Improve The Environment With Beautiful Eco-Friendly Landscaping

While lush, green lawns are the standard for American homeowners, they’re no gift to the environment. In addition to requiring chemical treatment to keep them beautiful, each square foot of turf uses about a half gallon of water in order to soak up just one inch of H2O. For a lawn measuring 100’-by-100’, that’s 6,230 gallons every sprinkler session!

The good news is that there are plenty of ways to create a more water-conscious landscape. This guide from Healing Moon Farm & Ranch offers these ideas for making your landscape more water-friendly.

Add Water-Saving Features to a Newly-Purchased Home

If you’re buying a new home, you may be able to address water-wasting issues before you even move in. For example, if your home inspector finds that you have a faulty sprinkler system that leaks water, you can consider applying for the FHA’s Energy Efficient Mortgage program to have the cost of its replacement rolled into your mortgage. This home loan can be used to make eco-friendly changes to your home, including those that help conserve water indoors and out. Current homeowners can also refinance their home with this kind of mortgage.

Reduce Your Turf Area

A large area of grass that needs water to survive dry spells is a significant waste of water. Use stones to add landscape and large beds of mulch and plant material to make your patch of grass smaller.

Irrigation

Instead of running a sprinkler for hours on end, consider a drip irrigation system that delivers water directly to your plants with minimal waste. Gardening Channel notes that these systems also have rain sensors and computers for programming watering to eliminate overwatering, using about half of the H2O that sprinklers do.

Xeriscaping

You can reduce your reliance on irrigation systems by xeriscaping your yard. In addition to cutting back on the turf in your landscaping, xeriscaping involves using water-efficient plants, native grass, and silt (rather than sand or clay). Not only do these measures reduce the amount of water you need to keep your yard healthy, they also help your landscape retain the water it does use by holding in moisture and making it harder for water to evaporate.

Mulch

Another component of xeriscaping, adding a healthy layer of mulch to your garden beds will help seal in moisture and keep plants cool, which in turn reduces the amount of water you’ll need to keep them healthy. Choose a naturally-sourced mulch product, like pine needles, shredded bark, or coconut fibers.

Compost

Instead of harmful fertilizer that will wash off into your local streams and rivers, use compost, which like mulch, also does a great job of retaining moisture. Fine Gardening explains that you can create your own compost or purchase it from a local garden supplier.

Adopting as many water-friendly landscaping techniques as possible will make for some amazing benefits for your landscape, our water supply, and even your wallet. We all have to do our part to conserve water for the health of our environment, ourselves, and even our future generations. Get started today by moving to more sustainable lawn practices.

Whether you’re looking for organic farm-fresh veggies or eggs, or hand-crafted all-natural and eco-friendly soaps, Healing Moon Farm & Ranch has what nature intended. Contact us today!

Special thanks to Clara Beaufort for the guest article. Be sure to check out her website gardenergigs.com for more great articles!