LEARN MORE ABOUT
Conservation Landscaping
What is conservation landscaping?
Conservation landscaping is the practice of replacing turf grasses or hard surfaces with local native plants, shrubs, and/or trees. Conservation landscapes are designed to create a positive impact on the local environment while also providing aesthetically pleasing spaces for human use.
Because native plants evolved to inhabit a variety of environmental conditions, conservation landscapes can be implemented on nearly any kind of property, whether it be shady or sunny, wet or dry. No matter if you have a few pots next to your front door or a large grass lawn, conservation landscaping can be implemented anywhere.
What are the benefits of a conservation landscape?
Reduce irrigation, fertilizer, and maintenance once established
Did you know that in the United States, landscape irrigation accounts for nearly 1⁄3 of all residential water use, totaling nearly 9 billion gallons of water per day?
Many modern landscapes utilize non-native plants like turf grass, which require intensive irrigation to survive. Staggeringly, lawns are the number one irrigated crop in America!
Alternatively, native plants are adapted to our regions’ climate and weather patterns. Once established in the proper location, they require significantly less irrigation, fertilizer, and human intervention. This means that conservation landscapes can help homeowners save money on their water bills and time on yard maintenance and irrigation!
Provide critical habitat for local wildlife
We have gained two billion people on our planet since the 1990’s, and in about the same amount of time we have lost over one billion acres (420 million hectares) of forest. That’s about 32x the size of the state of Pennsylvania!
Habitat loss remains a glaring threat to numerous species, and it doesn’t help that our residential lawns provide nearly no benefit to wildlife. Thankfully, you can help change that!
Planting a conservation landscape in your yard will provide habitat for a variety of magnificent wildlife. Butterflies and hummingbirds can feast on the nectar produced by flowers, caterpillars can munch on the leaves of plants, and songbirds like goldfinch can eat the seeds. In addition, insects like fireflies and native bees can find shelter in the form of brush, leaf litter, and dead plant stems.
Reduce stormwater runoff and water pollution
The roots of turf grass only grow down about an inch into the soil, making their capacity to infiltrate stormwater very low.
In large storm events, stormwater runs off of lawns and into our local storm drains, carrying pollutants like chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides into our local rivers.
Unlike turf grass, native plants have much longer, larger root systems which create channels for stormwater to infiltrate into the ground. Establishing deep-rooted plants accomplishes three things: it filters stormwater, reduces runoff, and helps replenish our overtaxed groundwater resources all in one fell swoop.
How can I start my own conservation landscape?
Starting a conservation landscape can be as simple as planting a few native plants in pots on your porch or as complex as removing sod from your lawn and planting a native meadow. There are a ton of guides and resources out there with instructions on how to create your very own conservation landscape. We’ve listed some of them below for your reference. In addition, please be sure to check out our native plants page for more information on how to acquire native plants from both brick-and-mortar and online nurseries.
It’s a cool evening in late July and you’re standing in your front yard. The sunlight has turned golden, illuminating flowers of orange, purple, yellow, and pink all around. A calm breeze blows through, inviting the seedheads of various grasses to sway like ocean waves. In their midst, a bright orange monarch butterfly dances effortlessly.
Conservation landscapes like the one described above aren’t just beautiful - they provide important habitat for native wildlife and help protect our local streams from stormwater pollution.
ONLINE RESOURCES
Guides:
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University of Maryland Extension Conservation Landscaping Guide
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Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources - Landscaping with Native Plants
Additional Resources: