In This Chapter
Benefits of a green landscape
Hiring professionals—or not
Fundamentals of xeriscaping
Your sustainability initiative extends outside your product line and place of business to include your outside property. And first impressions of your business often come from the aesthetics of your landscape, because a well-landscaped business invites interest and reflects the values of the owners. Whether you’re in an office building with a parking lot, a warehouse bay in an industrial zone, a retail strip mall, or a quaint historic house in your town’s center, you may also reduce your impact on the environment by tending to your water use, plantings, and tree cover. You can cut landscaping costs; beautify your workplace; and create an inviting presence that customers, colleagues, and staff can enjoy. Creating an inviting landscape that shows an interest and a concern to environmental needs can increase your business traffic.
Designing a sustainable outdoor environment has many benefits over conventional lawn and landscape designs. Perhaps the greatest benefit is being part of an environmental solution. As our population continues to increase, placing demands on our natural resources, it will become more important for individuals and businesses to share a desire to use our resources wisely and in a way that is friendly to the planet and to each other.
You may not have a green thumb of your own, or even if you do, your time is probably spent attending to other business details. So you may want to hire landscaping professionals to manage your outdoor environment. Let’s look at several important factors to consider when making this decision.
One option is to consult your local county extension agent for a referral to someone who can meet your needs. Look for a company that understands and appreciates your desire to be kind to the planet and create a sustainable business.
But before you pick up the phone, remember that an important element of sustainability and the green movement is to create more satisfying lives where we strike a healthier balance between work, family, and creativity. Spending time outdoors and being involved with nature is relaxing and nourishing for our souls. Even if you can’t find the time or energy to tackle this job yourself, you might consider whether any of your employees would be interested in taking on this task as part of their routine, giving them the chance to get outside once a week or so and a reason to take pride in the appearance of their business.
How much does maintenance of your outdoor environment cost you now? Here are a few things you’ll want to factor in to your decision to create a sustainable landscape:
Do you have to pay for lawn care or area maintenance?
Does someone sweep and clean a concrete or asphalt yard regularly? How long does it take this person, and how much do you pay him?
Labor is always one of the highest costs of a business. Compare the wages of your own employees to that of a landscaper you might hire.
What will your maintenance savings be?
How much water do you use, and what does that cost?
Do you have to replace plantings or container plants with the seasons? What are the costs involved?
Calculate the costs of replacing your lawn or existing landscape with native plants. What are your savings with a green landscape?
That lovely all-American green lawn certainly looks great but comes with a high price when considering the maintenance costs and the cost of our natural water resources. Most of our common landscaping plants and lawns are based on hybrids—plants raised in exotic locales or greenhouses that need extra care, water, and chemicals to survive long term after they are planted.
If you’ve got a swath of green lawn, you might want to consider replacing the high-maintenance grass and hybrid plants with native plantings indigenous to your area, which are basically maintenance free, attractive, and well adapted to local climate fluctuations. Having survived over long periods of time through changes in climate and attacks from insects and diseases, these plants have adapted and built defenses that make them able to continue to survive with minimal input from us. Although any plant benefits from being watered and given a steady dressing of fertilizers, natives survive despite their conditions. By utilizing native plants in a green landscape, you promote the continued process of survival of these plants as well as the insect and animal life that have survived and developed along with them.
Native plants, used to the water variations in your area, can tolerate the hot summer droughts far better than transplants from more tropical areas, so you’ll use less water. Using less water means saving money and also reducing waste because you won’t be watching that water wash down the sidewalks and into the gutters.
Xeriscaping reduces maintenance and conserves resources by making use of several basic fundamentals. Once promoted in locales where fresh water supplies were limited, xeriscaping is now widespread and a foundation for conservation-minded landscaping. Herbs are excellent choices for the xeriscape, especially rosemary, sage, thyme, and lavender. These small-leaf herbs are well adapted to hot, sunny climates and with their lower watering needs are low maintenance.
Native planting has become quite popular in the past decade or two as agricultural specialists recognize the dangers of using exotic plants, which can often be invasive in communities. Check with your local agriculture extension office to find a native plant nursery in your area and see Appendix B for tips and resources about xeriscaping from Denver Water.
Note
Xeriscaping is landscaping based on conserving water. From a combination of the Greek word xeros (meaning dry) and landscaping, xeriscaping (pronounced 
) utilizes a combination of native plants, soil management, and water management to create a landscape that, when established, has a minimal demand on water and maintenance resources. The term xeriscaping was coined in Colorado by Denver’s water department.
