A New Way to Save Energy

by Sue Reed – Contributing Writer

Registered Landscape Architect

Do you wish you could do more to “go green” without spending a lot of money, depriving yourself of familiar comforts or making a major change in your lifestyle? Here’s an idea: design your landscape so it helps you save energy!

Some of the biggest savings will come from reducing your home’s heating and cooling costs. In summer, your house can be cooled with large shade trees, strategically placed small trees or a vine-covered arbor. Carpeting the ground with leafy plants or mulch will reduce the amount of heat the earth absorbs during the day and re-radiates at night. Additional cooling can come from capturing breezes, minimizing dark-colored stone or paved surfaces near the south side of your house and using porous materials that absorb rainwater. Similarly, buildings can be warmed in winter by maximizing solar gain and minimizing the force of cold winds.

These ideas are explained in detail in the new book, Energy-Wise Landscape Design, which also presents hundreds of other practical methods for saving energy in your landscape itself, independent of the house.

One obvious action is simply to cut down on mowing. You could seed your lawn with grasses that grow only to about 8 inches tall. Or consider converting some of your lawn to a wildflower meadow, orchard or vegetable garden. Or you might simply let some portion of the lawn grow for the whole season without any mowing at all, except perhaps a path through it or a strip around the edge, which show that you’re caring for the landscape. Another easy way to save energy is to recycle fallen leaves into home-made mulch – not only is this free, but using your own leaves requires no trips to the garden center, and no processing, bagging or transportation.

You can also save energy by designing your entire landscape – beyond the lawn and gardens – so that all the pieces of the landscape fit the land well, serve multiple purposes, incorporate local and/or recycled materials whenever possible, and meet your needs beautifully and effectively so they don’t need to be changed or fixed later.

If you’d like to shrink your energy footprint while making your whole property more environmentally friendly, Energy-Wise Landscape Design explains many more ways to achieve this goal. Shelburne-based author Sue Reed is a registered landscape architect who since 1991 has helped hundreds of homeowners create landscapes that are ecologically-rich, naturally healthy and energy-efficient. To learn more about Sue and her book, visit www.energywiselandscape.com or www.susanreedla.com.

Tips for a Better Lawn

by Rick Miller – R.J.M. Landscaping Inc.

Happy Spring!  I think it is safe to say, we are all excited that winter is over.  Now we get to start thinking about all the options that we can do with our yards.  I’m sure you all would like to have that “golf course” type lawn, but not quite sure on how to achieve that?  Let me give you some helpful tips on what you can do to achieve a better lawn.  First things first, you will want to get your first step of fertilizer and pre emergent down before May 1st.  This will get the lawn off to a healthy start, and will help prevent those pesky weeds such as crabgrass and dandelions.  You will want to continue with a fertilizing program (usually a 5 step) with the applications spaced every 4-6 weeks apart.  The next key ingredient to a healthy lawn is water.  Lawns require anywhere from 1-2” of water a week, whether it be from a sprinkler or from Mother Nature.  The next step you will want to pay attention to is your mowing.  You will want to keep your mower set at about 3-3.5” for mowing.  Cutting the lawn really short subjects it to weed and insect damage as well as fungus.  It also stresses the lawn out during those hot mid summer months.  When you mow, it is important to have sharp blades, and to alternate you mowing direction each time, to prevent the grass from laying over in one direction leading to a poor cut.  Alternating your pattern will keep the grass perky leading to a better quality cut.  Follow these tips, and turn your dream lawn into a reality.

SPRING PLANTINGS IN NEW ENGLAND

by Rick Miller – R.J.M. Landscaping Inc.

With spring on the horizon, many of you are starting to think about your gardens and the outside of your homes.  Spring is my favorite time of year.  I really enjoy the leaves starting to unfurl, the sights and smells of early flowering shrubs and trees, and the grass starting to green up.  For those of you who love to plant your own trees, shrubs, and flowers, here are some helpful tips and variety suggestions to try for this spring.

Hydrangeas’:  They come in a wide variety of sizes and flower colors including blue.  Most of the hydrangeas that flower blue require you to add aluminum sulfate to the soils to help maintain the blue color, however, they have some newer varieties that will hold their blue color without adding this supplement.  They favor a moist rich soil and some varieties will tolerate light shade.  The flowers can be used for dry cutting arrangements or just enjoyed in the garden setting.

Magnolia trees:  These trees give an excellent flower show in early spring before leaves emerge.  Flower colors range from a yellow flower on the ‘ Butterfly magnolia ‘ to white ( ‘Star Magnolia’ ) or white and pink on the (‘Saucer Magnolia ‘) .  These trees are very easy to care for, but do favor a moist acidic soil to give their best performance.

Ornamental grasses:  I would have to say that these are some of my favorite plants to use.  They can be used for under plantings, accenting an entryway, focal point, to just adding some texture to your existing garden.  Ornamental grasses come in many sizes, colors, and varieties.  They are very easy to care for and require very little maintenance except for cutting back 2-3” above the ground in late winter