Best Eco-Friendly Plants for Your Yard
Choose plants suited to your local area
Let me begin by pointing out that there are no bad plants; only bad situations. If you move from, let’s say, New England to my home town of Dallas, don’t try to bring your favorite cold-weather plants with you. They won’t be happy, and neither will you. The most important factor in choosing eco-friendly plants for your yard is that often-heard real estate clichÃ?©: location, location, location.
It’s especially good to consider the amount of water naturally available in your area. Do you live in a desert area or somewhere considerably wetter? What kinds of storms does your area tend to get – long, gentle, soaking rains or short burst of rain that may occasionally bring winds or hail?
Evaluate how much sun hits that spot, and how much sun your choice of plant will need
If you take the time to notice, some areas of your yard get much more sun than others, depending on how the sun travels over your yard, and what other plants are around. A tree casts long shadows that may make some areas unsuitable for plants that need full sun. Green landscaping requires that you pay attention to the amount of sun your plants may receive, and try to match them to the spot they’ll be living in.
Avoid invasive plants except for container planting
Sometimes it’s tempting to plant something that grows easily, but plants with invasive tendencies have to be selected with care. If you’re looking for a low-maintenance, eco-friendly landscape to your yard, invasive plants should be avoided. They have a tendency to choke out all other plants and reduce diversity, and can be very hard to get rid of once established.
I can use mint as a personal example. Days and days of trying to chop it out of my front yard garden did nothing. It continued to grow and spread. Planting invasive plants in containers work much better, but take care to choose a large container if you know the plant is aggressive. I planted mint in a small container last year, and it continued to sprout and grow new rhizomes until it literally choked itself to death.
Choose for size
How large will your plant grow? Will it grow up or spread sideways? Will it climb, and do you necessarily want it to? I was surprised at how large my herbs grew when I planted my herb garden. Tiny basil plants, rosemary cuttings and parsley plants grew into five-foot bushes two years later. Fortunately I had room for them to grow, but it would have been a lot of work if I hadn’t.
Things can become more serious when you’re talking about trees that grow into power lines. A word to the wise to my Texas neighbors – never plant a hackberry tree in anything other than a wide open field. A 50-foot junk tree with a tendency for falling in high winds does not belong in the suburbs.
Do you want to attract wildlife?
This is never a problem for me personally. Living in the suburbs of Texas is like living in an episode of Wild Kingdom, and I enjoy the little critters. A large frog named Melvin lives peacefully in my drainpipe, and I had to change her name to Melvina when she had babies. Small lizards (named the Robinsons) diligently vacuum my front porch of mosquitoes. A mourning dove recently commandeered one of my hanging baskets in the back yard for a nest and had some babies. I named her Mabel, and the kids named her babies Paradise and Charlotte. Crane flies flop around like marionettes, and there are too many of them to name.
If you spend time working in your eco-friendly yard, you too may notice a growing plethora of wildlife coming to spend quality time with your plants. Never fear; this can be a very good thing. If you’re going to have eco-friendly plants, your yard will be almost irresistible to animals. In many cases, these animals are swiftly losing their natural habitats and need a safe place to live. Small beneficial wildlife around your landscaping invites educational opportunities for your children. Check the National Wildlife Association for more tips on how to invite small wildlife into your yard with your landscaping choices.
Consider ease of growing, and your time commitment for pruning, watering, etc.
You shouldn’t have to be a professional garden to enjoy beautiful landscaping that is also eco-friendly. You also shouldn’t have to give up your day job in order to keep your garden looking nice. Green landscaping will require a few hours a week of maintenance in order to stay looking nice, but not take over your life and cause you more stress.
Look for plants that are low-maintenance, and consider what kind of watering you’d like to do. There are timed irrigation systems you can use or drip hose systems that work very well, and are more eco-friendly in the sense that they don’t waste as much water as spray systems might.
Do you want to grow edible plants?
Fruit and vegetable gardening are great, and can be easily adapted into an eco-friendly landscaping plan. Once again, you won’t be able to grow just anything you want without a greenhouse; consider edible plants that are good for your local climate. I would love to grow blueberries, but I have the nasty hard Texas clay soil and blueberries require sandy soil.
I don’t waste time feeling sorry for myself though. My nasty hard Texas clay soil (with a few additives) can still grow grapes, pomegranates, tomatoes, peppers, onions, squash, beans, cucumbers, watermelons…the list goes on.
The point is to do a little research. Give it a try and do a little trial and error. The pecan tree in my front yard is beautiful, and I love the fall pecan harvest…but it’s a lot of work to shell those pecans, and the sap in the nuts’ pods is temporarily staining to hands and sidewalk. There may be tradeoffs to whatever you choose, so choose something you can live with. A little homework can go a long way towards your future satisfaction.
How to Find Expert Help
Gardeners are very generous people when it comes to advice, so take advantage of it. Your local nursery will be stocked with people who love growing things, and will gladly share what they’ve learned. A simple “gardening in Texas” search pulls up a lot of information available for my area on the Internet. Check your local library for books that offer specific advice on green landscaping in your area.
The best thing to do when you don’t know anything is to look at what you have, draw up a preliminary plan, and then research each plant in turn, or consult an expert if you get stuck. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The more you learn, the less likely you are to plant kudzu in front of your bottom-floor apartment (Hint: don’t. It will take over the whole building!)
Have fun and play around with it. Even modest efforts can yield fantastic results over time.
