Natural landscaping  

Good for Everyone

Want to stop wasting drinking water and non-renewable resources? Get rid of your lawn! Carpets of grass are unnatural, sterile places that require several types of carnage -of weeds, insects, fungus and competing plants - usually with poisons. Lawns consume both the oil that fuels mowers and far more water than would local native plants.

They eat money. The alternatives to lawns are beautiful natural environments that provide habitats for all manner of wildlife, while requiring less maintenance.

Increasingly, U.S. communities are recognizing the benefits of landscaping in which gardeners cultivate native plants to attract wildlife without relying on pesticides and other chemicals, and many local governments are modifying their so-called "weed ordinances." Some city weed inspectors are beginning to understand that a wild yard is not necessarily a neglected yard. An Aurora, Illinois, resident whose prairie garden was mowed by city workers in 1997 received an official apology and payment for her destroyed
plants.

The “weed laws” were born of ignorance, not of malice. As more gardeners try natural landscaping, old-fashioned weed ordinances will continue to lose their bite. On an objective, scientific, economic, ecological, hydrological or any other 'logical' basis, it's simply the right thing to do.

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) began its Backyard Wildlife Habitat program in 1973 and has certified more than 74,000 habitats. That means the property has food such as flowers, water such as a birdbath or fountain , cover and places to hide from predators, such as dense shrubs or brush, and places for wildlife to raise their young such as nesting boxes or trees with cavities. Though it's best to preserve natural habitat in its undisturbed state, the Habitat program provides the next best thing. When an entire community becomes interested, whole neighborhoods are involved. Patches become connected, widening the impact by providing corridors for wildlife.

And imagine, most natural landscapes give the impression of being glorious gardens looking as though you spend all day every day tending it, while they typically need only half an hour to eight hours of maintenance per week. Follow the commonsense way that the NWF suggests - by identifying the strengths of the existing landscape and adding step-by-step components that satisfy wildlife's needs for food, water, cover, and nest sites.

At new housing developments around the country where native plantings are touted as amenities, the properties closest to the natural areas or that include natural areas often sell for the highest prices. The supposition that because someone has a meadow as opposed to a lawn is going to decrease your neighbor's property value is not often well proved.

So before you plant that lawn, think about a alternative. Nature and your wallet will thank you.