Traditional landscaping has long favored the creation of beautiful green lawns, which are welcoming to bare feet and provide an uncluttered view of the home. To achieve that, however, requires a lot of care, from watering to fertilizing to weeding (usually with harmful pesticides), not to mention frequent mowing.
With many communities facing periods where water is in short supply — and not only in times of drought — large, luxurious lawns have increasingly lost their appeal. Lakefront and riverfront properties require careful measures to ensure that lawn chemicals do not pollute the water or lead to algae blooms. Busy lives have left less time to spend on lawn care and maintenance.
There also is a growing awareness of the larger consequences of clearing land of native species and the decorative planting of exotic species which become invasive. Scientific studies have found how important it is to maintain native species which are essential to the ecosystem and, ultimately, to human life.
That has led to a growth of interest in native plantings instead of lawns, or at least reduced lawn sizes to make room for those native species. As well as being important to life on earth, growing native species is a lot easier than maintaining a lawn.
Native plants require less water because they have adapted to local conditions, and they do not require artificial fertilizers and synthetic chemical pesticides because they thrive in local soils. Their roots run deeper than turf lawn, stabilizing the soil and helping with the absorption and filtering of water while also supporting wildlife. Exotic plants that evolved in other parts of the world, on the other hand, do not support wildlife as well as native plants, and they can grow out of control.
Gardening is more than providing relief from daily stress; it is a way to experiment with species and techniques that, in the end, serve to beautify the yard while preserving the ecosystem.
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