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Sustainable landscaping is the process of working with the environment where you design landscapes that is in tune with the weather conditions

It needs no other resources such as organic  minerals or any other soil nutrients.

There are many different levels of sustainable landscaping, the best way to get involved is to just start somewhere by setting short and long term goals.

A small objective could be putting up a composting bin.

A much better way could be creating a sustainable area where harmful chemicals are eliminated for good.

Following are helpful tips on how to create a sustainable landscape:

1. Shrink Your Lawn

Those expanses of green turf take an enormous amount of resources.

Take out some lawn and design a natural background.

You’ll save on fresh water and this ultimately save you money on water bills.

Moreover, you may not need to use the raker or the hoe often.

2. Store rain water in barrels

Harvesting rain water in barrels helps to conserve water and save money.

Usually rain water is pure and of good quality.

You can even use it for drinking consumption.

3. Use a protective cover like mulch.

Mulched beds improve the appearance of any landscape.

Though more valuable than this is that it germinates the seeds and provides micro-nutrients when it decays.

Mulch slows soil erosion, retains moisture and helps to prevent weeds.

You’ll save some time watering your plants, in turn lets you enjoy your garden.

4. Compost, Compost, Compost

Composting organic waste from your home improves garden soil because it generates humus.

By composting you minimize your garbage wastes, thus lessening the greenhouse gases.

You save on your expenditures on chemicals as well.

5. Plant the natives

Indigenous plants can adjust in any soil condition and weather the harshest climate.

They are also better able to resist pests and diseases, thus reducing the need for harmful chemicals.

6. Attract Pollinators to Your Yard

By growing a variety of plants you increase the number of different wildlife species that are attracted to your garden.

Insects, bees, birds and bats contribute to a healthy ecosystem by transporting pollen from one plant to another during fertilization.

7. Plant Deciduous Trees

Consider deciduous leaf shrubs near your home to cut your electricity bills in summer season.

Deciduous trees drop their foliage in fall and this allows more sunshine in your house.

But, trees deliver more than cost savings; they are important carbon sinks and help to reduce global climate change.

8. Plant Edible Ornamentals

Aside from beautifying your garden, it would be great if you can have edible shrubs in them.

Onion chives, scallions, and cherry tomatoes would look nice in your ornamental orchard.

9. Choose natural resources

Rather than using exotic materials trucked in great distances for your landscaping projects, consider using stone, salvageable concrete, used bricks, and other recyclable materials found locally.

10. Use alternative power gears

You can use a push reel mower rather than a power mower.

You can just use a hoe and hand shears rather than an electric weed trimmer.

You can just allow leaves on the ground to decay to convert into soil nutrients instead of still using a leaf blower.

Better yet, think of having a meadow rather than just a lawn.

I have been involved with Sustainable Calgary Landscaping in Calgary, Alberta Canada for a long time. These Tips have been implemented with my company for over 8 years.  We have had alot of fun Landscaping in Calgary over the years. What we do will work almost anywhere in the world to create sustainable landscapes.

Remember, just because I use this with Landscaping Calgary, doesn’t mean it won’t work in your local area. Now get out there and try things out!

Written by: Custom Stone and Waterscapes ?3829 Parkhill Place SW, Calgary, AB T2S 2W6 (403) 870-1142

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Gardening has turned out to be so much fun, even if we only get a little done at a time.

I walk by some nice home gardens when I am out for my exercise but the ones that stand out the most to me are the few places than have sunflowers growing.

I am always amazed how how fast they grow and how big they get. But it really seems to be the sun that makes the biggest difference.

I see the places that have sunflowers growing. Because I messed up the first year we planted our garden because I didn’t pay attention to where the sun was going to be as the summer progresses I didn’t have much of a garden. It was still an amazing experience and lesson learned.

I saw a row of sunflowers that were much taller than I am. So tall that I could barly reach my arms up to take this picture. The head on the sunflower, where the seeds are, was nearly a foot across.

They same place this sunflower is has had them growing for years and it just makes my day every time I walk past them.

I take pictures every few days and it made me think I would like to have a sunflower growing in our year.

Then a friend calls telling me she has a girl friend who has a daughter. She planted a sunflower but it was not doing too well. So she asked me if they could plant it in our yard for her.

I couldn’t say no to that and it was perfect because I had set the pack of sunflower seed down somewhere and ended up planting my almost a month too later. So they are only a foot high.

Peggy brought the sunflower plant over and I planted it in corner of our little garden. It’s still a little plant, only 3 1/2 feet tall but it’s got this cute little flower blooming.

The view on my walk is getting better every day. We are into June now and flowers, trees, shrubs and bushes are blossoming every where. It makes it hard to keep walking when I stop every few houses to take another picture.

The image on the left was taken right next to a little park I pass. gardeners in the park have to work hard to make it look anywhere’s close to this. But I see today they are working hard at it.

Right next to the bright pink rhododendron was this gorgeous orange one. It’s the only orange one I have seen in Moncton. We have two rhododendrons in our yard but only one flowers yet. We are hoping the second one will flower next year and we will see what colour it is. I’m hoping for pink or orange.

But we will be happy to just see it bloom. I kind of thought it was ugly when we first bought this home and I cut it off. Fortunately it grew back.

I took a lot more pictures but I think that’s enough for today. I’ll save some for next weeks

What a beautiful day in New Brunswick for Victoria Day.

I left for my walk about 8am and the sun was already bright in the sky and by the time I was home again at about 9am I was glad for the breeze.

It’s going to be a hot day but it sure beats getting rained all over on Victoria Day.

I’m not doing anything in our yard today but thought I would share some of the images I took during my walk.

Lots of Lilacs blooming this week so I just have to start with a few lilac pictures of mauve and white lilacs.

We have both white and mauve lilacs going between our property and Geoff’s property on our north side. They are still growing but we get some beautiful blossoms, just not a lot of them yet.

Here are some mauve lilacs from just the next block. This guy has the biggest lilac bush, well blossoming one, I have ever seen here in Moncton. Very jealous.

I took a different path for my walk today and as I was walking up the street I thought I saw Mickey Mouse but when I got close I saw that it was Mickey’s family tree.

We have a couple of bleeding hearts that are really small as they were growing in a shaded area of the house. They were there when we bought the place and we only moved them to a sunnier place last fall. Hoping to get them to be as beautiful as these.

The bleeding hearts above have grown to about 10 feet wide by at least 4 feet high, gorgeous. I didn’t want to walk on their lawn so I tried zooming in. Not the best images but they still look great.

Have a great Victoria Day.

It’s April 13, sunny, above freezing, no snow and no wind. Last year on the other hand was a little different as we got dumped on with more snow on the 13th.

Time to get out for a walk and admire all the new flowers that have started popping up before Mother Nature turns on us. I should probable walk a lot longer when I am taking pictures because I spend too much time not walking.

I always like to see daffodils, they make me feel spring is here to stay plus they are a beautfitul flower that always seems to make me smile.

I’m surprised more people don’t have daffodils but I only passed three places that had them growing in the front yard. I guess that makes them stand out even more.

A few places had some pretty little pansies that really stood out. It always amazes me to see such a fragile looking flower surviving the cold winters we have in New Brunswick.

Here is a pansy that had this one little flower and was all alone in big flower bed of dirt.

It made me want to dig it up and take it home with me. I would put it in a spot where it could have lots of other friends.