Rich and green, but Eco-lawn low water: Courtesy of Eco-lawn

No matter whether you are experiencing the effects of a drought or not, with the escalating demands on our current water resources, water is likely to become more and more of an issue as time goes on. Efficient water management needs to become a way of life just about everywhere. Clearly those drier areas of the country are the first to feel the pinch, but good water management is becoming critical worldwide. And all ecological systems on this planet are connected so eventually the treatment of one area is likely to affect the next.

Even if you are not focusing on the environmental impact of growing lawns, you can certainly consider escalating water bills, and all that time and expense you’ll be putting in just for the honor of having to mow your lawn regularly. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to live with the easy maintenance of minimal mowing or no mowing at all?

There are so many ways we can rethink how we design and build our landscapes to keep them beautiful, useful, productive and eco-friendly. You can set your landscape up to collect and recycle rain. Store energy from wind or solar collectors. Build with recycled materials. Or try out so many of the new designs and products on the market. But you can start sustainable gardening gently without spending a lot of money or making major changes in your landscape with one simple step. Start off by converting your high-maintenance lawn into a no mow, easy care , yet decorative part of your yard.

Look into the right kind of lawn to grow in your geographic area. There are lawns that grow with little water and so low that they never need mowing. Two examples would be Buffalo grass (Buchloe) and Blue Grama grass. There are also special lawn mixtures that are now available to create the ideal, eco-friendly grass with minimum water use and easy maintenance. Eco-lawn is one of the fast-growing products that is offering an effective product for people everywhere who want to maintain a well-balanced, water-wise lawn.

Reducing your lawn area to a space where the lawn is actively useful rather than just filling in open spaces with lawn as a default will also help. Or consider replacing your whole lawn with a lovely garden that is well adapted to your local climate, including some of your more showy native plants or filling in open areas with wildflowers. Even large properties can sport designs that factor in areas of lawn complemented by other ground cover and garden areas. Good design can make no-mowing into an asset to your garden. Even smaller-sized gardens can make better use of landscape space by adding herb gardens, play areas, vegetable gardens and flower gardens. Rather than just filling in pars of your landscape with vast stretches of lawn, consider adding permeable paving, paths, eco-friendly and low growing patches of lawn and decorative or productive garden areas. You can make so much more out of your garden by reducing or replacing your high-maintenance lawn with a no-mow alternative.

Then, if you discover you become as fascinated by the all the exciting possibilities of sustainable landscaping, you might want to start learning about some of the many other ways you can adapt your garden to better eco-efficiency.

Example of a no-mow Eco-lawn: unmowed

No-mow drought-tolerant garden: Photo by Jane Gates

Flowers and pup enjoying large flagstone stepping stones: Photo by Jane Gates

One way to make your garden more artistic and practical without spending a lot of money is to use pavers, stepping stones, cast brick, blocks or flagstone.

Pavers and stepping stones are ideal to make pathways throughout the landscape. They are decorative, make passage easier and save wear and tear on lawns. You can use them together to construct patio areas, too.  Paving with stepping stones, cast block and other pieced materials is a trend that is growing in popularity.  These materials offer a form of permeable paving that is proving to be a better way to hardscape than pouring  large, solid, flat concrete areas. They are better for drainage when it rains, easier to install and are more flexible since you can change your mind at any time and move the materials to get the effects you want. And with good designing, pavers and stepping stones can create decorative highlights in your landscape.

Avoid straight lines unless the theme of your garden is formal or geometrical. Allow your pathways to curve and meander. And make sure they lead somewhere. Paths that lead nowhere are not very useful and can look downright silly. Paths can be used to break up large spaces and long garden areas. You can use them to lead you to convenient areas for utility servicing or plant maintenance. They make the passageway to a shed, water feature or another structure into something decorative as well as practical. And a slightly curved pathway up to a bench or hammock creates an irresistible invitation to relax in the landscape. Even if you don’t have the proper layout for building paths, you can still use pavers and stepping stones to outline boundaries of different parts of your landscape or cluster them to crate a patio area.

Stepping stones and pavers can be made of an assortment of materials. You can find simple cast concrete rounds or squares at the local home stores or check into specialty shops to find designs for just about any taste. Flip through catalogs to discover artistic stepping stones for sale. Brick can be set in groups creating patterns or laid in rows to make a path. Flagstones are ready-made pavers that offer the beauty of natural stone. Stone can also be cut into whatever shapes you want. Or you can pour concrete to make large stepping stones in a variety of designs. Additional interest can be created by coloring, stamping or adding patterns to the cement before it dries. Even slices of tree trunks make rounds and can be used as stepping surfaces that will eventually break down over time. But they give a great woodsy feel for years. And they are an ornamental and useful way to recycle a fallen or cut tree while saving on the cost of haul-away.

