Green Choices for Eco-Friendly Landscaping: 5 Easy Tips

Help the Environment and Your Budget

People tend to think of eco-friendly landscaping choices or "going green" as having to make sacrifices or settle for less. While some eco-friendly decisions do require changing your expectations, there are some simple green landscaping ideas that are easy to implement and give a lot back. These eco-friendly landscaping options are not only better for the environment, but can help save on heating, cooling, and grocery bills!

Start green landscaping by reducing the lawn size and replacing it with native plants. Anyone who has to mow their lawn every week will be excited about this eco-friendly landscaping choice. Turf grass takes a lot of water, mowing, fertilizing and other chemical treatments to keep it looking good. Native plants, on the other hand, are a better eco-friendly landscaping option because they are accustomed to your environment and take a lot less water and upkeep.

There's no need to tear out the entire lawn, but any amount you remove will be less mowing and less water needed. Even non-native plantings take less watering than turf grass. A smaller lawn will also be easier to mow and you can opt for a more eco-friendly reel or electric mower rather than a polluting gas mower. A small lawn bordered by beautiful plants and native grasses can be a beautiful landscaping design as well as an eco-friendly landscaping choice!

Learn about the native plants for your area and how to incorporate them into green landscaping at PlantNative and For-Wild.

Collect water in rain barrels and use for eco-friendly landscape watering. Rain water is beneficial to plants because it is naturally soft water and contains less contaminants and chemicals than you'll find in municipal water. Rain water is an eco-friendly landscaping choice for plants, but will also save you money on your water bill. Think of all the water that pours out of the gutters into the ground when it rains--you could be harvesting that water and using it to green the landscaping and vegetable garden.