Environmental Landscaping Ideas

Some facts and tips for green loving gardeners

1.  Pesticides kill butterflies, dragonflies, fireflies, birds and orb weaver spiders. Pesticides can sicken young children and pets and have been linked to human cancer, reproductive and genetic difficulties.

The Law: You have the right to protect yourself by being notified by your neighbors' landscapers before they spray or treat your neighbors' lawns.

Information regarding the health risks associated with pesticides and insecticides can be obtained through Safer Pest Control Project, 25 E. Washington, Chicago. Call 312-641-5575, or email: info@spcpweb.org. Safer handouts include "Kid's Guide to Pesticides" and "Lawns We Can Live With." Using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and herbicides should be avoided as they pose a serious health risk, especially to children. Illinois law requires that, if requested, landscaping companies notify neighbors 24 hours prior to treating customer's lawn. Complaints about non-complying lawn services can be directed to the Ill. Dept. of Agriculture at 800-641-3934 and ask for Scott Frank. Wilmette Golf Course spraying can be avoided by asking to be notified in advance of scheduled lawn treatment. Discuss with the Park District your pesticide concerns.

2.  Many native butterflies lay eggs ONLY on native "host plants." Extinction is the alternative.

To learn more about butterfly gardening, one can join the Xerces Society and the North American Butterfly Association. Obtain their children and adult reading lists.

3.  Milkweed is the sole "host plant" for Illinois' State insect, the Monarch Butterfly.

Plant "Common" Milkweed for fragrance and beauty and Butterfly Weed for its brilliant orange color. Plant other kinds too. Prairie Moon Nursery provides a catalog useful for creating a Milkweed Garden. Call: 507-452-1362 or visit www.prairiemoon.com.

4.  To survive, native cavity nesting birds nest and find bugs in dead trees. Woodpeckers and nuthatches have nowhere to live if pruning and tree cutting is overzealous.

Spare the many natural materials often thought of as garbage and use them to enhance your garden and help the environment. Dead tree trunks can be used to create "snags" and can be decorated with signs like "Jane's Woodpecker Tree," or used as a post from which to nail or hang birdhouses and hanging plants. Stumps can be used as a pedestal base for a birdbath or flowerpot. Dead branches can be turned into "brush piles" which will help native birds like song and fox sparrows, juncos, and warblers find food and shelter.

Rake fallen leaves to under and around bushes, trees, and groundcover and mulch them naturally, and, simultaneously provide robins, brown thrashers and other native birds with food: grubs and worms. Leave as many as possible fallen leaves in place until after June to enable butterfly eggs laid there to hatch. Use last year's leaves to create a compost heap and add grass clippings, vegetables, fruits, coffee grounds, and eggshells, thus avoiding more landfill garbage and creating your own rich soil. Christmas trees can be recycled into brush piles.

5.  Gas powered lawn equipment (mowers, leaf blowers, edgers) contribute to ozone alert days and global warming. They produce noise and air pollution and aggravate asthma.

Stop using gas-powered lawn equipment and tell your lawn service not to use it on your property. Minimize the need for creating air pollution through gas powered lawn equipment by removing lawn in favor of more areas of native plants, woodchip paths, benches, and solar birdbaths. For small lawns, use push mower, broom, and rake. (Check newspaper for turn-ins for gas powered lawn equipment.)

6.   Beautiful hardy native flora exists for every habitat condition in your yard (wet, dry, sun, shade).

Garden experts increasingly urge learning about native plants and native plant gardening. By attending Chicago Botanic Garden classes, visiting libraries, bookstores, and surfing the web, one can learn what kinds of native plants best thrive in the wet, dry, shady, sunny areas of your yard. Additional information can be found by reading Go Native! by Harstad, and native plant catalogs like Possibility Place, Prairie Moon Nursery, Ohio Prairie Nursery, and Prairie Nursery. Start small and experiment.

The following organizations provide opportunities to get active in promoting environmental sensitivity:

Wild Ones: An organization promoting environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through preservation, restoration and establishment of plant communities. Web site is www.for-wild.org, email address is info@for-wild.org or call them at 877-394-9453.

Lady Bird Johnson Wild Flower Society.

National Wildlife Federation. Information on how to certify your garden or create a Certified Wildlife Habitat can be found at www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat

Lake County Forest Preserves can be contacted for information on the Annual Native Plant Sale. This year's event will take place on May 12 and May 13 at Independence Grove. Here you will be able to purchase native plants for sun, shade, in-between, wet to dry. Information can also be found at www.LCFPD.org or www.LCFPD.org/plantsale or by calling 847-968-3333.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for posters, books and pamphlets such as:

1) Landscaping for Wildlife

2) Prairie Establishment and Landscaping

3) Butterfly Gardens. Here is How to Order from State of Illinois:
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/education/CLASSRM/edmats02.htm
Click on go to order form. Click on Other/General Public. Fill in your information and press Continue.You should be on the order form and ready to shop.

Chicago Wilderness Magazine: Subscriptions are available by visiting their web site, www.chicagowilderness.org Included online is Landscaping With Native Plants, What to Plant to attract Songbirds and Hummingbirds and information to keep one abreast of local gardening, natural areas to visit, and environmental issues. Call (847) 242-6424.

Consider subscribing to Bird Watchers Digest, Urban Naturalist (free: reachable by phone at 312-744-5472), or other bird watching and wildlife magazines.