To use stepping stones in the landscape creatively, you can use a mixture of colored pieces or even materials to invent pictures or designs. These will function like mosaic flooring. Another possibility is to lay sections that alternate with two or three different materials creating a checkerboard, stripes or other patters. Or you can outline one material with another for effect. In short, the ways to make your design into art with various materials is completely up to you.

You might find interesting pre-designed stepping stones available in a variety of stores that carry hand-crafted items as well as at your local gardening suppliers. If you want to shop on the Internet or flip through catalogs, you will find all kinds of stepping stones from hand-painted designs of your favorite theme to elaborately sculpted stones with interesting materials embedded. I have a friend who has collected hers from various craft fairs. Another makes her own by pressing stained glass into cast concrete rounds before the cement hardens. You can even find an interesting assortment of stepping stones, rock and pre-cast cement pavers at the big home stores. For those of you who can paint, look for outdoor paints and personalize inexpensive generic materials to make them unique or turn them into works of art.

You can use a group of materials like bricks to make a section that reads as one big stepping stone, or you can separate your materials like single chunks of flagstone. If you are into making crafts, there are lots of ways to cast, cut and create your own stepping stones. You can make molds and cast plaster or cement. Adding pieces of pottery or pressing in your children’s handprints are a couple of ways you can make your pavers unique. Use your imagination to design and create your own effects with pavers, stepping stones, cast concrete or flagstone.

Coffee fits right in the garden

Coffee certainly has a place in the garden. There is nothing more relaxing than sitting back to sip a good cup of coffee surrounded by the beauty of nature.

You can even grow coffee as a plant; a natural small tree known as coffea arabica.  But you’ll need to live in a very mild climate to grow it outdoors. Otherwise, you can plant it in a pot to enjoy on the patio during warm months and bring it indoors when the weather cools. It also makes a good house plant – but don’t expect to get sufficient or quality beans to make your own coffee from growing your own plants.

There are other ways coffee — or the materials involved in making coffee — can help out your garden. You can recycle those inexpensive paper coffee filters for gardening help. And don’t throw the coffee grounds in the garbage either. Here is a little list of some of the ways you can make more use of coffee in the garden.

• Use coffee grounds to acidify soil and add nitrogen. Add them to a compost heap or dig them directly into the soil.
• Use coffee filters for germinating seeds. Moisten the filters and sprinkle the seeds on top. Pop them in a clear plastic bag and wait for them to grow.
• Line the bottom of a pot. Instead of using crocking or newspaper, try using coffee filters to cover the drainage holes in the bottom of a pot so the water passes through, but the soil doesn’t.
• Absorb oil spills on the driveway or greenhouse. Coffee filters make excellent absorbent pads.
• Press flowers in a book using coffee filters to blot up any moisture as the plants dry.

A painted trunk on a young fruit tree

If you live where the sun is strong, one of the more important things you can do to help young fruit trees grow well is to paint the lower part of the tree trunk with white vinyl paint. I had seen it many years ago and I wondered why people painted what looked like white socks on their trees. Having lost trees to sunburn, I now understand.

The white vinyl paint is an inexpensive and easy way to add a reflective extra ‘skin’ to protect the lower part of a tree trunk. Young trees are particularly susceptible to sunburn, especially where the stem is unprotected from the shade of the upper branches. Sun can slowly burn the trunk of young trees, usually on or near to the vulnerable grafting point.  The paint coating can also discourage some chewing pests. If you aren’t sure whether or not your young fruit trees are likely to suffer from sunburn it’s worth painting a protective coat of white vinyl paint just to be sure. (Don’t use oil-based paint. The oil can burn or be absorbed into the plant tissues whereas vinyl will stay on the surface more like a thin sleeve.) And if you live where hot sun is the norm for the summer, don’t wait until the tree is damaged: paint right away just to be sure. This is one more tip to protect your fruit trees so they will grow healthy, beautiful and productive.

The pond in its youth

Here’s another video of the garden area of my pond to help cool you on hot days. It took months to dig the pond, but I wanted to learn first-hand about all the pond building issues before I had anyone else install ponds for my landscape design clients. The pond has given me years of relaxing meditation and creates music of its own. The song is from my first album many years ago. I wrote “Come on Out Now” with Peter Yellowstone in London. Steve Voice did the vocals. It seemed an appropriate lyric for the video of pond meditation and music.

