Principles of a Sustainable Landscape Design

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Scott Vogt

Through our work in promoting the use of native plants in landscaping, we have observed that homeowners and gardeners are becoming increasingly aware of the positive impacts they can have on the natural world. At the same time, they are looking for ways they can sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

In a weekly article I receive online, landscape architects were asked to rate the expected popularity of a variety of residential outdoor design elements in 2016. Here are the top trends in landscape design, according to the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA):

Rainwater/graywater harvesting-88%
Native plants-86%
Native/adapted drought tolerant plants-85%
Low maintenance landscapes-85%
Permeable paving-77%
Fire pits/fireplaces-75%
Food/vegetable gardens (including orchard, vineyards, etc.)-75%
Rain gardens-73%
Drip irrigation-72%
Reduced lawn area-72%

These trends highlight the importance homeowners place on a functional landscape – landscapes that reflect their values and life style, gardens that center on solutions to problems rather than creating additional problems. Invest your time and energy in something that can make a significant difference. Think about these four principles as your develop your own sustainable landscape design.

Principle #1 – Treat Water as a Valuable Resource

We have seen the dramatic results of the drought in the west. Throughout 2011 and 2012, we endured our own drought here in Kansas. Certainly, the extremes we faced were not as severe as in places like California or Texas, but the impact on our landscapes can still be seen. Water demand was at an all-time high. Our landscapes were losing water faster than it could be replaced. In the aftermath, people began to ask tough questions about water use, irrigation practices, plant material and rainwater collection.

A sustainable design focuses on proper plant selection (i.e. native plants), drip irrigation if necessary and rain gardens or collection points to capture storm water. This new approach to design keeps water in the proper perspective.

Baptisia ‘Purple Smoke’ is a native, drought tolerant perennial

Principle #2 – Value Your Soil

Like water, soil is a finite resource. There are choices we can make to improve our soil and to reduce or eliminate runoff and soil erosion in our landscape.

A sustainable design uses deep rooted perennials and grasses to hold the soil. These plants can be combined in appealing combinations. Beautiful blooms, textures and forms serve functional purposes in the design.

“Twilight Zone” little bluestem Photo courtesy Walters Gardens.

Principle #3 – Choose Native Plants

In my opinion, your first choice in a landscape should always be native plants. There are so many wonderful plants to choose for your landscape. I know there are some amazing adaptable perennials too, but if you start with a base of natives, you will be rewarded year after year.

A sustainable design matches appropriate plants to the site. Right plant, right place.

Native planting at Sunset Elementary in Newton, KS

Principle #4 – Don’t Be Wasteful

Does your landscape add to the landfill? How much waste does it produce each year? Lawns are an important functional element in the landscape. I need a space for my children and pets to roam. They can also generate large quantities of yard waste, especially if you collect grass clippings. Do we need a huge lawn or can it be reduced in size and replaced with beautiful wildflowers, grasses and ornamental trees and shrubs?

A sustainable design evaluates every aspect of the landscape with the goal to reduce your negative environmental impact, while including features that are beneficial to the natural world and beautiful at the same time.

These homeowners chose to reduce lawn by replacing with wildflowers and shrubs.

“It’s simple: By gardening with native plants, no matter where you live or how small or large your space is, you can help sustain wildlife.” – Doug Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home

Still wanting more information? You may find some helpful hints on our “Landscaping with Native Plants” page. Or, you may wish to sign up for a Native Landscaping Class and/or visit with one of our staff at the FloraKansas Native Plant Sale, April 21-25.

Water Smart: Steps to Establishing Your New Plants

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Scott Vogt

Now that you have purchased your plants at our FloraKansas plant sale and hopefully gotten them planted in your landscape, you’ll want to be intentional about watering methods. It’s true, native plants are more drought-tolerant than you may be used to. However, in order to get your plants successfully established, they will still need some careful attention these first few weeks and through the summer.

Follow these steps to be “water smart” as you establish your native plants:

The First Year

When planting: Water plants as soon as you get them in the ground. Allow the water to soak in, then water again until the soil is thoroughly moistened.

First Two Weeks: Water plants daily depending on the weather. If it rains, skip a watering. Just-planted roots are only able to absorb soil moisture from the potting soil. They have not attached to their surrounding soil. When you see new growth, the plants have begun to get established.

First Month: Unless the weather is extremely hot and dry, you may be able to decrease watering frequency to two or three times per week. Generally, you want the soil to be dry an inch or two below the surface before you water. Too much water leads to foliar and root problems. It is optimal to allow the soil to dry between watering because this encourages roots to grow deep.

