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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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Compost gardening is good for the environment, budget friendly and great for your fruits, vegetables and flowering plants. If you are maintaining your own compost piles or bins, you can run into some minor problems with them, so the first priority is to have a well functioning compost heap or compost tumbler.

Your compost pile should be a good balance of browns and greens, be kept moist at all times, and covered when it is very wet and rainy.

• Chop up your twigs, clippings, and vegetation as small as you reasonably can, and the process will go much faster for you. Adding a can of worms, or a thin layer of soil to your pile will help it along. Cow and horse manure are also good.
• There are artificial additives that can be mixed with your compost, such as nitrogen fertilizer. This will accelerate the process.
• Mix it with your organic materials.
• If it starts to smell like rotten eggs, it might have gotten too wet.
• Add shredded newspaper, dried leaves, or grass, and turn it over, mixing well.
• Adding some lime will help to lessen the smell. But if it smells like ammonia, use fireplace ashes or dolomite to neutralize the odor.

To keep pets, flies, and vermin away, don’t put any type of meat, fish, fatty food scraps, egg yolks, or bones in your compost mix. Compost flies are actually a good thing, as they indicate that the compost is decomposing nicely. Using a tarp or a bin with a lid, will help to keep that problem to a minimum.

Ants will gravitate to dry compost heaps, but they are good for distributing the material and mixing it up for you.

• Get rid of them before you add the compost to the garden by watering it well. The ants will vacate and your compost will be ready to do its job.
• If the compost gets too dry fungal spores (a fine powder) may form which when disturbed can be dangerous to breathe in. If this occurs, wet the heap, cover with soil and allow to sit for a few days.
• If the compost gets too wet turning it to incorporate air should help as will the addition of some dry material such as grass clippings.

Once the compost is dark, crumbly and no longer smells bad, you can add it to your garden.

• Mix it lightly in with the garden soil, or use it as mulch around your plants, shrubs, fruit trees, and flowers.
• As water seeps into the ground, the fine roots will suck up the nutrients from the compost. It will also help to keep the soil moist in arid times or when it is hot and windy.

Don’t forget to wear gardening gloves when handling compost and always wash your hands when you are through!

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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.

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Like any hobby, growing a family-sized garden can quickly get out of control. Often your plans will exceed your abilities to care for, and maintain, what actually comes to fruition. It is also tempting to fall for every ad and display that you see, promising the best and most useful gardening tools.

Absolutely necessary for the care or success of your venture.

• While many of these tools may be nice, few are actually required to have a successful gardening experience. Advanced gardeners enjoy professional greenhouses and hydroponics equipment.
• The reality is that you can grow a very beautiful garden with only a handful of basic gardening tools.

Below you will find the tools that are needed in order to be able to garden successfully.

Soil Preparation and Planting

Even a beginning gardener needs to pay a bit of attention to preparing their soil properly.

• Luckily, this does not require a lot more than just basic physical effort. Necessary tools for planting and preparation include the following.

Shovel – Every gardener should have a shovel on hand.

• This basic tool is excellent for digging small areas for soil preparation, as well as planting large crops, such as potatoes.
• A shovel can be used to create mounds and designate large rows as well.

Rake – Once the soil has been prepared, a basic garden rake can help to smooth and level the garden patch.

• Rakes are also used to create tiny rows for small seed planting, such as carrots or lettuce.
• To cover already planted rows, the rake is also the tool of choice.

tiller – A tiller is a large-scale and expensive tool, but it can make the job a whole lot easier. Your soil will need to be turned and loosened at the beginning of each gardening season.

• Unless you have a very small garden area, or work with raised beds, you will need a tiller or garden tractor to accomplish this task.
• Many gardeners rent tillers or borrow from a close neighbor who owns one. In order for this to work, be sure to take better care of the tool than they expect, or they will not offer it again. If you do decide to purchase, look for a used model to save money.

Trowel – This is the basic tool of choice whenever you are planting seedlings. A trowel is a tiny shovel-like hand tool that creates the perfect-sized hole for seedlings.

• Trowels are also great for creating short planting trenches, and for digging in amendments around already planted areas.

Gardening Clothing

There are really only a few pieces of gardening clothing that are absolutely necessary for the best functionality of your gardening efforts.

• While things like hats and gardening aprons can add to your ease of work, they are not required for a successful garden. The following is what you will need.

Gardening gloves – Your job in the garden will be so much easier if you have a pair of well-designed gardening gloves.

• These are very inexpensive and serve to protect your hands, as well as offering greater traction for things like weed pulling. Getting your hands wet and dirty can really affect your skin, so be sure to protect it will a good pair of gloves.