This sustainable patio area was built of all recycled materials

It’s easy to feel like you can’t make a difference in the larger events of the world. But there are very few people who have the influence to effect great economic changes. But just like voting, each individual DOES have an impact on the larger picture. It may take a ridiculously close election to make us realize that sometimes even a few votes can change who is elected. Well, each one of us can also impact the eco-system. Each person who starts to garden with sustainability in mind starts to turn around the demand that increases waste. Better, each person who uses more of the newly available products and systems developed in this country to improve sustainability in the home and garden is helping us develop new industries to help employ more people, create more jobs and help end the recession.

Here’s a list of just some of the things you can do to save money, help the planet, make your garden more enjoyable and maybe even more beautiful while helping to end the recession. Some of these projects you can do yourself. Some you’ll need to hire professional help. Or you might just compromise and do a little of both. Check into all the exciting products now being marketed that allow you to change your yard into a sustainable yet lovely garden. Many make building and maintenance easier. Most will end up saving you money.

Add solar lights to the garden.

Build in solar panels.

Grow native and water-wise plants.

Add permeable paving.

Build in water collection and storage from rain barrels to underground tanks.

Recycle or use recycled building materials.

Design in the right irrigation systems and add smart timers, subsurface drip lines, low volume emitters and spray heads or other appropriate water application systems.

Design shade trees on south or west facing sides of your house to cool your home with shade.

Regularly check for water drips or leaks.

Roof with living roofs or reflective colors and materials on all structures.

Build living walls.

Compost.

Grow fruits and vegetables — organically.

Use organic pesticides and fungicides, or better, hand wash and pick pests or build physical barriers.

Learn about companion planting.

Mulch.

Add natural drainage and erosion controls.

Build with your natural wildlife habitat in mind.

There are many more ways to make your garden more eco-friendly and comfortable. The first thing to make it all work is to change your thinking.  All successful environments are systematic, that is, each piece interacts with the next. Your garden is a whole event where soil, water, light, living and non-living materials all work together to create a whole. That whole landscape system then interacts with your house and the surrounding land. In short, everything is inter-related. If you build your landscape as a whole, not only will it function in a healthy, easy-care manner, but it will look great, just like all the pieces in a fine work of art blend together to make a whole, beautiful painting. And not only will you increase the beauty of your property, you will reduce the labor needed for maintenance and save money on energy bills. Plus you will be installing new, green materials produced by emerging technologies that can help us all create jobs and end the recession. Whether you start off small or go for big changes, adding sustainable products and systems into your property is a perfect solution that each one of us can start doing right away.

Ribs for a raised vegetable garden 'roof'

If you want to start your growing season a little early, add some light shade or keep out pests while growing your edibles, or want to extend your crops into cooler weather, there is nothing better than to build a roof on your raised vegetable garden. You can cover your raised vegetable garden beds easily with clear plastic sheeting or add netting to keep out pests. Plastic makes an excellent temporary roof for extending your growing season. But first you need to make a frame on which your roof covering will rest. Try creating bent U-shaped ribs. They are easy to make and you can leave them in place even after removing the covering in hot, sunny weather.

You can bend long lengths of PVC for ribs. Or you can use wood or bamboo. The trick to getting them to bend without snapping is to soak the wood or bamboo in water for at least 24 hours  to soften it up.

Then attach heavy duty plastic sheeting to the ribs. Sometimes you can reuse heavy clear plastic that was used as a drop cloth for painting or other work so long as it isn’t torn or too dirty. Do not reuse plastic that has been used around toxic materials. You can use regular staples, tie the plastic on with recycled wire ties saved from vegetables at the grocery store, or twine thin wire around the supports to hold the plastic in place. You can re-use wire threaded through rolls of chicken wire to keep the rolls closed. These are just some suggestions.

Build a roof on your raised gardens to mediate temperature extremes and protect your raised beds from insect and larger sized pests. And you can do it easily, cheaply and even use recycled materials to roof your garden. Just remember to water the interior regularly. A timed drip irrigation system is one convenient way to make sure things don’t dry out.

Tomatoes with red plastic mulch

If you are enthusiastic about growing the best fruits and vegetables you can, you’ve probably heard about the possibility of increasing the quality and quantity of tomato crops by using red mulch. There are lots of suppliers marketing red plastic or paper mulch to use in your vegetable garden and touting the successful results created by using this product. The question is how much truth is there to claims about red mulch? Does red mulch really work on tomatoes?

The concept is that the pigment system in plants (phytochrome) responds to specific red wavelengths of light. If these wavelengths are reinforced in a mulch covering, the belief is that the growth of a plant can be improved with better crop results.