Following Months: Water only when top inch or two of soil dries or when plants display signs of being dry. Water deeply and infrequently. How much water will depend on your soil and environmental conditions. Don’t forget to check your plants during the winter months.

The Second Year

Water deeply as needed. During prolonged periods of dry weather water once or twice per week. Generally, it takes plants at least two years to fully develop a sustaining root system.

The Following Years

Properly planted and watered plants should be fairly well established, and can thrive with less watering than you may expect. Drought-tolerant plants may need no supplemental water, whereas shallow-rooted plants or plants with greater water needs may need water weekly. Many plants, when selected for the conditions in your yard, may need watering only once or twice a month in dry weather.

Best Management Practices for Native Plants (BMPs)

Drought-tolerant plants: Even drought-tolerant plants need regular water until they are established!

Young Trees and Shrubs: Young trees and shrubs need deep regular watering. During times of little or no rain, water deeply once a week until trees become established.

Fertilization: Don’t fertilize new plants. Fertilizing during establishment encourages rapid top growth that is not sustainable by the root system.

Mulch: Mulch new plantings with 1-3 inches of mulch and keep mulch away from plant stems.

Water in the morning: Less water is lost to evaporation.

Choose the right watering method: A soaker hose applies water directly to the soil and reduces evaporation. If you are planting a few plants in an existing planting bed, hand watering can get the new plants the water they need while not overwatering the rest of the bed.

Get to know your soil: Is your soil sand or clay? It greatly affects watering frequency and duration. Our clay soils can only take in about an inch of rain per hour.

Check soil moisture before watering: Check soil moisture with finger or spade. Soil should be dry an inch or two below the surface before you water.

Recheck soil after watering: At least an hour after you water (or two hours with clay soil), probe soil to see how deeply the water penetrated. If it didn’t reach the root zone, you may need to increase your watering. If the area is soggy, try cutting back on watering next time.

Pick the right plant for the right place: Choose plants that are pest-resistant, require less water, and match the sun, shade, and soil in your yard.

Avoid planting in hot, dry weather: Plants will easily stress and not develop healthy roots under hot, dry conditions. If you must plant in summer, plant in the cool of the morning when less water is lost to evaporation.

Five Benefits of Native Plants

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Scott Vogt

The prairies of the Great Plains are diverse and complex. They are often overlooked and taken for granted. They are subtle in beauty, but resilient. Because of the many benefits the prairie provides to us and the environment, it is an ecosystem worth saving. Here are five benefits of native plants – though there are certainly more that we will experience as we begin to utilize these plants in our landscape:

Low Maintenance

There is no such thing as a no-maintenance landscape. Native plants still need some care, but compared to a traditional landscape with a lawn, tidy shrubs and a few trees surrounded by perennial beds, native plants are extremely low in maintenance. Native plants are adapted to our climate and can grow in the toughest environments. Once established, their deep roots take them through prolonged periods of drought. It was great to see native plants blooming in the fall of 2012 after so many days of scorching heat. The blue sage, heath aster, goldenrod, little bluestem, and switchgrass brightened up our prairie reconstruction. It was a testament to their toughness. The slide below illustrates exactly why native plants are so much more resilient than the typical lawn – notice the difference in the root system of turf grass (far left) to many of the most common wildflowers and grasses of the prairie.

Saves money

There are obvious savings associated with a native landscape compared to maintaining a traditional landscape. A native landscape uses less water, little or no fertilizer and no chemicals or pesticides, which in turn saves you time. I am frugal and a native landscape is a low cost alternative to a traditional lawn-dominated landscape. Conservation and stewardship are trends that help you and the environment.
Water

We have seen an increased interest in native plants because of the water they save once established. Many homeowners are decreasing their lawns as a way of saving water and money. Most roots on a fescue or bluegrass lawn are only three to four inches deep compared to prairie wildflowers and grasses that develop extensive root systems several feet deep. Big Bluestem grass for example establishes roots up to ten feet deep. With a shallow root system, a typical lawn requires ten gallons of water per square foot through the summer to keep it looking green. If you minimize your lawn, you will begin to diminish your dependence on water. Click here for an example of a Waterwise Landscape Design.
Beautiful plants

If you have ever walked through a pristine prairie or observed the changing seasons in the Flint Hills, you know the exquisite beauty of wildflowers in bloom coupled with native grasses. It is understated and taken for granted. I am always amazed at the complexity and intricacies of these prairie plants. They create a very unique sense of place.

