4 Ways Residential Landscaping Can Make Your Home More Eco-Friendly
Residential landscaping services can certainly make your home's gardens and green spaces more beautiful, but did you know they can also make your home more eco-friendly as a whole?
With a little planning, a quality residential landscaping company can help reduce your home's energy and water consumption, making your property a lot more environmentally friendly. Here are three of the most effective ways landscaping can minimize your home's environmental impact:
Reduce Energy Consumption With Shade Trees
During the summer months, your home's walls and roof can absorb a significant amount of heat from direct sunlight. Even if your home is fully insulated, some of this heat will be released into your home, raising indoor temperatures and forcing you to rely on energy-hungry air conditioning systems.
Planting shade trees with thick foliage around your property is an effective way to mitigate this problem, and can substantially lower your home's reliance on air conditioning. Shade trees with high, dense crowns are best because they can prevent sunlight from heating your home's walls and roof, without blocking views from windows and leaving your home in darkness.
Your chosen residential landscaping service can help you choose suitable shade trees, which will be able to thrive in the soil conditions on your property. They will also advise you on shade tree placement.
Reduce Water Consumption With Soil Amendment
Keeping your landscaping green and lush during the summer months can require an enormous amount of water, and large, unsheltered laws have particularly high water requirements. Soil amendment can help slow drainage and help your soil retain water for longer, reducing your reliance on hosepipes and other non-sustainable water sources.
Your landscaping service will take a soil sample to determine how well the soil retains water, and what can be added to improve retention. They can then add soil conditioners, such as compost or activated charcoal, to the topsoil beneath your property.
In most cases, a skilled residential landscaping service can do this without destroying or disrupting your carefully tended landscaping. For example, turf lawns can be cut into sections and temporarily removed to expose the topsoil. Once the soil amendment is completed, the turf sections can be replaced. Within a few days, the turf's roofs and stolons will regrow, and your lawn will look as good as new.
Reduce Water Consumption With Mulch
Covering exposed soil with a thick layer of mulch is another way to improve water retention and lower your property's water needs. Organic mulches are made from shredded timber, tree bark, pine needles, and other bio-degradable materials. They absorb and retain large amounts of water. Mulch also enriches the soil as it decomposes, helping your plants and flowers grow taller and stronger.
Decorative mulches can also add a vivid splash of color to your landscaping, improving your home's curb appeal. Eco-friendly colored mulches are created using non-toxic dyes made from vegetables or iron oxide, so you won't have to worry about contaminants leaching into your soil.
To learn more about how landscaping can help your home be more eco-friendly, contact a company like Christal Clean Landscapes.
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