Going sustainable

Ripping out the front lawn and its bordering rhododendrons and replacing them with a landscape of native grasses, groundcovers, succulents and rocks once seemed an unfathomable act of defiance. No longer.

As many parts of the United States grapple with drought and rising water bills, The thought of an English garden in the Central Valley of California is sheer madness. It wasnt meant to be, and its sucking up precious groundwater we need for agriculture, said Ann Savageau, a design professor at the University of California at Davis, who recently traded in her lush green lawns for a desert look.

Instead of scoffing, neighbors stopped to ask her landscaper for his business card. Other California towns, including Sacramento and Menlo Park, have begun offering rebates to homeowners who remove their lawns.

Gardeners nationwide are feeling the effects of climate change. In the East, and other areas where heavy downpours have become more intense, a sustainable garden might include native grasses and other plants that do well in heavy rain and the dry weather that can follow.

Awareness is changing in a way that is here to stay, said Brian Sullivan, a vice president for landscapes at The New York Botanical Garden. Yard by yard, region by region, the overall environmental impact of this trend, which I think is very positive, is substantial.

Mowing and watering a traditional lawn requires a lot of time, money, water and fertilizers. Increasingly, many home gardeners want to focus instead on edible gardens, and rethink the rest of their landscaping in a more environmentally sustainable and low-maintenance way.

Its sometimes hard to know where to begin, however, and few people have the funds or time to tackle a total garden makeover all at once.

Some strategies:

Take it in steps

Transitions should be made at your own pace and you do these things in small steps, Sullivan said. Lawn has utility. We play on it, sing on it and look at it. You can still enjoy your lawn, but cut it down by a third or half, or go with groundcovers you can walk on. Theyre not the same, but its about shifting expectations.

Continued here:
Going sustainable