To see some local wild flower gardens and landscapes, visit the native prairie at Highcrest Middle School, here in Wilmette. The Chicago Botanic Gardens has a native flower garden, a woodland and a 14 acre prairie for viewing and inspiration. Other places to visit include Morton Arboretum, Cook County and Lake County Forest Preserve prairies and woodlands, North Park Village Nature Center, located at 5801 Pulaski in Chicago, and the Peggy Notebaert Museum in Lincoln Park

To find additional sites, read: Prairie Directory of North America, US and Canada, by Adelman and Schwartz, The Nature of Chicago written by Isabel Abrams, and Chicago Wilderness Magazine.

7.   Wilmette's climate is scientifically defined as semi-arid.

Our semi-arid climate supports beautiful native plants, even Prickly Pear, and many other dry or medium soil loving plants as well as those adapted to wet soil. Prairie Moon Nursery sells these plants and can be reached at 507-452-1362 or by visiting www.prairiemoon.com

8.  Thomas Jefferson introduced lawn from rainy England. Lawn grass is a non-native monoculture subject to yellow die back. It requires abundant watering and is impractical for the semi-arid Midwest. Lawn is not butterfly or wild bird friendly.

Reduce lawn area by creating or expanding existing flowerbeds with native Midwest flowers and native groundcover. Install specimens or clumps of native trees and native shrubs. Wander through your own garden on paths of wood chips or gravel. Enjoy birds and butterflies attracted by birdbaths and native plantings from strategically placed benches or lawn chairs. Buy a bird identification guide.

9.  Non-native (alien, exotic, imported) plants can take decades to centuries to turn invasive. Examples include: Garlic Mustard: 1860's. Teasel - 1700's to "card" wool.

Consider planting native plants because once established they need no watering, fertilizing or pesticides. They supply butterflies with much needed habitat. Native plants spent eons adapting to the semi-arid Midwest climate and co-evolved with native butterflies and birds. They are dependent upon each other for survival. Native plants require less maintenance and are cheaper to maintain than lawn and cultivated non-natives and thrive well in native environments. The birds they attract provide natural pest control. Native plants and the butterflies and the birds they attract teach children about nature naturally. Today's children need help getting in touch with nature. Help is as close as your own back yard.

10.   The second greatest US environmental threat is non-native invasive plants.

In our area, invasive non-native Garlic Mustard smothers out native wildflowers. Take action in your own backyard by pulling Garlic Mustard out by the roots. Beware! It lurks everywhere, even between bushes! For more information check Midwest Invasive Plant Network- MIPN.org and IL DNR at http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/education/ExoticSpecies/exoticspintro.htm or call (217) 785-8688 and Chicago Botanic Gardens Scientific Programs-Plant Conservation -Invasive Plant Alternatives.

11.  Landscaping fads featuring ornamental non-native plants can create invasiveness problems because birds, wind, and mowing carry and spread the overly abundant seeds.

Some examples: Burning Bush, Bradford Pear, Dame's Rocket, Japanese Barberry Bush, Ox-Eye Daisy, Goutweed, Norway Maple, Japanese Spirea, Pampas Grass/Eulalia, Amur Maple, Roundleaf (Asian) Bittersweet, Honeysuckle Bushes, Privet Bushes, Lily of the Valley, Orange Day Lily, Purple Loosestrife, Japanese Stilt Grass, Yellow Iris, Common Reed, Ribbon Grass, Wintercreeper, Vinca and Lawn Blue Grass.

12.   Non-native plants tend to be high maintenance depending on insecticides, fertilizers, pesticides, pruning, protection and lots of water to survive and thrive.

In contrast, native plants, once established, tend to need no watering, fertilizer, or pesticides. Also, native plants connect one to local history and heritage, take less time in maintenance and help improve the ecosystem. Try rain gardens. Plant seed, berry and nut producing native flowers, shrubs and trees for natural bird feeders. Protect nesting birds from house cats and other predators with thorny plants. (For information on cats, access Cats Indoors!)

13.   Hire a Professional Native Plant Landscaper.

Not everyone has the time or energy to garden or landscape. Knowledgeable native plant committed professionals can make life easier by creating a native garden and then performing maintenance related tasks. A word to the wise: Be patient: nature takes time, and not every plant succeeds. Enjoy the process! Record it with a journal, photographs or sketches or just watch.

14.   Use a drip irrigation system, a water saving alternative to sprinklers, which is available at Lowe's, or Lowes.com.

15.  Save energy on outdoor lighting: Solar Outdoor Lighting, Sol Inc., Palm City, FL, (www.solarlighting.com) can be used for pathways, gardens, and patios. Solar lighting absorbs the sun's energy by day for use at night.

16.  Use Porous Paving such as MODI by Green Innovations, Toronto, (www.greeninnovations.ca). This UV resistant product is 100% recycled polyethylene and reduces rain runoff and helps prevent flooding.

17.  Replace or create swimming pools with "natural swimming ponds or pools" that combine swimming areas and water gardens or just create ponds and use no chlorine. For additional information see; New York Times House & Home, April 5, 2007.

18.  Plant a "Greener" Grass. Reclamation Seed Mix, available through Green Valley Seed, Canfield, Ohio, (greenvalleyseed.com) is a grass seed mix that requires less water and mowing than regular lawn. Similar products are carried in many native plant catalogs.

19.  Additional articles are available, courtesy of Cheri Allen, Village Gardener: 'A Simple System for a Healthy Garden', by Lee Reich; 'Organic Winter Mulches' by Annette T. Roos; 'The Benefits of Mulch' by John Mastalerz; 'Numbers tell the unhealthy story' and 'Going natural means less yard work for you' Knight Ridder / Tribune; 'Losing the Lawn' by Michael Leccese.

By: Charlotte Adelman

Co-Author of Prairie Directory of North America