What is Not "Green" About Traditional Landscaping?

Sustainable, or green landscaping, is a way of designing and maintaining yards, gardens and landscapes in a way that reduces harm to the environment, provides healthier places to work, live, and play, and saves time and money by offering reduced maintenance.

What are some of the problems with traditional landscaping? What is done in home owners yards and common green areas can affect neighbors and the environment. These problems include:

Water pollution

• Over-application of pesticides and fertilizers, and improper disposal of these products, can cause them to end up in waterways and in groundwater.
• It is estimated that tens of millions of gallons of gasoline are spilled each year when homeowners refuel garden equipment.
• Improper landscaping can lead to erosion of stream banks.

Air pollution

• The operating and refueling of landscaping equipment and vehicles (mowers, blowers, trimmers) causes harmful emissions of air pollutants.

Noise pollution

• The noise generated during the operation of power equipment such as mowers and trimmers is a common disruption in summer months.

Consumption of natural resources

• Coal and gas are consumed in providing electricity and fueling of mowers, trimmers, and landscaping vehicles.
•  Water is consumed in irrigation of landscaping plants. It is estimated that 30% of water consumption in urban areas in the eastern US is for watering lawns.
• Valuable soil and minerals are subject to erosion.

Solid wastes

• The grass clippings and leaves generated from a yard could be composted on site; in areas that do not ban yard waste from landfills, these items take up valuable space in the landfill. 

Health and safety

• Exposure to chemical pesticides is the result of improperly applied, stored, and disposed containers. The health risk to children especially is an avoidable risk. 
• Each year there are about 230,000 people treated in hospital emergency rooms due to injuries related to various lawn and garden tools.

Declining Biodiversity (numbers and variety of plants and animals)

•  Introducing invasive plants into the landscape can lead to potential "escape" from the garden, resulting in the choking out of native species in the natural environment; this can disrupt valuable food chains and do harm to wildlife.
• Clearing the land destroys the great variety of plant life that exists in balance with many elements of nature: birds, insects, water/mineral cycles.
•  Application of pesticides destroys insects that do no harm, causing the decline of many species of insects and affecting wildlife populations in a great number of ways.
• Removing plants that benefit nature, and replacing them with plants that do not support wildlife, results in great decline of biodiversity.

Flooding

• Clearing the land, replacing it with impermeable surfaces, and extensive use of grass as a groundcover results in flooding. A grass lawn absorbs less than 10% of water that woods can absorb; concrete and asphalt absorb no water. The water from rainfall runs off to streams too rapidly, causing erosion and rapid rising of streams. Flooding problems in suburbs where woodlands have been cleared is a common, but avoidable, problem.

Labor/Costs 

• Traditional landscaping is dependent upon heavy machinery, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and irrigation. The EPA estimates that the average one acre lawn costs about $700 and 40 hours of labor each year to maintain.