When it comes to sustainable landscape design, there are three main things that you should think about – reducing energy use, reducing water consumption, and preventing the introduction of harmful chemicals into the environment. While many people choose to use experienced landscape designers to help them develop a sustainable garden and outdoor living space, there is no reason why you can’t do it yourself.
Keep in mind that you will need to dedicate a significant amount of time and effort to your garden design if you decide to do it yourself, but you will definitely find it rewarding and worth it if you enjoy spending time outside. The following guidelines should help you develop the perfect sustainable yard:
Reduce your water consumption:
Although it may seem difficult at first, it is actually extremely simple to reduce your garden’s water consumption. Just because you don’t want to water it anymore doesn’t mean that your garden has to be dead and dry looking – in fact, with a few informed choices, just the opposite is true.
The first thing that you should do is choose plants that are suited to your environment. As most of Australia is hot and dry, most of these will be native plants of some description. Things like eucalypts and bottlebrushes are very popular in home gardens and should definitely be at the top of your list.
At the same time, you want to eliminate any practices which waste water. This includes things like sprinklers that aren’t well positioned, and water features that encourage evaporation, and the watering of large lawns. If you find yourself wasting a lot of water on your lawn, then you have two options – you can either replace it with a synthetic lawn, or you can water it using greywater from your washing machine or shower.