CREDIT: JOHN MAGEE
Not all garden spaces are “green.” In fact, the average landscape, though it might look lush and natural, is often harmful to the local environment. Conventional garden spaces tend to be filled with lawns and other non-native plants and rely on pesticides, polluting machinery, and excessive water consumption. There are better choices to “go green” in your landscape design.
Ecological landscaping uses native plants at its core and takes into consideration how plant communities interact and support the local ecosystem rather than harm it. Over fifty years ago, the National Wildlife Federation launched the Garden for Wildlife® movement in America. The goal is to teach and advocate mainstream adoption of an ecological approach to gardening both for residential properties as well as throughout the greater community.
Today, communities are increasingly incorporating ecological landscape design in spaces where people live, work, play, learn, and worship. This includes incorporating green infrastructure in place of concrete and other non-permeable surfaces, creating living shorelines, restoring wetlands and other agriculturally impacted areas, and building wildlife crossings and greenways that connect fragmented habitat. Privately owned yards and community spaces can supplement these larger scale efforts to extend the ecological benefits.
Whether you are creating a single garden habitat space to help pollinators, removing significant turf lawn to create a natural landscape, or restoring a vacant lot to a healthy greenspace, consider the following ways that you can support the ecosystem with your landscaping choices.
Form and Function
Ecological landscape design aims to mirror the natural regional landscape that existed prior to the massive habitat destruction that occurred in recent centuries due to human activity. Ecological landscapes are designed with the unique climate, weather patterns, soil types, geography, and wildlife connections of the specific region in mind.
A simple approach is to ensure the landscaped space supports diverse wildlife across many different layers of habitat from the soil to the tree canopy. Include a diverse array of plant communities to support more wildlife. It is important to mimic nature and adapt a layered approach with a diversity of native plant types.
Core Ecological Landscaping Practices Include
Following these basic ecological landscape design principles will help you create a landscape that is green not just in appearance but also in its environmental impact.
FOCUS ON NATIVE PLANTS
which have ecological relationships with wildlife that non-native plants don’t and are adapted to the local climate, weather, precipitation, and soils. Remove invasive plants that may crowd out beneficial natives. Find native plants suitable for your zipcode here.
ADD STRUCTURE
by including plants featuring a variety of forms and sizes that offer year-round food sources and cover in layers from the ground level all the way up into the canopy. Layered planting also provides focal points, framing, winter interest, shade, and screening to the landscape. Consider trees, shrubs and grasses to provide structure.
COVER THE GROUND
including dense, low-growing groundcovers and keep a layer of fallen leaves, all of which function as “green mulch” that helps retain soil moisture, suppress weeds, and minimizes erosion without having to use wood mulch. This groundcover also provides additional habitat for wildlife from foraging birds to overwintering butterflies and moths.
PLANT DENSELY
which reduces the opportunity for invasive plants and weedy species to get established, provides the maximum amount of habitat for wildlife, and adds to the native seed bank in the soil.
INCLUDE COLOR
by planting a mix of flowering species that collectively offer blooms throughout the seasons. Not only does this increase visual interest and our own enjoyment of the landscape, but flowering native plants have also adapted alongside our native bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators making them the best choice to support these important wildlife species.
SUPPORT THE SOIL
by avoiding harsh chemical fertilizers and pesticides, utilizing natural sources of nutrient such as fallen leaves or compost and minimizing soil disturbances. The soil is a living ecosystem and when it is healthy, so is your landscape.
INCLUDE WATER
where possible, which adds movement and sound to the landscape. If you opt for a pond or fountain, it provides a core habitat resource for birds and other wildlife even if it is just a basic birdbath.
For more information regarding simple considerations in taking an ecological design approach to a yard or garden, check out this guide.
