture levels in your garden from organic local materials.


Employ Water Conservation Protocols


A major component of sustainable landscaping is the employment of water conservation techniques and practices. This can include everything from collecting rainwater in a run-off barrel to employing drought resistant landscaping practices and techniques like xeriscaping. There are also irrigation and watering systems that are designed to more efficiently use water when supplemental watering becomes necessary. Finally, as part of water conservation efforts and sustainable landscaping, consider cutting back on the amount of lawn or turf utilised around your home. Many sustainable landscaping experts encourage people to stop thinking of a lawn as the default landscaping modality.


Use Reclaimed Water


While on the subject of water conservation and sustainable landscaping, consider the use of what is known as reclaimed water. Reclaimed water is water that is not potable or suitable for drinking but can be used on gardens and landscapes. In many cities, particularly in drier climates, you will see signs that indicate water being used on a lawn or garden is not potable and has been reclaimed. You can even reclaim water from your household activities. For example, you can reclaim water used to wash dishes, provided attention is paid to the type of detergent utilised in that cleaning process.


Limit the Use of Chemical Products


A moment ago mention was made of avoiding the use of chemical fertilisers through composting. Part of a sustainable gardening or landscaping effort should be an objective to eliminate chemical products all together, or at least sharply curtail their usage. The reality is that chemicals used on landscaping can contaminate water supplies and otherwise negatively impact the environment. This includes herbicides and insecticides. Indeed, reasonable evidence suggests that chemicals used in gardening and farming has resulted in the dangerous destruction of a large swath of the honeybee population in the United States and elsewhere.


As mentioned, you can partially replace the use of chemicals through composting. You can lower or eliminate the use of chemical herbicides through the use of natural practices to control insects that can prove harmful to vegetation.


Create a Mini Wildlife Refuge


As part of your overall sustainable landscaping efforts, consider making your gardens and other spaces attractive to beneficial insects and small animals. Beneficial insects and small animals are attracted to inviting spaces that provide the shelter as well as access to food in a manner that is not harmful to the vegetation itself.


Enjoy Your Finished Product


As a human, you are part of the ecosystem you create at your residence. Thus, another important element of your landscaping efforts is to create spaces that you can enjoy in a manner that is in harmony with nature and the environment. For example, in the midst of you landscaping, you might want to create an environmentally sound space where you can place chairs, tables, and other items that allow you to more directly access and interact with your landscaping efforts. You might want to consider fencing part of you yard as part of demarcating a space for this type of use. You might even consider creating an environmentally friendly patio in the midst of your gardens and other lovely landscaping.


You may have baulked at implementing different sustainable landscaping practices in the past for a number of reasons. You may have thought that embarking on a sustainable landscaping journey would prove complicated. As you can see from these primary strategies presented here, you can undertake sustainable landscaping efforts at your home in a relatively simple manner.


You may have elected to forgo sustainable landscaping in the past over cost concerns. Another reality about sustainable gardening and landscaping is that it can be affordable. Indeed, depending on the sustainable gardening and landscaping strategies you employ, you very well may end up saving money on the creation and maintenance of your residential landscape. In other words, here are sustainable gardening and landscaping practices that fit into nearly any imaginable budget, including one that can fairly be classified as tight or restricted.


If you’re looking for an arborist who can help you better integrate healthy trees into your landscaping plan, contact us today.