Plant placement is another key component for the successful green landscape. The design of the landscape should take advantage of the direction of the light source, the size of the plants and trees, the water requirements, and the growth habits. Considering these factors in the design will create an integrated plant environment that will make the best use of the natural characteristics of the plants and their relation to each other—certainly a goal of an environmentally sound landscape.
Plant leaves come in all shapes and sizes. Consider planting larger-leaf, sun-loving varieties so their leaves shade smaller plants that are less tolerant of the sun.
Trees and small shrubs are important sources for filtering light and protecting the soil from the harsh sunlight. Using deciduous trees and shrubs enables the warming sun to reach plants during the cooler weather months and provides valuable organic matter to the soil when the leaves drop.
A green landscape is a diverse landscape. Instead of planting one or two varieties of trees and shrubs, incorporate several varieties as well as different sizes and colors, shapes, and smells. The result is a micro ecosystem that will invite an assortment of wildlife and create a buffer to diseases or insect destruction as well. The varied native landscape acts as its own natural pest control. Not only have individual plants developed natural defenses over time, but, inter-planted with numerous other native species, they enhance their own defenses against disease and insect attacks.
The positive result of this natural defense system allows you, the business owner, to buy and use fewer harmful pesticides. Remember the “-cide” in pesticides means “to kill.” By developing a green landscape and creating a diverse planting scheme, nature manages the landscape with a natural balance. Green landscapes deter overpopulation of destructive insects with a balance of beneficial insects, and this reduces or eliminates the need to use harmful chemicals for their control.
Hazard
Some natural and organic pesticides—such as Pyrethrum, Rotenone, and Diatomaceous Earth—can be dangerous when used improperly. Avoid breathing in the dust of these products, and don’t use more than you need—overdosing can harm the beneficial insects your organic landscape needs to thrive.
If pests do become a problem, you can buy organic gardening products made from plant materials, or you can easily make natural pest deterrents with simple products such as cayenne pepper, garlic, and vinegar. Keep in mind, however, that just because a product is natural or organic does not necessarily mean it is safe. Some of these natural deterrents are potent; read labels to ensure proper administration and use them with care. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registers pesticides for use and requires manufacturers to put information on the label about when and how to use the pesticide.
Saving water is a key purpose in greening your landscape. Our water resources are continually threatened by nature and man. As the population increases, demand for water grows, land is paved for expanded development, fertilizer runoff from farms and lawns gets into our streams and rivers, and droughts seem to be increasing in frequency and duration. Conserving and protecting this natural resource is paramount. Using less water means saving money and reducing waste, so let’s look at some ways you can put water conservation to use in your landscape.
Overhead sprinklers result in a lot of wasted water because it either evaporates or runs off, never reaching the plants and soil it’s intended for. Water loss estimates due to evaporation are as high as 35 percent—and you’re paying for the water that just washes away, as well as the electricity to run the sprinklers and water pump. It’s best to run overhead systems early in the morning when evaporation is minimal, but other alternatives are more efficient, can conserve water, and can place water where it is needed. And you’ll save with a lower water bill.
Drip irrigation is a system of watering that emphasizes water conservation by delivering water directly to the root zone through a system of tubing, emitters, and soaker hoses perforated with thousands of small holes. Soaker hoses, which can be placed directly on top of the soil or even covered with soil or mulch for aesthetics, put the water in direct contact with the soil and fertilizer, minimizing wasteful evaporation and maximizing the amount of dissolved fertilizer the plant can uptake.
Another benefit of drip irrigation and soaker hoses is a deeper root zone. As roots go deeper, they are less affected by the hot soil above, resulting in plants that can withstand hotter afternoon temperatures. Although watering times may be longer at first to facilitate deeper root zones, the result is that less water is eventually needed. Frequent, shorter watering from overhead irrigation creates a shallow root zone which causes plants to wilt more frequently and landscape maintenance requirements to increase. A great rule of thumb for establishing your plants in the landscape is to water as long as possible to maximize root depth and as infrequently as possible to minimize maintenance. Drip irrigation accomplishes this.
Irrigation timers are available to fit any business budget and any size landscape. Simple screw-on dial-type timers that connect to outside water faucets can let you dial in a duration period for water flow and then shut off, while more sophisticated programmable timers enable you to choose the duration period.
If you consider the importance of water conservation, you can easily understand why implementing a rain collection system is not only economical but a wise environmental choice. Water runoff picks up all the pollutants found in our yards, parking lots, and streets on its journey to our waterways. This is called nonsource point pollution and is considered the greatest source of pollution to threaten our waterways. So saving rainwater before it has a chance to become runoff is good common sense. As a business owner, the opportunity to harvest rainwater for reuse presents a good way to conserve water and save money. The costs involved are minimal and balanced by the reduced cost of water usage. Collecting rainwater can be done on a small or large scale. You can convert food storage barrels, wine barrels, and whiskey barrels into rain barrels or buy water tanks of all sizes for collecting and storing rainwater. The practice of building cisterns for water collection has gone on for centuries out of necessity, and today many use cisterns out of a basic concern for water conservation.
