Xeriscaping is an Eco-Friendly Alternative in Oakville

Everyone knows that turf guzzles water, and you must constantly be weeding, feeding, and mowing it. Xeriscaping accommodates the microclimate and region where you live, resulting in a healthier and easy to care for property that requires far less water. Furthermore, soil conservation that protects the urban environment has been talked about for decades, but dry landscaping is one of the best ways to achieve this in a highly economical way.

Preparing Yourself for a Xeriscape Property

When starting your dry landscaping, consider a few techniques to prevent damage to trees. Place fencing around trees to protect from heavy equipment that can cause compaction of the soil when driving over or being stored under trees. Compaction damages the root system. Also, if you need to locate utility lines, use a tunnel method instead of trenching, which can injure tree roots. Keep your topsoil; it takes years of natural processes to create soil, and once it is lost, you may have no choice but to pay to import more if you need it for contouring or to support plant life. If you need to remove topsoil during your project, choose a temporary location in the yard to pile it, and return it where necessary afterwards.

Steps for Xeriscape Design

What do you want from your landscape? Is there anything you want to hide or highlight? Are you going to do any entertaining there, or will children or pets to play there? To enjoy your property to the fullest, you will want to consider these multiple uses in detail.

Once you have an idea on how you want your yard to loo, pay attention to the sloping on your property. Water will run down to the lowest level, so place the plants with the highest water needs at the bottom of slopes. You will want to limit the runoff of water, however; mulches and ground cover plants can help absorb water and prevent too much water loss. Mulch also slows weed growth and protects plants with shallow roots from frost.

You must also practice zoning, which means, you must group your plants according to how much water and sunlight they need. Of course, you will be using drought-tolerant plants, which use less water and don’t need a moist soil, but this makes zoning more important, not less. You can easily waterlog a plant that has low water needs. On the other hand, you will want to use plenty of mulch to hold moisture in those areas where you place plants that do need some water retention.

To begin your conversion, follow these steps:

1. Use a glyphosate to kill the turf; wait a week for the grass to die.
2. Plant ground cover
3. Place mulch around and between plants.
4. Add additional plants according to zoning plan

A Cut Above Lawn Care Inc. Is Ready to Help You Get Started

You May have plenty of questions about which local plants are the best suited to your project. A Cut Above Lawn Care Inc. can help you with your design plan, plant choices, and any other concerns you may have about irrigation, weed and pest control, and fertilizing.