Posted on: March 12, 2009

Inside a Sustainable Garden

Some gardeners are learning how to garden with less - and loving it.

By Dawn Klingensmith
CTW Features

For Ron and Vicki Nowicki, the first principle of sustainable landscaping is drastic but simple: Get rid of the lawn - every last blade of it.

Instead of grass, the couple's yard consists almost entirely of vegetables, from spinach and Swiss chard to green beans and potatoes. Here and there, berry bushes, shade trees, evergreens and flowers also thrive in their mostly edible Eden, located in the downtown area of a Chicago suburb where manicured lawns and uniformity are generally prized.

However, Ron and Vicki, co-owners of the landscape construction firm The Land Office, Downers Grove, Ill., are working to persuade others that planting backyard vegetable gardens in lieu of grass conserves resources and will ultimately reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil as more and more people grow their own food. Just on the consumer side, the energy expended on farmed as opposed to homegrown produce is substantial, says Ron, a landscape architect.

"You drive to the store, pick up the food, drive home and throw away the packaging - it's so wasteful," he explains.

Chuck and Pat Armstrong practice the same principle of sustainability - lawn-free landscaping in Naperville, Ill. However, their plantings consist mostly of native prairie grasses, which they never aim a hose at.

"Once prairie grasses are established and mature, they almost never require watering because they're already adapted to the amount of rainfall we get here in the Midwest," says Pat, a botanist whose landscaping business, Prairie Sun Consultants, specializes in native species.

The Armstrongs and the Nowickis offer two different takes on sustainable landscaping, but what does "sustainable" actually mean, particularly as it applies to the small patch of earth, from threshold to property line, for which homeowners must take full responsibility?

A popular definition of sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs, as well. So, simply put, sustainable landscaping and gardening means not using resources, such as water, energy and productive soil, faster than they can be replaced, and avoiding practices that harm the environment.

"Two key factors of sustainable gardening are low maintenance and energy savings," Armstrong says.

That's why, by her definition, lawns that require frequent watering; mowing and edging with gas-powered, pollution-belching equipment; and chemical warfare to prevent dandelion takeovers aren't sustainable.

But people can cultivate the principles of sustainability in their yards and gardens without going so far as ripping up their lawns. They can do so by making water and energy conservation a top priority, says landscape architect Bob Hursthouse of Hursthouse Inc., Bolingbrook, Ill.

"Some parts of the country are dry as a bone, so there are some serious fresh water issues," he says.

Many municipalities restrict how often and which times of day residents may water their lawns and gardens.

"Obey them," Hursthouse says.

Increasingly, people have begun treating their yards as an additional living space - a natural extension of the home designed with aesthetics, comfort, practicality, leisure and entertainment in mind. Eating dinner and entertaining guests outside necessitates the use of outdoor lighting and, among the privileged, spurs purchases of such deluxe amenities as outdoor kitchens complete with cooking ranges and beverage fridges. There are energy-efficient lighting systems and appliances on the market, Hursthouse says, as well as ways of harvesting solar energy to power outdoor fountains and other features.

Ironically, even as folks have begun sprucing up their outdoor spaces with upholstered furniture and weather-resistant rugs, suburban yards are actually shrinking due to consumer demand for larger homes with driveways that can accommodate multiple cars. So let's say the Joneses have a nice, wide driveway alongside the house and a concrete patio that takes up most of the backyard. That means they have less lawn, and that's a good thing - right?

The problem, Hursthouse says, is that paved surfaces cause water to run off into the street and down sewer grates, carrying eroded soil, fertilizers, pesticides and other pollutants along with it. Ultimately, this taints the water supply.

"There are new types of porous, permeable pavement that allow water to percolate back through to the soil, verses regular concrete," he says.

Another way to prevent water runoff is by incorporating a swale, or bioswale, as a landscaping feature. A swale is a lower-lying area with deep-rooted plants to which water is directed by grading the landscape. The roots "filter out impurities like road salt and motor oil, and also fertilizer and pesticides, so the water is cleaner by the time it gets back into the watershed," Hursthouse says. "It's kind of like a coffee filter."

Other sustainable-garden features include rain barrels, which collect rainwater for irrigation during drier months, and cisterns, which can store hundreds or even thousands of gallons of water. Rain barrels can be hooked up to a garden hose in a simple, gravity-fed configuration, while solar-powered pumps can be installed to draw water from cisterns. Drip irrigation - the controlled application of water via a system of hoses with small holes in them that allow for gradual seepage - is preferable to sprinkler systems because it targets more precisely and loses less water to evaporation.

Besides water conservation, standard sustainable gardening practices include composting garden and kitchen waste, mulching, and controlling pests naturally.

"The use of natural compost instead of chemical-based fertilizer to rev up the soil with nutrients is an important part of sustainable landscaping, especially if the compost is created from stuff that would normally end up in the landfill - coffee filters and grounds, newspaper, vegetable waste, lawn clippings, leaves, etc.," says landscape designer Becky Bartells, Fine Earth, Harrisonburg, Va.

Often, sustainable gardeners maintain compost piles in their yards. With time and occasional stirring from the bottom up, the waste decomposes into a rich, organic matter that can be worked into the soil to fertilize it. For smaller yards or where piles aren't practical or pretty, "Many commercially made bins are now on the market that are easier to rotate and are said to speed up the composting process," Bartells says. "Composting drastically reduces the number of bags of garbage you have to drag out to the curb."

Mulch is a protective 3-inch layer of material applied over the soil around plants to help retain moisture, prevent erosion and make it harder for weeds to rear their stubborn heads. Woodchips, straw, leaves and grass clippings can be used as mulch.

Natural pest control is perhaps the trickiest sustainable-gardening principle. It requires research on a technique called "integrated pest management," as well as persistence and patience.

"Hand-pulling weeds can be a pain. Dandelions have roots that grow straight down to China," Hursthouse says. "I'm sure there are seasons when I've pulled the same dandelion 35 times."

Those who want to take sustainable landscaping to the next level can plant foliage that works in synergy with their homes to maximize the energy-efficiency of the property as a whole, Armstrong says. Deciduous trees planted on the south side, which gets the most sun, will shade and cool the house in the summer and, after they drop their leaves in autumn, allow sunlight to stream through the windows in wintertime.

Where winds assault homes from the northwest side, evergreen windbreaks can be installed to divert the blasts away from or around the house.

But for those who are just starting out with sustainable landscaping, maintenance is key. And that brings us back full circle to the green, green grass of home. Is it such a bad thing?

"To maintain a lawn is expensive," Hursthouse says. "On average you'll mow it 36 to 38 times a year. And if you want it green like a golf course fairway, that involves a lot of water, fertilizers, fuel and time. Sure, that's where we want our kids to play. Sure, that's where we want to have a picnic. But does every square inch of yard need to bluegrass lawn? Think about some flower beds."

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