Collecting rainwater for green landscaping does require a little forethought in deciding just how you are going to use the water. Many businesses have large roof surfaces, and the amount of collected water can be quite surprising. Deciding on the size of collection container is also important, as most food-grade barrels average from 50 to 80 gallons of water. Considering that 1 inch of rain on a 1,000 square-foot roof will give you more than 600 gallons of water, it’s easy to see that several barrels will be needed to make use of that amount of water.
A rain barrel collects water.
(Courtesy James Steele)
Although many types of barrels and containers are available, it’s important to know what they originally held, because some may have contained toxic chemicals. See Appendix B for ideas on finding the best container for your needs.
Getting the collected rain to your landscape is another aspect to consider. In smaller collection systems, gravity is the main force that will get the water to your plants, so you may consider using xeriscape techniques, enabling the water to flow through tubing to irrigate the nearby plants. As the collection containers become larger and perhaps even more permanent as a cistern, you might utilize small pumping devices to send the water where you need it, but this will cost money.
Some basic requirements for your collection system are necessary. Ideally, roofs of tile and metal provide the safest, cleanest surfaces with minimal contamination to the water. You’ll need to install and maintain a gutter system, which includes screen filters at the top of the downspout as well as the entry point into the container. Screening prevents leaves and other natural substances from entering your barrel and also prevents mosquitoes from laying eggs in your water container. An overflow outlet will be necessary to allow excess water to flow away from the collection container. You can connect several containers with simple overflow tubes to create a larger-capacity system. Water quality is also a concern when using collection containers, but the water will be used for landscape maintenance and not for drinking, unless you install a sanitation filtration system.
Going Green
If you would like to make your own rain barrel, the city of Bremerton, Washington, provides step-by-step instructions and advice: www.cityofbremerton.com/content/sw_makeyourownrainbarrel.html.
A well-planned water collection system is a wise, inexpensive choice for greening your landscape as well as providing water for indoor plants. Rainwater is much more beneficial to plants than treated city water thanks to the natural nitrogen converted by lightning in the atmosphere—a kind of fertilizer from the sky. It makes sense to capture this green rain for your green landscape; it’s free, it’s recycling, and it’s an environmentally wise choice for a green business. You’ll invest about $50 for each rain barrel, and you may already have a guttering system to feed into it. If you don’t, installing gutters along your roofline isn’t cost prohibitive. In the long run, capturing the rainwater to use for irrigation will save you money when compared against using city water for irrigation, and it’s just a good idea to make use of the resource that otherwise slips by and runs down into the sewer drains.
You might want to check building codes and check with your plumber to see whether you can reuse greywater to irrigate your landscape. Greywater from sinks, dishwashers, laundry machines, and showers has been used but is not so contaminated that it can’t still be useful and reusable in the landscape.
Terracing is an age-old practice of preventing water runoff and soil erosion by turning a sloping area into several flatter levels, creating a series of extended steps. This step effect slows down the water, giving it more time to be absorbed into the soil where it is needed rather than washing away and bringing the soil with it. In the green landscape, terracing becomes an attractive way to turn sloping areas into areas of water conservation.
Soil conservation is an important benefit of green landscaping and xeriscaping. Soil is the foundation and support system for our plants and trees and the main holding area for the dissolved fertilizers waiting to be taken into the plant. A healthy soil will produce healthy plants. As a business owner considering green landscaping, talk with your landscaper to make sure the company understands the value of soil conservation. Healthy soils are alive with organic matter, microorganisms, minerals, air, and water. These soils provide the pathway for roots to penetrate and act like sponges to absorb rainfall or drip irrigation. They hold this water, along with dissolved fertilizers, long enough for the plants to absorb them. Healthy organic soils promote root growth and, coupled with organic matter, reduce soil erosion. The key benefit of a healthy soil is a healthy plant or tree, which results in fewer diseases, fewer pests, and less maintenance.
