Sustainable Solutions in Landscape:
The key to creating a sustainable landscape is understanding that the design process should be considered first. Plant selection, implementation, and maintenance build on the design process and preparation, each having sustainability as a major consideration.

Plant Selection
Plant selection is a very important step in the Landscape Design Sequence. Choosing the right plant for the right place and purpose adds greatly to the sustainability of a landscape. One key to having a landscape that thrives without intensive inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides and frequent watering, is to choose plants that are best suited to your yard conditions. Many factors affect plant growth and maintenance including:

• Amount of sun or shade
• Soil conditions including texture, acidity, fertility, drainage, and moisture holding capacity
• Exposure to wind, salt, and traffic
• Land features such as steep slopes, irregular depressions, wet or dry spots, and stones, boulders, and ledge

Plants prefer or tolerate a certain set of conditions over others. When plants are forced to grow in areas that are not as suitable, they become stressed, fail to thrive and become more susceptible to disease and pests. Lawn grass, for example, can require a lot of inputs and maintenance compared to other plants such as certain groundcovers, shrubs and trees.

Protect Your Soil
Soil erosion is a concern not only for its impacts on plant growth, but also for its impacts to water quality.

Soil is the valuable natural resource that nourishes and supports plant growth among many other things. When soil is left bare and exposed, it can erode by both wind and water. In addition to the loss of the valuable soil resource, wind erosion can impact air quality and water erosion can result in gullies or “washed out” channels and sedimentation to down-slope areas.

Sediments that are transported to storm drains and surface waters which can choke aquatic life and increase water temperatures. Various pollutants such as phosphorus, hydrocarbons, and heavy metals may also be attached to these sediments further threatening water quality.

Stabilizing the soil can be achieved through:

• Maintaining a healthy, perennial vegetative cover.
• Increasing soil organic matter.
• Cover cropping – such as winter rye in vegetable gardens. Includes annual grasses, small grains, legumes and other types of vegetation planted to an area to provide a temporary vegetative cover. Cover crops are often tilled under serving also as a “green manure” crop.
• Placing bark-mulch, compost, and other similar materials in heavily used areas where vegetation is hard to establish and maintain.
• Addressing problem areas of concentrated stormwater runoff, this may include redirecting stormwater and roof runoff to areas that can settle and dissipate the water’s energy, such as rain gardens or vegetated buffer areas.

Build Healthy Soil with Compost
Compost is the product resulting from the controlled biological decomposition of organic material that has been sanitized through the generation of heat and ‘processed to further reduce pathogens’ (PFRP), as defined by the U.S. EPA (Code of Federal Regulations Title 40, Part 503, Appendix B, Section B), and stabilized to the point that it is beneficial to plant growth. Compost bears little physical resemblance to the raw material from which it originated, and is an organic matter source that has the unique ability to improve the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of soils or growing media. It contains plant nutrients but is typically not characterized as a fertilizer. Incorporated into the soil or used as a top mulch, compost will add valuable organic matter to the soil and improve the microbial life necessary to keep plants healthy and disease free.

Compost Tea
Compost Tea is an extraction of microorganisms and nutrients from compost into a solution that can be applied to soil and plants to restore and revitalize them. It can improve the resistance of any plant to disease and pest damage, and it can improve the nutritional value of our foods, including vegetables, grains, fruits, nuts, and indirectly, dairy products and meats.

Compost tea is being developed as a sustainable technology that allows farmers, facility managers and home owners to reduce and eliminate harmful chemicals in their management practices.

Proper Fertilization and Pesticide Use
The key to minimizing the potential for pollution is to use them responsibly — the right time, in the right amount, in the right place, and for the right reason.

• Before applying fertilizer, test your soil and apply only the amount recommended.
• Consider slow-release or organic fertilizers.
• Improve soil fertility through adjusting soil pH or acidity (applying lime to raise the pH) and increasing soil organic matter through compost and mulching.
• Before applying a pesticide, be sure that you have correctly identified the pest or pests and only use when necessary.
• Determine if there are alternative control options such as mechanical, biological, or cultural methods.
• Avoid using pesticides as a preventative measure. If a pest problem has been correctly identified, determine if uniform treatment is needed or if spot treatment can work.
• Apply the amount of fertilizer and/or pesticide intended by measuring the treatment area and calibrating your spreader.
• Avoid applying fertilizers and pesticides on paved surfaces and near storm drains, surface waters and drinking water wells. Drop spreaders allow for controlled applications.
• Always read label directions carefully and store these products in dry, well-ventilated places in their original containers.
• Buy only the amount needed and dispose of unused products properly. We recommend that you take them to a hazardous waste collection site or event.

If you do use chemicals, remember to follow precautions. It's important not to use too much. That's bad for the lawn, bad for the water and potentially bad for you. Excess chemicals won't be absorbed, so they will travel with rainfall or heavy watering into storm drains and eventually into the river.

If you use pesticides, or weed and feed products (which contain pesticides) remember that the residue can be tracked into your home on your shoes, so be sure to leave the shoes in a shed or garage. Keep all chemical preparations away from children and pets to avoid accidental exposure.

Wise Water Use
The key to proper watering is to apply only the amount needed at the best time using the best methods possible to minimize water losses and adverse impacts to plants. Consider planting drought tolerant and/or native plants. Most lawns require about one inch of water each week to remain actively growing during summer months. Vegetable crops require about one to two inches each week depending on root depth, growth stage, and soil type. This represents a lot of water. When there is a lack of weekly rainfall, it is crucial that irrigators pay close attention to the weather and water wisely. Not only does improper irrigation waste valuable water, but excess irrigation water can also carry fertilizers, pesticides and other pollutants to ground and surface waters. A proper irrigation system with timing features can offer an excellent solution.