If you walked away from your yard for a year, what do you think it would look like when you returned?
If it’s a typical American landscape, the grass would be dead, the shrubs overgrown, and weeds would be rampant.
If it’s Owen Dell’s property in Santa Barbara, Calif., the yard might be just a tad messy. That’s because the landscape architect has created a sustainable landscape that practically takes care of itself.
“A sustainable landscape is a stable ecosystem that is relatively self-regulating,” he says. “It places few demands on the environment, has a low negative impact and has a high delivery of services.”
Dell, 60, is an internationally known speaker and author of “Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies” (Wiley Publishing, 2009). He wrote the book to help homeowners learn how to create landscapes that are beautiful and functional.
The problem with a conventionally managed landscape is that it uses time, money, energy and resources in a continuing cycle of “fertilize, grow, prune, dispose of prunings and fertilize some more.”
Dell says most people don’t appreciate the demands of a conventional landscape, even though they spend their weekends mowing the lawn and bagging the clippings to send to the landfill.
Lawns have the most negative impact of any landscape feature, he says. A one-third-acre lawn, conventionally managed, can generate almost 2 tons of grass clippings each year.
While no landscape is completely maintenance-free, a sustainable landscape doesn’t require the same high level of care. It also becomes easier to maintain over time.
Dell gardens on about 2,500 square feet and grows more than 130 varieties of flowers, vegetables, herbs and fruit. He uses only two tools for maintenance: pruning shears for deadheading and an asparagus knife for weeding.
Dell’s goal is to make landscaping smarter, safer, and more environmentally friendly by following nature’s lead. “No one manages nature, and it lives on its own income.”
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Waste not, want not
A zero-waste landscape, says Owen Dell, is one where anything that grows on the property, stays on the property. Zero waste means finding creative ways to keep landscape and garden debris out of the waste stream by thinking of them as a resource.
Instead of bagging grass clippings, use a mulching mower or collect the clippings for compost. Use the chop-and-drop method of pruning: cutting pruned limbs into little pieces, leaving them to mulch the plant that produce them.
Eliminate waste sources. Dell estimates that 40 percent of all gardening work consists of cutting things back. Before planting, check height and width of the mature plant and give it room to grow.
Start on the right foot. Dell says careful planning will help minimize maintenance in new landscapes. “Read do-it-yourself books, or hire a landscape architect familiar with sustainable landscape principles to create an ecosystem for you,” he urges.
Go the distance. Plant long-lived, drought-tolerant species, and keep lawns to a minimum or plant meadow instead. Minimize bare ground to deter weeds.
Yank the time-wasters. In existing landscapes, ask yourself: “What’s causing me the most work?” and “Is this plant really necessary?” Get rid of them.
Conserve your wallet, too. Go for less-than-zero waste by actually pulling waste out of the system. Dell says this means reusing materials, like broken concrete or even old bowling balls, for spicing up the hardscape. “There are all kinds of fun and imaginative things you can do.”
