landscape revisited

When building our house, one of the aspects of our chosen lot was that we could "plant" a house in the middle of trees making it look like it had been there for the last 50 years. We didn't want to bulldoze everything and start with a lawn, then plant trees, flowers etc. and ending up having our yard look like every other yard in town; a mix of various non-native, hard to maintain plants that need very specific requirements. Instead, we used many native plants available in or around our yard.

Another reason for adopting this approach was to reduce cost. At $200+ per load of topsoil, It would have cost over $10000 in top soil and earth moving to produce a lawn not to mention the cost of maintaining a perfectly manicured green space.

The ideal setting is one where the house is skirted with tall evergreens on the north side of the house and deciduous trees to create shade on the remaining sides, but at least the south and west. This provides wind break for the winter and shade in the summer. Once the leaves fall, the sun can once again reach the house to offer solar space heating. The typical subdivision layout is houses spaced evenly along the street that has been clear cut,had all the stumps removed, striped of topsoil, excavated, houses built, having an insufficient amount of topsoil hauled in, planted lawn and a few hard to care for trees then sprayed with fertilizers and pesticides to cure it of everything bad that can exist. Or so we think!

Of course in our typical subdivision mentality, it is hard to achieve the perfect setting. So then we must ask "why do we want this typical subdivision layout?" It is obvious that it is not the most efficient use of land and resources, not to mention making our homes harder to heat and cool.

There are many other reasons to keep the existing landscape such as reduced chance of plant invasion (purple loosestrife), pest control (cinch bug), fuel consumption for the creation and maintenance of new, monoculture landscape, wildlife appeal and habitat.

OK, so you live in a subdivision, there are ways to avoid the poison pit of the chemical lawn syndrome. You can choose to grow your lawn organically or you can choose a rock garden from the rocks that are left over from the stripping of the landscape. You can also transplant trees from the local "original" landscape from nearby woodlots around the outskirts of town. Planting native trees results in stronger, faster growing trees that are more disease resistant than hybridized, grafted trees from many nurseries. That being said, a mix of both native and cultivated tress can have a very nice effect and can complement each other.