Eco-Friendly Lawn Tips:

Saving Water and Reducing Your Yard’s Environmental Impact

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A well-maintained yard looks great and can even increase your entire property’s value. However, the traditional English-style lawn is not exactly the most eco-conscious choice. Most of us do not live in an environment conducive to large areas of turf. Yet in the pursuit of the perfect looking lawn, we end up using way too much water, fertilizer and pesticides just trying to maintain it. Your grass may look good, but it’s not exactly living green.

You don’t have to tear up all your grass, but reducing its area and replacing it with more eco-friendly plants that help create a productive garden that supports your local ecosystem — rather than draining it — makes it easier to maintain the natural beauty of your home while reducing its environmental impact. Furthermore, a less turf-heavy yard makes your home look unique in a world full of identical looking suburban sprawl. Breaking out your gardening gloves and trowel now can mean less time with your lawn mower in the future. In the end, you’ll spend less money on your water bill, less time mowing and more time appreciating the beauty of your home.

Plant a Rain Garden

Whenever it rains, the water that runs down your house and through your gutters has to go somewhere. There are typically two places that water ends up. It can run away from your house, rinsing away chemicals, pet waste and other pollutants from your lawn and the streets into your local water supply. Or, it can pool up by your house where it risks damaging your foundation and causing rot in wood. Planting a rain garden is a way to divert that water into an area where it can be productive rather than destructive.

A rain garden is planted along the slope of your yard at least 10 feet away from your home. There it can absorb excess rainwater and intercept runoff. The garden is then composed of different zones that have their own watering and soil requirements. The plants you use in the zones depend on the area in which you live and what does well. Typically, you want to use a mixture of native and drought-resistant plants. If your area experiences periods of extreme dryness, you may need to water your rain garden from time to time. 

Eco-Friendly Planting

No matter what kind of garden you plant, there are ways to make it more environmentally friendly. As mentioned above, using questionable chemicals in your garden means they will eventually drain into your sewer system. If you don’t want those chemicals in your water, you definitely don’t want to use them on vegetables or herbs you plan to eat. Using green planting materials eliminates these problems for you.

Believe it or not, there are natural ways to help control pests in your garden. Biopesticides are made from natural occurring elements that work control the insect population in your garden. These elements can be naturally occurring substances (biochemical) or microorganisms (microbial). A third option would be plants that contain added genetic material (plant-incorporated protectants) — though people that are wary of using genetically modified organisms in their garden should avoid these.

Examples of biopesticides include:

• Pheromones that disrupt the mating patterns of some insects — for instance, those in the lepidopteran group such as moths.
• Canola oil and non-degreasing liquid dish soap can be made into a concentrate that when sprayed onto your plants to kill aphids, caterpillars, beetles, and other insects.
• Milky spore — when lawn grubs ingest Milky Spore, within days, bacteria grow and kill the grubs from within.
• Diatomaceous earth made from fossilized diatoms causes dehydration and eliminates bugs including ants, flies, aphids, slugs, mites and maggots.
• Certain essential oils deter pests including insects and rodents.

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A sprawling lawn takes a lot to maintain — namely large amounts of water and questionable chemicals. A much more eco-friendly option is adding a garden that can help divert rainwater and save you time mowing. You can make your gardening efforts even greener by using biopesticides that keep insects and rodents away naturally.