Missouri Black-eyed Susan

Attract pollinators and wildlife

Pollinators and wildflowers have a symbiotic relationship. If you have wildflowers you will have butterflies. There have been over 20 documented butterflies in the arboretum during the butterfly counts. They seek out our wildflowers and utilize them throughout the year. Monarch populations are declining. They need milkweeds, and since we have milkweeds in the arboretum, they show up. Read this article on how to encourage and sustain the monarch butterfly population by planting milkweed varieties. Also, just like the Monarchs, songbird populations are declining. They need prairie habitat for survival along with wildflower seeds to feed overwintering birds.

Monarch caterpillar on swamp milkweed

There are more reasons to grow native plants, but you get the idea. Prairie is good, not only for you, but also for the environment. The many benefits far outweigh negative perception. When you plant native wildflowers and grasses, you will be rewarded time and again for your prairie habitat. I don’t know how we got away from our regional identity of a prairie landscape, but it is essential to who we are and what grows best here.

Join us in re-establishing some prairie roots in your own yard, and then spread the word by sharing this information with your friends.

Fighting for Water

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Brad Guhr

(Interested in Kansas water issues? Learn about our Kansas Water Symposium on Saturday, March 7 at Dyck Arboretum of the Plains!)

“Whisky’s for drinking and water’s for fighting.” ~Mark Twain is often given credit for this quote

Kansans for decades have utilized a seemingly endless supply of water to drink, to bathe, wash clothes, manage sewage, generate power, irrigate lawns, and grow crops. We give it little thought, we turn on the tap and it is there – clean, plentiful and inexpensive. Most families pay much more per month for their smart phones than for water.

The law of supply and demand is certainly in effect here to keep our water cheap. We have developed a state infrastructure making the availability of water plentiful and we access it in two main ways. Kansas reservoirs capture an average precipitation of 30-40 inches for use across much of Eastern Kansas, and one of the world’s largest underground water tables, the High Plains or Ogallala Aquifer, supplies water for most of Western Kansas. In South Central Kansas, we benefit from both supplies.

Experts are telling us though (and common sense should too) that this unbridled use cannot last. Our Kansas population continues to grow along with our collective thirst for water, and our water supply is not increasing to keep pace. The Ogallala aquifer as a whole is declining in its level, and stream sedimentation is diminishing the capacity of reservoirs. A recent 2013 presentation by Tracy Streeter, Kansas Water Office Director, shows that, depending on the region of Kansas that one examines, the trend lines of decreasing supply and increasing demand are set to cross each other in coming decades and in some locations coming years.

The sobering unknown factor in this discussion of water supply and demand is weather. Over the last 50 years or so, we have been lucky to have above average rainfall and below average temperatures. The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) helps us track this information and is one of the most widely-used indices to measure drought in North America. The PDSI measures the intensity and duration of long-term drought using precipitation and temperature data to determine how much soil moisture is available compared to average conditions. In a 2012 presentation by Tony Layzell of the Kansas Geological Survey, he shares the following graph of PDSI data in South Central Kansas:

Click here for the full presentation.

You can see that the two most recent significant drought events of 10-15 years in duration last happened in the Dust Bowl and the 1950s. For those of us that didn’t experience either of these drought events, the mini-drought of 2011 and 2012 gave us a little taste of relentless heat and drought, and it was distasteful enough. Here is the pending reality and problem – the law of averages is catching up with us and we are due for another drought event. Whether a little five-year event or a whopping multi-decade drought, it is coming.

We shouldn’t ignore this reality, hope that it never happens, and stick our heads in the proverbial sand in search of more prehistoric water that won’t be there or new reservoir storage, which is extremely expensive to create. Rather, we can proactively begin to appreciate how precious our water resources are and begin to use them more wisely. To survive, we will simply be forced to do so.

Center-pivot irrigation, a common sight in Southwestern Kansas (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crops_Kansas_AST_20010624.jpg)

Solutions are available. Agricultural irrigation uses 85% of our state’s water and efficiency improvements are being made there already, but a drought will certainly force us to shift away from corn towards more traditional dry-land crops. Fossil fuel power generation is water-intensive and may diminish during a drought, but renewable alternatives are also available to pick up the slack. How we landscape our yards, parks, golf courses, etc. could significantly curtail municipal water use by shifting away from thirsty cool season grasses and utilizing more native, warm-season vegetation. We could be recycling our cleaned sewage water into drinking water; The City of Wichita Falls, Texas has been forced to do so because of a 5-year drought and cut their water supply demands over that period in more than half. The fact that North Americans wash clothes, flush toilets, and irrigate lawns, gardens, and crops with drinking water is laughable to much of the world’s population (including some other developed nations too) where access to clean drinking water is not a laughing matter. Thankfully, Kansas is in the midst of developing A LONG-TERM VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF WATER SUPPLY IN KANSAS and is considering all of these conservation solutions in addition to looking at increasing supply.

