Home Projects Services Consulting Art & Crafts Style Green Building Reviews About Us Contact Us

Greenscape vs. "Zeroscape"

A True Ecological Solution

n Central Texas, “green landscaping” usually means, “brown landscaping.” The goal is to plant native plants and grasses requiring little or no irrigation to survive. The end result, often hot, brown and barren, is termed “water wise” because little city water is required for maintenance compared to a St. Augustine grass lawn.

Our approach —described below, is a smarter solution:

The site is altered to slow and limit rainwater run-off. This maximizes the amount of rainwater soaked into the soil and ultimately diverted to the aquifer. This is accomplished principally by terracing.
Run-off and erosion are limited through mulching, plantings, grasses, and shade trees. Such measures maximize the ground’s ability to hold moisture and limit evaporation.
Rainwater proceeding from roofs and selected hard surfaces is harvested to create a pond system, which provides a permanent water source for wildlife as well as a supply of irrigation water. As much as possible, the pond must be kept in the shade to limit evaporation.
All water resulting from air conditioner condensers, ice makers, and de-humidifiers is also harvested and channeled to the pond system. In the case of the Buckeye Home, spring water is also collected.

Following the above directives, the water naturally available is maximized and distributed when needed. The choice of plant materials and grasses then shifts from strictly drought tolerant varieties to an assortment of other species. Our criteria to select other variety of flora may to look for species that are:

Native
Aesthetically Pleasing
Beneficial to wildlife —while resistant to some of them, such as deer.
Shade enhancers and providers —trees and shrubs along the landscape, hardscape, and house. Such arboreal strategy, along with reducing evaporation, keeps the site and home cooler, saving air conditioning usage and expense. In Austin, the lynch pin is to sign up for the city's wind energy program. In this manner the electricity is originated by a carbon-free source.
Of course, we’ll still try to plant drought tolerant flora.

This is a true ecological, “Green,” solution. Following these simple guidelines we achieve a lush, green, cool, carbon-consuming landscape, which provides a healthy wildlife habitat —without a need to deplete the scarce water resources from the utility district. The trunk of a tree is mostly carbon removed from the atmosphere. Shouldn’t our goal be carbon negative, instead of “carbon neutral”? Let’s strive to consume more carbon than we exhale!

Think Globally. Act Locally!

[ TOP ]

The trunk of a tree is mostly carbon removed from the atmosphere.

Shouldn’t our goal be carbon negative, instead of “carbon neutral”?

Let’s strive to consume more carbon than we exhale!