Sustainable Landscaping

If you are doing a remodeling in your home and or patio/garden, before you throw all that stuff away, think of sustainable landscaping. If you thing that somehow you are not going to use it and recycle it, then share with your friends and neighbors, they might have a good use of it for their garden or patio.

You or they might from the excess timber or an old bed make a garden bench. Be able to create what’s missing out of what you already have in your landscape, create beds for the garden, use old vases and pots to add a particular plant or flower to the garden collection, or with that excess building materials such as wood, bricks, fencing etc. create a charming yet functional landscape adding that touch which feels personalized for your outdoor enjoyment, as if it was an extension of you home living. At the same time by recycling it feel good, because either by giving or using the excess for your garden you are contributing to send less stuff to the burden landfills which adds to soil, air and water pollution. The textures and shapes of materials you use in your garden are keys to your design. Learn how to choose the right landscape or hire a professional to help you create a hydrozoning landscape with bed layer, and with a good low flow water dripping system you minimize the water consumption and makes the garden more enjoyable with minimal and easy maintenance.

Posted by Alberto Isoni

Gardens, roof landscapes and patios

It’s summer and if you like to enjoy the outdoors, it’s nice to have a patio, garden or roof garden. The choices are several and very interesting and regardless of which one you prefer, some principle are the same and it might interest you the fact that beside of contributing color, aroma and aesthetic to the garden landscape, you can create one that is environmentally sustainable  and that conserves water and resources.

To chose and decide what style would best work for your situation you can work with a professional landscape designer or start some investigation on your own.  Some green environmental landscape entities made partially easier for us,  for example the well know roof top of the California Academy Museum studied several species of plants before deciding which ones would best work for their project to plant on the roof, and you can find the list on their website. Other organizations such as plants.usda.gov, iscc.ca.gov and stopwaste.org have very good categorizations and several detailed resources.  So you can create a garden with seasonal landscape with different aromas and colors, with plants that survive with minimal water and care, with native California plants species and by hydrozoning-grouping them by water needs you save water, conserve resources and have a more efficient outdoor ambiance.  I like that, when you can achieve aesthetic,  function and best environment practices all in one.

Below is the image of the famous roofgarden of the California Academy Museum in San Francisco.

Posted by Alberto Isoni