There are so many more issues to consider when discussing this complex topic of water. We invite you to the Dyck Arboretum’s Kansas Water Symposium on Saturday, March 7 and explore the above issues with eight experts speaking on a variety of water topics.

What Would Change Your Mind About Using Native Plants in Your Landscape?

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Scott Vogt

Would you choose a garden that takes less of your time to maintain? Or a sustainable, environmentally, eco-friendly, pollinator friendly garden that heightens the senses? Do you want masses and drifts of color that are attractive throughout the year? What about native plants that can be used in smaller spaces? Are you needing a multi-functional garden that attracts pollinators, which also help your food crops or vegetable garden? How about gardens that look attractive both day and night? What if you could still have the usable space you need to entertain, but have a sustainable garden at the same time blended into the landscape? I want each of these to happen in my native plants landscape.

Butterfly weed

It can be intimidating to change the way you garden or landscape. We want evidence that making such a change really will make a difference in our lives and in our gardens. Below is one case in favor of using native plants. When the Lincoln Public Library transitioned its landscape to native buffalograss and prairie plantings, the results were worth the effort.

Case Study from the Great Plains

A Public Library in Lincoln, Nebraska converted 2.5 acres of bluegrass turf to buffalograss and mixed prairie plantings.

Results:

Reduction of 1.5 million gallons of water per year for irrigation
Reduction of 800 pound of fertilizer per year
Reduction of 5 gallons of pesticide concentrate per year.
Source: Leafings, August 2000, a Nebraska Statewide Arboretum publication.

Pale Coneflower

Here is how NATIVE PLANTS DELIVER!

Offer carefree beauty once established
Require less water if properly matched to your site
Adapted to our soils and climate
Attract birds, butterflies and a host of other pollinators to your garden
A properly designed garden provides year-round beauty

Home landscapes can be transformed as well using native plants so that they are sustainable, easy to maintain, and beautiful. To start planning your native plant garden, be sure to SAVE THE DATE for our FloraKansas Spring Plant Sale and keep an eye out for our upcoming 2015 plant list.

A Love for Water: Reflections on Water Supply

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Brad Guhr

In spite of winter’s recent blast, I am feeling hydrophilic. It is true that I have a “strong affinity for water” as the definition goes. In a vocation working with water-dependent plants where Latin names are commonly used, the word “hydrophillic” (Latin hydrophilus, from Greek hydr- + -philos -philous) should be common vernacular.

It may seem silly to state this affection given that everyone knows human survival requires regular access to potable water. But it feels fitting to make this proclamation after experiencing a 2014 Kansas growing season of near average precipitation when rain fell regularly and nearly always when it seemed to be most needed. Our home lawn didn’t require much irrigation to keep from going dormant, our vegetable garden was especially bountiful, and the Central Kansas prairie was as lush and tall and colorful and productive with ripe seed as I have seen it in the last decade. With fresh memories of the scorching summers of 2011 and 2012, when heat and drought tested every Kansan’s resolve to maintain residency, I can definitely say that I…love…water.

I just finished attending the first day of the Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas, where newly re-elected Governor Sam Brownback committed that a big part of his second term will be dedicated to development and implementation of A Long-Term Vision for the Future of Water Supply in Kansas. Kansans are fortunate to have access to plentiful groundwater in the western part of the state and surface water in the east. At the moment, we are fortunate to regularly turn on the tap for a clean, seemingly limitless supply of water – a luxury that costs less than our phone bills, cable bills, and electricity bills, but is far more essential.

The introductory statement in the Governor’s document issues a warning: “The writing is on the wall and if we don’t act today, our future is bleak. The Ogallala Aquifer is declining faster than it is recharging. Reservoirs, which are critical water storage structures for much of our state, are filling with sediment. At this rate, with no changes in the next 50 years, the Ogallala will be 70 percent depleted and our reservoirs will be 40 percent filled with sediment.” Most of us haven’t experienced a Dust Bowl in our lifetime or don’t remember the one we did. Hopefully, we won’t experience one in our lifetime, but odds are increasing that we will.

Wise Use of Kansas Water will be the topic of our Dyck Arboretum 2015 Spring Education Symposium. This symposium will explore the history of drought cycles on the Plains, the current status of our Kansas water supply, what steps are being taken to protect it, and offer ways we can better conserve it.

Stay tuned for more information. In the meantime, love water.

(Photos courtesy of Gerry Epp)