Tests at Cornell University have shown somewhat unclear results.  Some tomatoes did show increased results with the mulch while others remained unaffected. One conclusion was that different tomato varieties respond differently and not all will benefit from a red mulch.

The report from Clemson University came in with a 20% increase in crop production. This is one of the better recommendations for using red mulch.

Montana State University found plants tested with red or silver plastic mulch were more productive and set fruit earlier than plants tested with other treatments.  The overall conclusion was that the biggest difference was seen where seasons are short. Perhaps the improvement can be attributed to the warming of the soil or it may be a direct result of the color wavelengths. More research is still needed and tests continue.

The tests reported by the University of Connecticut and Penn State stated: there was “no significant difference in the yield of marketable tomato fruit from clear, yellow, black, silver, red or brown IRT mulch”.

Testing results at the University of Minnesota reported a 10 – 30% increase in tomato yields with red mulching, however.

Less confident about the results is the University of Vermont. The studies there were declared inconsistent and very variable depending on tomato varieties, sunlight levels and temperatures. Like other studies, the warming of soil temperatures did increase early fruit production and later plantings seem to have little to no impact comparatively.

Other discoveries are that different colors seemed to impact different vegetables. Red seemed to be the best for tomatoes.  And yellow seems to consistently attract insects. This means you probably shouldn’t use yellow mulch unless you plan to use it to attract insects as a way to trap them in a predetermined area.

Red mulch is being offered at many suppliers with claims of huge increases in productivity in tomato crops. So far it looks like most tests show there can be some improvement in the growth of many tomato varieties. But there is still more testing needed and there is no guarantee red mulch will benefit your crop of tomatoes, especially if you have a long, warm growing season where early warming of your soil is not likely to impact the success of your tomato growing.  The jury is still out.

But then, that might make testing your own tomatoes even more fun to see if you notice an improvement with red plastic or paper mulch. It looks like different climates, situations and plants all respond differently. Who knows? You might find the truth about tomatoes and red mulch in your own garden is the best news yet.

Lily pond

A water feature can add a lovely focal point to your landscape. The sound of water adds cooling to warm days and creates a soothing, calming effect at any time. Whether you choose a simple fountain or a bird bath to attract colorful wildlife or go for a more elaborate pondless waterfall, a stream, pond or even a small lake, a water feature can transform the ordinary landscape into something unique and splendid.

Before you jump into adding a water feature to your garden, think a bit about what is appropriate for both your landscape and your lifestyle. No matter what sales talk you hear, more elaborate features like ponds will require considerable maintenance. No water feature is perfect or maintenance free. Ponds, rivers and lakes deal with water circulation and support an intricate balance of life forms that will need to be kept carefully controlled. Any artificially created feature that requires interaction of different natural elements will have to be watched and regularly adjusted since Mother Nature is not the one in charge.

More involved water features need to be built properly with provisions made for maintenance and repair. Be aware that anything that involves water can be a potential breeding site for mosquitoes. Living creatures will be dependent on water that is kept clean and safe. And the more water that is involved, the more wise stewardship will be demanded.

If you don’t want to deal with the time, expense and work involved in maintaining one of the more involved water features you might want to consider building a pondless waterfall – a waterfall that flows into a covered or rocky area where it is recycled without an open exposed pond. There is less need for fish or plants and less concern about algae or mosquitoes.

A fountain will also give you the delightful sound of water. Fountains can come in many forms. They can blend naturally into the garden, be built as artistic sculptures or be purchased ready-made in styles that can enhance just about any theme or design. Fountains will still need to be cleaned and can harbor mosquitoes if allowed to sit idle. Pumps can burn out if water levels fall too low. And algae and dirt can build up. But maintenance will be much less in these water features.

You can even stay simple with a little table fountain that can be switched on and off, or a bird bath. Birdbaths can be highly ornamental and wildlife will love them.  These, too need watching and the water should be regularly changed.

Water features may require some work, but the rewards are huge. And there are products on the market that can help you deal with mosquitos, algae and other water feature issues. Apart from the beauty they add to your landscape, water features can offer the opportunity to grow a whole world of magical and beautiful water and bog plants.  They add texture, color and art. Water features will create a whole dimension of sound, reflected light and build a serenity into your garden that no other feature can offer.

Think carefully before adding a water feature to your landscape. Design it where it will have the most impact and be practical to care for. And build it properly so maintenance will be as easy as possible.  The right water feature in your landscape can give your garden a whole new dimension and make it a place where you will want to spend much more of your time.