2015 University of California County Extension Yolo County Master Gardeners Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Creating a Sustainable Landscape What You Can Do? The 2015 University of California Master Gardeners of Yolo County Display Garden illustrates many elements of a sustainable landscape to give you ideas and motivation to create a home landscape that is attractive, appropriate for our climate, and fits the conditions of your location while using a minimum of resources. Resources like water or fossil fuels as well as the valuable resource of your time. We want to show you how to be good stewards of our environment and do all that you can to ensure that we have a healthy, well-functioning ecosystem for ourselves and for future generations. Incorporating sustainable practices into how you design and manage your home landscape is something that you can do. Because you work on your landscape over a period of time, let’s look at both the short term and the long term to create a sustainable landscape. Short Term Sustainable Landscape Goals: Reuse Green Waste—Create compost and mulch Right Plant, Right Place—Select plants that are appropriate for your location Save Water—Use the right plants, reduce irrigated turf and prevent runoff Recycle & Reuse—Use reusable materials for your landscape like used bricks, tiles, or broken concrete Long Term Sustainable Landscape Goals: Improve the permeability, aeration, and drainage of your soil Get a soil analysis to determine the needs for your situation. Use only the fertilizer and soil amendments that are necessary Enhance plant diversity in the landscape to discourage plant pests and provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds Our 2015 Display Garden—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—is full of ideas that we hope will inspire you to take steps toward your own more sustainable home landscape.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle · Recycle, Upcycle, Repurpose Recycle plastic pots and nursery flats. Return nursery flats to the nursery. Use sticks and branches as plant supports. Cans,
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2015 University of California County Extension
Yolo County Master Gardeners
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Creating a Sustainable Landscape What You Can Do? The 2015 University of California Master Gardeners of Yolo County Display Garden illustrates many elements of a sustainable landscape to give you ideas and motivation to create a home landscape that is attractive, appropriate for our climate, and fits the conditions of your location while using a minimum of resources. Resources like water or fossil fuels as well as the valuable resource of your time. We want to show you how to be good stewards of our environment and do all that you can to ensure that we have a healthy, well-functioning ecosystem for ourselves and for future generations. Incorporating sustainable practices into how you design and manage your home landscape is something that you can do. Because you work on your landscape over a period of time, let’s look at both the short term and the long term to create a sustainable landscape. Short Term Sustainable Landscape Goals:
Reuse Green Waste—Create compost and mulch
Right Plant, Right Place—Select plants that are appropriate for your location
Save Water—Use the right plants, reduce irrigated turf and prevent runoff
Recycle & Reuse—Use reusable materials for your landscape like used bricks, tiles, or broken concrete
Long Term Sustainable Landscape Goals:
Improve the permeability, aeration, and drainage of your soil
Get a soil analysis to determine the needs for your situation. Use only the fertilizer and soil amendments that are necessary
Enhance plant diversity in the landscape to discourage plant pests and provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds
Our 2015 Display Garden—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—is full of ideas that we hope will inspire you to take steps toward your own more sustainable home landscape.
Features of a Sustainable Landscape:
Permeable Paving - allows rain to soak into ground instead of running off
Rain Barrel - allows for collection and reuse of rain that falls on roof
Rain Garden - allows rain water to soak into ground instead of running off
Dry Creek - channels water from downspout to rain garden
Hedge Wind Break - breaks intensity of strong prevailing winds
We sometimes think that all insects are enemies, so use chemical fertilizers to encourage
growth and poisons to kill pests. Unfortunately, most are indiscriminate and kill beneficial
organisms, too, upsetting the natural balance, and, when it rains, the chemical runoff
poisons our groundwater, rivers and bay. Using Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
methods is a better way to control pests and keep a healthy, natural balance in your
garden. IPM techniques can be as simple as planting companion plants to attract
beneficial insects, picking harmful insects off plants or spraying them with water.
Friends You Should Invite Into Your Garden!
Ladybugs — This aphid loving beetle is worth its weight in gold.
Lizards — Alligator lizards will search dark basements, garages and bushes for their favorite meal – black widow spiders.
Spiders — The average spider eats about 100 insects a year.
Toads — One toad can eat between 10,000 and 20,000 slugs, flies, grubs, cutworms or grasshoppers per year.
Bats — Besides being a valuable pollinator, bats consume large quantities of insects. A single little brown bat can catch 600 mosquitoes in one hour.
Bees — In California alone, forty-two different nut, fruit, vegetable, forage and seed crops rely directly on bee pollination.
Green Lacewings — Green Lacewings will eat mites, mealy bugs and other small insects but their favorite meal is aphids.
Ground Beetles — Ground beetles' favorite insect meals are cutworms, grubs and root maggots. Some even love slugs and snails. To invite them into your garden, place a log or board at one end of your garden.
Hover Flies — These flies look like little flying helicopters. They feed on flower nectar, which makes them excellent pollinators. Their favorite meals are aphids and mealy bugs.
Hummingbirds — These small birds consume more than half their total weight in food.