Greening Your Lawn & Garden

Alternatives to Lawns:

Having a beautifl green lawn is becomng more costly every day to you and the environment. A nice awn needs lots of water, harmful chemicals to fertilize and the gas used inlawn mowers adds to carbon pollution.

By thinking outside the box, you can replace some or all of your lawn with low maintenance substitutes:

• Ground Cover
• Clover
• Ornamental Grasses
• Flower beds and shrubs

For more information, check out Lawn Replacements.

Natural Fences

Use shrubs, trees or bamboo to create a natural wall for privacy around your yard instead of wood or metal fences. This will attract birds and absorb C02 as well.

Your local nursery will have native plants that will work best for your yard.

Also, you can check out Bamboo Fencer for more information on using bamboo as a natural fence.

Or consider a more elaborate and beautiful idea:

Suburban Hedgerows

Hedgerows are natural barriers made up of different kinds of trees, and evergreens plus any other small plants that you want to add. The idea of the suburban hedgerow is to have it look like the “edge” of a forest. In three to five years as the trees mature, they will make a barrier that gives privacy, and is beautiful, changing with every season. Mother Earth News has a great article on suburban hedgerows.  

A great resource for natural lawn and garden products and ideas is Planet Natural. They have organic fertilizers composting bins, seeds and much, much more.

Weeds, Can They Be Eliminated Without Toxins?

As a new gardener, I was trying to keep up with the weeds in my garden. But I fell behind more often than not, especially with the stubborn weeds that grow in between the bricks in my driveway and sidewalk. I was especially not fond of bending down for hours pulling them out, not to mention the damage to my hands.

I began to ask around for solutions, I knew of course about the very effective and very toxic pesticide, but did not want to use them because of how damaging they are to the environment and also to animals like my cats.

I began to look for some natural solutions and a friend of mine told me about spraying with vinegar. I did and it worked! I have come across a product that uses clove oil, vinegar and lemon juice, called BurnOut Weed Killer.

So next time you are overwhelmed with weeds in your patio, walkway or driveway remember you have options to using toxic sprays. J