Plant the Right Plants
You may never think of this as a way to have an eco-friendly yard, which is why we’ve included it here. When planning your landscape, choose plants that are native to your area. Native plants are naturally adapted to your area so require less maintenance and water than exotic plants. This helps you to save the time and money spent on watering. They are also more resistant to pests and diseases reducing your need for pesticides. However, if you do need to use pesticides consider using biopesticides.
Planting the right plants in your lawn can also reduce home heating and cooling costs. Deciduous trees (trees that drop their leaves in the fall) provide excellent shade during the summer and when they drop their leaves they allow sunlight to filter into your house to assist with heating. Evergreen trees (trees that stay green the year round) provide a natural wall and windbreaker. They reduce the strength of chilly winds hitting your home in the winter months and help to prevent them from cooling down your house.
Electric-Powered Lawn Care Equipment
At the risk of performance-loss, you can use electric-powered over fuel-powered equipment. Many hardware supply stores carry cordless or corded power equipment including lawn trimmers, lawn mowers, hedgers and more. Using electric-powered lawn care equipment can help reduce air pollution and help you save money, as electricity prices don’t fluctuate as much as gas prices do.
Another option for avoiding fuel-powered lawn care equipment is to design a low-maintenance and mow-free landscape. Sure you can get away with just not mowing your lawn but eventually your neighbors will be upset and squatters might think your house has been abandoned. By designing a mow-free landscape with low-growing groundcover, bushes, shrubs and maybe a little hardscape, you can still enjoy a beautiful landscape without the need to mow.
Eco-friendly Pesticides: Biopesticides
Nothing ruins a summer BBQ or relaxing summer night like mosquitoes and bugs. However, if you want to eliminate these pesky pests don’t use the common insecticides. Many insecticides contain dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane more commonly known as DDT, which can have negative effects on the environment because it spreads after watering. It is better to use a biopesticide made from natural compounds, which control the insect population instead of killing them.
There are many types of biopesticides. They remove insects in different ways but they have no effect on other animals or nature. A few common uses include:
- Disrupting mating patterns
- Luring insects into traps
- Using microorganisms to kill insects
Disposal of Lawn Waste: Mulch and Compost
A cheap and easy way to help the environment is by properly disposing of your lawn waste. Mulch and compost are yard wastes that break down naturally, with a little assistance from you.
There are a few different ways to mulch your lawn clippings after you mow. One way is to use a mulch blade on your lawn mower, which will mulch the clippings as you mow. This is probably the easiest way to mulch and dispose of your lawn clippings.
If you don’t have a mulching blade you can usually pick one up at a hardware store for a decent price or you can collect your clippings in a compost pile and let Mother Nature run her course. If you create a compost pile, you can recycle the organic material by spreading it out over your lawn where it will acts as a fertilizer.
Another way is to bag the clippings and properly dispose of them, but this takes a little more time and effort, plus there are the ongoing costs for waste bags and removal.
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