Gardening shoes – There are several choices for decent gardening shoes, but you will definitely want to set aside a pair that you can get dirty; otherwise, you will tracking garden dirt and mud into your home.

• An old pair of canvas tennis shoes can do the trick just fine; just be sure to remove them outside your door. Some people prefer breathable rubber shoes especially designed for the dirty gardening environment. These can be sprayed off with a hose whenever necessary.

Pruning

Pruning is a vital part of plant and tree care. The following guide can be useful to help you prune properly.

Three basic tools suffice for most pruning jobs: shears, loppers, and a pruning saw. Keep them sharp for clean cuts; disinfect after pruning diseased material.

1. Prune Roses

Prune in winter or early spring when plants are still dormant. Prune plants to maintain symmetrical bushes and to encourage strong new growth. Cut back all previous years growth approximately one-third its length. Remove branches that cross through center and remove plants understock. Also prune weak and dead stems as needed. This tends to encourage strong new growth. The new and very popular “Knockout Roses” are really best left alone unless you find dead spots on them, prune them as soon as you see them regardless of the season.

2. Prune Crepe Myrtles

The best time to prune crepe myrtles is in February. Prune out twiggy stems and any dead wood. Thin out crossing or crowding branches in the plants center. If tree form, prune lower branches. Prune top ~to keep symmetry. Each year after flowering, cut 12 to 18 inches off the tips of branches that have bloomed.

3. Prune Hollies

Prune in winter or early spring mostly to shape plants. Cut back wayward branches and prune out weak unproductive dead stems as needed.

4. Prune Butterfly Bushes

Butterfly bushes bloom in summer on new spring growth. They may be pruned in late winter or early spring. By pruning old blooms you are going to encourage new flowers. Also prune out old dead and unproductive branches.

5. Prune Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas fall into two groups. Some you prune in early spring and others after the flowers fade.

1. Early Spring Pruning

Hydrangeas bloom on new growth. These plants are Climbing Hydrangea, Annabelle, Grandiflora, and PeeGees.

2. After-Bloom Pruning

Hydrangeas bloom on last years stems. Included in this are Bigleaf Hydrangeas, Oakleaf Hydrangeas, Lacecaps, SummerBeauty, and Nikko Blue. Pruning should be done when the flower has faded. Cut back the flowering stems to the strongest pair of new shoots. As plants mature, begin to thin out the oldest woody stems. Remove crowded crossing, broken, or dead branches.

6. Prune Clematis

Clematis can be put in three categories: Spring-flowering, summer-flowering , and twice-flowering.

1. Spring-blooming

Clematis produce flowers on stems that grew in the previous year. Prune when flowers are done blooming. Cut back the flowers that are dead. Prune out any old dead stems also.

2. Summer-blooming

Plants bloom on new growth produced in the spring. Cut back stems before new growth begins. Late autumn or early spring is a good time to prune. Cut back about 12 inches of old growth. Every year the vine will grow larger and stronger.

3. Twice-blooming

Plants first bloom in spring on stems produced the previous year. Late summer or fall would be the next bloom time. In late fall or very early spring, prune lightly to thin the stems. After the spring bloom, prune more heavily to get more healthy stems to develop for the next bloom. After the second bloom, prune old flowers away.

7.Prune Fruit Trees

By far the most common fruit trees are apple, peach, pear and cherry.

1. Apple Trees

Apple treesneeds to be pruned in late winter or early spring before new growth starts. Always remove all suckers (summer is a superb time). Also remove dead along with otherunproductive limbs as needed.

2. Peach Trees

Peach trees are fast growing and ought to be pruned in winter. Without pruning the peaches will grow farther from the tree’s center. This may put great strain on the branches, causing them to break. In winter, thin out upward-growing branches that cross in tree’s center.

3. Pear Trees

Prune back in early spring. Always prune dead and unproductive branches as needed.

4. Cherry Trees

Prune in winter. Prune out branches that cross in center and dead unproductive branches as needed.

8. Prune Azaleas and Rhododendrons

They may be pruned in winter or early spring. However pruning at that time will prevent plants from producing many blooms. The most effective time to prune azaleas and rhododendrons is definitely after their blooming period in spring.When you prune at that time, no additional pruning is going to benecessary.

9 Prune Junipers

Junipers need very minimal pruning. They ought tobe pruned to correct their shape, to accent their form,as well as to limit their size. This should always be done during the juniper’s growing stages in mid-summer.

10. Prune Flowering Trees

Flowering trees need to be pruned once they have finished blooming. Prune as little as possible. Dead branches, branches that cross in the center, and branches which are unproductive need to be pruned out.

Three basic tools suffice for most pruning jobs: shears, loppers, and a pruning saw. Keep them sharp for clean cuts; disinfect after pruning diseased material.