Simply Sustainable Landscapes

Sustainable Landscaping For Dummies provides hands-on, how-to instruction for realizing the benefits of a sustainable landscape, from selecting sutainable hardscape materials to installing a rain-water catchment system to choosing native plants.

Basic principles : "Sustainability" in context -- Principle 1 : Keep healthy sites healthy -- Principle 2 : Heal injured soils and sites -- Principle 3 : Favor living, flexible materials -- Principle 4 : Respect the waters of life -- Principle 5 : Pave less -- Principle 6 : Consider origin and fate of materials -- Principle 7 : Know the costs of energy over time -- Principle 8 : Celebrate light, respect darkness -- Principle 9 : Quietly defend silence -- Principle 10 : Maintain to sustain -- Principle 11 : Demonstrate performance, learn from failure -- Sustaining principles, evolving efforts.

“A gentle, practical and inspiring guide to help you transform your yard into a diverse, healthy and sustainable landscape.”—Myrna Pearman, coauthor of NatureScape Alberta Many urban yards are essentially unproductive patches of grass, requiring constant attention for no return. Through sustainable, organic landscaping, these small or large plots of land can become part of the solution to today’s environmental challenges. Eco-yards supports the vision of a healthy, abundant planet in which beautiful, richly varied urban yards contribute to restoring the natural ecosystem. This inspiring and practical, well-illustrated manual includes clear, easy-to-follow instructions for: Designing and maintaining an eco-yard Making your yard water-wise Understanding basic soil science Replacing your lawn with tree, shrub and flower beds or hardy, low-maintenance grass Growing vegetables in the eco-yard Visionary, hopeful and encouraging, Eco-yards is a must-read for anyone who wants to use environmentally sound practices when they garden, whether in a residential yard or on the balcony of a condo or high-rise apartment. If you’re sick of the backyard battle, this book will show you how to work with nature instead of fighting it, using simple steps that apply practically anywhere to turn your yard into an eco-friendly sanctuary. “A rich compost of the practical and scientific . . . this is a book for every gardener concerned for the health of the environment.”—Roberta Rees, author of Long After Fathers “Rama is a hands-on gardener who explains—in great detail—everything from building soil to creating sustainable landscapes. Read about it here and then get out and practice what Rama preaches.”—Donna Balzer, BScA, horticulturist and co-host of the internationally broadcast television show Bugs & Blooms

While landscaping has the potential to be part of the solution to certain environmental problems, the quest for beauty can also produce effects that are harmful to the environment. Sustainable Landscaping: Principles and Practices examines landscape practices that adversely affect the environment, which occur in the process of constructing, impleme

What can we do, right now, in our own landscapes, to help solve climate change? Predictions about future effects of climate change range from mild to dire - but we're already seeing warmer winters, hotter summers, and more extreme storms. Proposed solutions often seem expensive and complex, and can leave us as individuals at a loss, wondering what, if anything, can be done. Sue Reed and Ginny Stibolt offer a rallying cry in response - instead of wringing our hands, let's roll up our sleeves. Based on decades of experience, this book is packed with simple, practical steps anyone can take to beautify any landscape or garden, while helping protect the planet and the species that call it home. Topics include: Working actively to shrink our carbon footprint through mindful landscaping and gardening Creating cleaner air and water Increasing physical comfort during hotter seasons Supporting birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other wildlife. This book is the ideal tool for homeowners, gardeners, and landscape professionals who want to be part of the solution to climate change. AWARDS GOLD | 2018 Nautilus Book Awards: Ecology & Environment

Sustainable landscaping involves a set of practices implemented by landscape practitioners to help solve environmental concerns. Continuing in the tradition of its predecessor, the second edition of Sustainable Landscaping: Principles and Practices examines underlying landscaping issues that adversely affect the environment and illustrates alternative methods that result in positive outcomes. This textbook examines all phases of landscaping in both residential and commercial environments, from design to construction and implementation to maintenance. Firmly anchoring landscaping practices in the context of sustainability, this book explores topics including choosing appropriate plants and using plants for specific effects, such as shading, water quality and quantity, soil health and optimal preservation techniques, pesticide usage and its inherent dangers, energy consumption, and resource management and waste reduction. Sustainable Landscaping also provides a thorough grounding in pertinent issues and terminology for each topic, followed by practical solutions applied by landscape professionals. Each chapter includes learning objectives and case studies of actual sustainable landscape activities. Contains updated government statistics and data, graphs, tables, and color photographs throughout. Provides background information and sustainable solutions for students, homeowners, and landscaping professionals to effectively design and manage landscapes. Author Dr. Marietta Loehrlein is a Professor Emeritus of Horticulture and Landscaping at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL, USA. While there, she developed a new course, "Sustainable Landscaping," and wrote the first edition of this textbook, which was also the first of its kind to address the subject.

Winner of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) National Excellence Award (Research and Communication) 2017 Winner of the AILA VIC Excellence Award (Research and Communication) 2017 Landscape architecture has a pivotal role in ensuring environmental sustainability through design interventions. This book takes a broad look at strategies and completed projects to provide the reader with a strong understanding of the sustainability challenges being faced by designers today, and potential routes to addressing them. The book covers essential concepts of landscape architecture and environmental sustainability, including: - Ecology, multifunctional landscapes and sensitive intervention - Remediation, cleansing and environmental infrastructure - Social sustainability, design activism and healthy landscapes - Food systems, productive landscapes and transportation - Performance ratings, materials and life cycles Through case studies from around the world and interviews with leading landscape architects and practitioners, this book invites discussion about possible future scenarios, relevant theories and project responses in landscape environmental design. With hundreds of color images throughout the book, and additional study material in the companion website, Joshua Zeunert provides an overview of the multidimensional qualities of landscape sustainability.