Soils remain healthy when there is a constant supply of organic matter feeding soil microorganisms. When it comes time to rake leaves, instead of bagging them up and hauling them off, use them around plants and trees as natural mulch and compost the excess. Compost is the single most important soil additive you can place in your landscape, and it’s free. It provides a well-balanced helping of carbon, nitrogen, and many other necessary elements plants need for good growth. Compost is easy to make. Many composters are available on the market today in all sizes and shapes to fit your business needs and aesthetics. Often the key ingredients in compost, nitrogen and carbon, are bagged as cut grass and raked leaves and not even used in most landscapes. Save these landscape nutrients by reusing them to create a sustainable landscape.
Your interest in developing a green landscape for your business will eventually lead you to composting, and this doesn’t have to leave you restricted to using outdoor materials. Consider putting several recycle bins in your food preparation and snack room areas. Not only can you recycle your papers, plastic, and glass, but also consider the wealth of ingredients for your compost pile from leftover food scraps. Coffee grounds are a great source of nutrients for the compost pile, as are any vegetable wastes and eggshells. But don’t add any meat or dairy scraps to your compost bins. A diverse compost pile leads to great soil. The resulting compost eliminates the need for synthetic fertilizers, which are costly and created from petrochemicals. We want to avoid adding these to the landscape, soil, and water because of their potential as environmental poisons.
Your compost is alive and dining all the time. Following are the best ways to feed the bacteria that will turn your scraps into rich, fertile soil:
Compost ingredients: A ratio is 3 parts green material to 1 part brown material.
Do use:
Vegetable scraps
Grass clippings, leaves
Fruit, peelings
The previous green materials provide nitrogen for your bacteria.
Brown leaves, dried grass, corn husks, paper, and very small-diameter vines are the brown materials that break down slower but add carbon and trace minerals to your pile.
Do not use:
Meat and dairy products: These break down slowly and actually putrefy, causing bad odors that attract animals and rodents.
Pet and human feces: These contain bacteria that often survive the composting process and may spread disease. Farm animal manure is different due to their grain and grass diet (i.e., chicken manure, horse manure, cow manure, and rabbit manure).
Avoid diseased plants, as the pile may not get hot enough to kill the pathogens and thus you will be spreading the disease back onto your landscape.
Compost is the ideal fertilizer, but sometimes you may need a supplement and the use of natural fertilizers. Synthetic fertilizers are petroleum-based, and the processes to manufacture them require great energy outputs and mining. Synthetic fertilizers on the market today are made for quick results, completely bypassing the natural cycle of interacting with the soil and soil organisms, the heart of organic gardening and green landscaping. Talk to your landscaper about fertilizer to be sure he uses natural fertilizers for your landscape. Bone meal, blood meal, cottonseed meal, fish emulsion, seaweed, manures, and wood ash are all examples of natural fertilizers. These fertilizers are lower in nutrient value than synthetics and break down more slowly, but their interaction with soil bacteria and in building soil nutrition makes them a valuable choice.
Hazard
Some fertilizers are marketed as organic, but they’re actually created from sewage sludge—waste left over from our sewer plants when the water has been removed. This waste is in fact human waste and is often contaminated with the pharmaceutical products that humans ingested. These chemicals can be dangerous, and using sewage sludge as fertilizer has been implicated in hormone disorders and illnesses among field animals exposed to such sludge. Check the label when you’re buying organic fertilizer and select products that are not related to sewage sludge.
Mulch provides several advantages in creating a greener, maintenance-free landscape by minimizing the growth of weeds, providing a protective blanket over the soil to minimize water evaporation, keeping the soil cooler, and protecting shallow rooted plantings from getting too hot. Natural organic mulches such as pine bark, wood chips, leaves, and pine needles are not only aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but as they break down over time, they also add nutrients, including humus, to the soil and improve soil structure.
Note
In agriculture, humus is sometimes used to describe mature compost, or natural compost extracted from a forest or other spontaneous source for use to amend soil. It is also used to describe a topsoil horizon that contains organic matter.
To be effective, organic mulches should be at least 4 inches thick. Over time they will break down and need to be replenished. Other popular mulches are small river rocks and gravel. Although they don’t break down to provide nourishment to the soil, they do keep weeds out and maintain moisture, and they don’t have to be replaced. Glass nuggets are becoming quite popular and provide a beautiful touch to the landscape while recycling a valuable resource. See Appendix B for information about recycled glass mulch from American Specialty Glass.
Green landscaping is a better use of our flora, utilizing native plants and trees acclimated to the local climate and thus putting less demand on water resources.
Incorporate innovative design techniques that work with nature, and build a better sustainable habitat for both flora and fauna, reducing or eliminating the need for harmful pesticides.
Water conservation through innovative watering techniques and rainwater harvesting saves hundreds of gallons of water yearly.
Recycling natural materials for composting and mulching and returning these materials to the landscape eliminates our need for synthetic fertilizers.