Surface erosion due to water runoff is one of the major causes of landscaping problems. Not only can it have a negative effect on the environment and the aesthetic look of your landscape design, but it can also reduce crop productivity as erosion involves wind and water carrying off fertile layers of top soil. Water runoff leads to water pollution as contaminants like fertilizers and herbicides drain into water sources instead of naturally filtering through the soil. However, you can lessen or avert erosion with proper landscaping. By making the right choices in your landscape design, you can positively affect the environment in addition to enhancing the look of your landscaping.

Use A Permeable Pavement

An excellent alternative to traditional pavement, permeable pavers can handle the same heavy loads. However, instead of water running off them as with regular pavement, permeable pavers allow water to filter through the permeable surface. By including permeable pavers in your landscaping, you can help preserve the quality and cleanliness of our limited water supply. Through absorption and filtering, this alternative to traditional pavement helps to naturally clean water of harmful contaminants, recharging your groundwater resources. These permeable pavers will also reduce the stress on waterways and storm drains, which will lessen the effect of floodwaters.

Creating Rain Gardens

A great landscaping method for reducing runoff, rain gardens catch the water in a shallow ground depression. Rain gardens can protect your local water resources from contamination of hazardous materials, whether a creek, river, or lake. A rain garden catches water runoff, filtering it into the ground instead of sending it off to a storm drain. These gardens also help contribute to increasing your groundwater resources. The perfect addition to a beautiful landscape design, rain gardens add to the attractiveness of your landscaping, are practically maintenance free, and provide a habitat for wildlife and plants.

Absorbing Roof Runoff With Foundation Plants

A popular basic of landscape design, foundation plants can do a whole lot more than look pretty. Foundation plants accomplish wonders for stopping the erosion of your lawn due to roof runoff. Choose foundation plants with root systems that won’t overpower the foundation of your home. In addition, plan your planting locations carefully to ensure locating them where they will receive the most water from your roof, such as where your gutters empty. Foundation plants are a simple and traditional way to prevent water runoff and beautify your landscape design.

Installing A Green Roof

An addition to an existing roof, a green roof includes a thriving root repellant system along with waterproofing so you can grow lightweight to medium weight plants on the roof of your home. Green roofs offer aesthetic, ecological, and economical benefits, including prolonging the lifespan of your roofing material by providing a buffer of plants. These plants also help you save money on your heating and cooling costs. Especially in urban areas, green roofs offer a habitat for plants and animals that may not otherwise have a home in a busy suburban or urban area.

By including the above techniques in your Minneapolis landscaping, Minnesota landscape design, or landscaping anywhere else in the world, you will beautify your home with smart landscape design while helping to reverse environmental damage.

Choosing the right plants in your landscape design offers you the opportunity to improve the look of the landscaping around your home or business while also helping the environment and conserving water. With today’s concerns about the climate and water usage, it’s important for everyone to practice water conservation, whether living in a drought prone part of the world or not. This is especially important for those living in North America as more than 50% of the residential water use goes toward lawns and landscaping. With the need for better water conservation techniques in landscape design more evident than ever, this post provides some tips on conserving water while maintaining the beautiful landscaping around your home or business.

Xeriscape Design

A landscaping technique designed for drought prone areas, xeriscaping is now widespread because it provides for easy maintenance without the need for pesticides or fertilizers. This integrated method for conserving water and maintaining a beautiful landscape includes analyzing the contours of the land while considering the purpose, look desired, and climate to create a landscape design that also conserves water.

An important part of xeriscaping involves choosing the best plants. For example, it’s not a good idea to use plants indigenous to a wetland area in an area that doesn’t receive enough water, but choosing plants adjusted to hot, dry summers for a Minnesota landscape design is a great choice. With xeriscaping, you choose plants either native to your local area or drought resistant plants like plants native to the southwest. Drought resistant plants have several characteristics in common, including small, thick, glossy leaves. Planting trees near drought resistant plants will shade them from the sun and reduce water evaporation.

Water The Roots

All plants, especially trees, take in water through their base, or roots, and not through their leaves. This means it is best to water your plants at the base. While popular, sprinklers waste a lot of water because the water lands on the leaves of a plant. This water doesn’t benefit the plant in any way and eventually just evaporates.

Soak new plants by placing a hose at the base so the water gets to the roots of the plant. Watering deeply for a shorter time is better than sprinkling a plant frequently. Soak new plants, especially trees, to encourage root absorption and reduce soil erosion. Vary this watering method depending on the needs and sizes of your plants. This is also a great reason why you shouldn’t place plants with varying water needs next to each other in your landscaping because you will waste water on plants that don’t need as much water.

Time To Water

Choosing the best time to water is another important aspect of water conservation in landscape design. To minimize evaporation, don’t water your plants between 10AM and 6PM. The best way to implement a schedule is by setting a timer on a drip irrigation system within your landscape design to run early in the morning or in the evening after sundown.

Whether used in Atlanta gardens or Minneapolis landscaping, practicing water conservation can help improve the environment while beautifying your landscape.

It doesn’t matter the season, people in America use a good portion of their water supply maintaining their plants and trees. While the health of trees and plants in a landscape design is vital to the beauty of a home, it does place a strain on water supplies, locally and worldwide. This post offers some great tips for conserving water while maintaining the beautiful plants and trees in your landscape.

Finding The Best Irrigation Method

Americans typically use one of the following three methods of irrigation: drip irrigation, hand watering, and sprinklers, with sprinklers being the most common irrigation method used. However, it is crucial to consider the needs of your landscape and reducing water usage when choosing the best irrigation method for you.

While sprinklers can save time and are inexpensive to purchase, they do waste a lot of water because they spray water at the leaves instead of the roots. This means most of the water isn’t absorbed as the water on the leaves evaporates. By hand watering, you deliver water to the exact area needed and you can monitor the moisture before watering, allowing you to reduce the amount of water used. Unfortunately, with a large landscape, hand watering is labor intensive and time consuming.

You can target your water delivery with drip irrigation, although not as accurately as with hand watering. However, drip irrigation saves time as it effectively delivers water to your plants, but it is the most expensive option.

Watering For Best Results

You should water your plants at their roots for best results. Watering the leaves not only wastes water that will just eventually evaporate, it can lead to a number of fungal diseases. If you can’t keep water at the roots of your plants because of runoff, consider repositioning your plant, analyzing whether it has enough soil around the base, or whether it might be too close to paved areas. If runoff remains a problem, apply water in short cycles, giving your plants time in between to absorb the water before watering again.

In addition, look at the soil around your plants, considering whether it is indigenous to your area. Clay is slow to absorb water, but it retains more water. Sandy soil takes in water quickly, but it dries out and erodes easily, making it a bad choice for water conservation. You can add organic matter to your soil to improve its ability to hold water. Shade trees and mulch help as well because they halt evaporation and prevent weeds from growing in your landscape design.

When To Water

You can conserve a huge amount of water simply by watering at the right time of day. Watering in the early morning or in the late evening at dusk or after sundown will work to reduce the amount of evaporation that occurs when watering during the day from 10AM to 6PM. Consider whether you really need to water on windy days as water loss increases with higher winds. By monitoring the weather and resetting timers, you can also conserve water. A rain gauge helps in deciding how much water your plants might need, whether for arid Albuquerque, New Mexico, landscaping or a milder Minneapolis landscape.

From Oregon to Virginia and Florida to Minnesota landscape design, all areas of the country can benefit from these simple tips that will help reduce the water used while not sacrificing the beauty of your landscaping.