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Landscaping
Landscaping is defined as any artistic activity that transforms the physical features of a land area. It may include contouring and planting shrubs, flowers or trees. Considered both a science and an art, it involves good observation and design skills.
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Green landscaping is, to paraphrase the UN, a sustainable landscape improvement project that satisfies the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.
Wikipedia defines sustainability as "the capacity to endure."
To give an analogy, green landscaping is to landscapes what the internal engine is to green automobiles. Similar to the performance of a green automobile, when looking "under the hood" at the performance of the landscape, a green landscape will run longer, leaner, cleaner and meaner than it's conventional counterparts. And, just as green automobiles come with various styles and functionality, green landscaping can have different styling and functionality as well.
A good quality landscape should have all the qualities of styling, functionality and performance -- performance being the "green" quality. A deficit in any one quality compromises the overall quality of a landscaping project. This answer focuses on the "green" quality of performance.
Green landscapes are evaluated on performance. With landscapes being one of the heaviest consumers of water, water efficiency is an important evaluator of performance. Much like fuel consumption of an automobile, water consumption is often the first thing noted about a green landscape's performance.
The four main aspects of green landscaping are the ability to perform:
- Longer
- Leaner
- Cleaner
- Meaner
Within these aspects, performance qualities of a green landscape result in:
1. Longer
Longer intervals between feeding, watering, manicuring, and maintaining mechanical systems such as irrigation, lighting and equipment.
2. Leaner
Less input and importation required of water, fertilizer, toxic or non-biodegradable chemicals for biological controls, electricity, and fuel for equipment and maintenance vehicles.
3. Cleaner
Reduction, elimination or cleansing of sources of pollution such as petro-synthetic fertilizers, toxic chemicals for biological control, petro-synthetic fuels used to operate systems, equipment and vehicles, and other sources of pollution coming from either on or off site.
4. Meaner
Improved health, vigor and variety of living systems including soil, plants and animals.
Some of the accomplishments of green landscaping have been:
- up to 70% reduction in irrigation water useage (up to 30% over conventional drip)
- 100% elimination of chemical fertilizer and toxic or non-biodegradable biological controls
- 0% potable municipal water use in irrigation
- 100% irrigation water needs supplied from onsite graywater and harvested rainwater
- Plant growth of 5 years accomplished in 1 year with zero human effort
- Soil health increased 2 to 5 times
- Soil structure and aeration maintained with zero human effort
- 100% hauling green waste away to dump, eliminated
- 0% waste produced
- 100% green waste reused on site to recondition soil
- Plant disease reduced
- Beneficial insect population such as bees and ladybugs increased
- Predatory insect infestations decreased
- Habitat of local native animal population, such as song birds, increased
- Preservation of locally endemic (native) plants included in the landscape to ensure survival of their species
- Preservation of habitat of locally endemic (native) insects and animals who feed on native plants included in the landscape, to ensure survival of their species
- Increased biodiversity, for increased endurance, health and vigor of the landscape as well as preservation of species
...And many more results
I myself like to loosely define green landscapes as being good for people, pets, property and planet.
Programs such as the Bay-FriendlyLandscapes in Alameda County, California, educate the public and the landscaping profession on the latest trends and advancements they can use today. The program is geared towards immediate practical application of green landscaping methods and targets working landscaping professionals as well as property owners. It is where "the rubber meets the road", so to speak, and is taught in both English and Spanish.
Policy movements such as the Sustainable Sites Initiative are providing the framework of policy for future advancements of broad application of this knowledge for more people to benefit.
Vinca and periwinkle are the same plant.
Can you mix mud and straw to make a driveway?
NO! are you insane!!! that's an Amish driveway at best ;)
Will bamboo grow well around a pond where the water rises in the summer?
bamboo grows as quickly as it can with the recources it has at the time. in the Brisbane floods 4 of my 4 bamboo plants were thriving
A sprinkler or "valve" manifold is the heart of a sprinkler system. The water source (hose faucet, sprinkler main line, etc.) feeds into the manifold and then the valves in the manifold redirect water to different watering areas. Its reason for being is that most water sources have insufficient pressure and flow to water all areas at the same time, so the manifold allows watering to be divided into smaller areas or "zones". A simple way to visualize a sprinkler manifold is as a small letter "m" in which the water source connects into the top of the "m" and then a valve in each of the legs opens and closes to allow water to flow to each zone. Valves in a sprinkler manifold may be controlled either manually or automatically using a sprinkler timer or "controller" which is the brains of an automatic sprinkler system.
Which types of rock are most commonly found as outcrops in nys's Newark Lowlands landscape region?
Conglomerate and sandstone
How much do automatic sprinklers cost?
For a quick and dirty estimate of where you might expect bids from professional sprinkler contractors to come in, use a range of $0.50 to $1.25 per square foot of area to be watered. Small properties and properties with complicated layouts will tend to be at the higher end of that range. Where you live and what type of equipment you select will also impact the range of bids.
If you are installing the system yourself, you should be able to buy equivalent materials at a home improvement store for about 15-20% more than a contractor will pay at a contractor supply store; however, you will need to factor in rental of trenchers and whether you can install the backflow prevention device, so you should figure your total cost of installing an equivalent system yourself will be 40-50% of a professional sprinkler contractor bid.
For more specific information you can search for "Sprinkler System Designer" on the Internet and find applications that will let you put in the parameters of your yard and will output a parts list with prices.
What are the most important cultural traits that shape a people's cultural landscape?
Yah need too start doin yah homework nd stop researching homework I swear :P !
How do you find available commercial landscape maintenance contracts?
It can be somewhat difficult to find commercial landscape maintenance contracts. However, by advertising, you could gain some contracts from inbound leads. Another option is to join a supply chain of landscaping companies and gain service contracts by being a part of a larger service network.
What is the ratio 50 to 1 to gas mix for 2 gallon of gas?
5.12 oz of oil Gallon is 128 oz, two gallons are 256 oz divide by 50 to get 5.12. For every 50 oz of gas you need one oz of oil.
Does a cultural landscape consists of a composite of human imprints on the surface of the Earth?
True
What is the farthest point in a landscape painting called?
Vanishing Point ,Shaila Burley gave you this answer :)
A coralent bond (otherwise known as English bond) refers to a style of masonry or brickwork that appears as an inlocking pattern.
What is landscaping without any supplement irrigation called?
That would be xeriscapic landscaping. (those who say "zero-scaping" are pronouncing it wrong.)
How do you repair a brick patio?
Long story short, you pull up the entire patio, stacking the bricks or pavers neatly. Dig up the sand, replace the drainage and repave. If you have plenty of help, this can be done without breaking your back; otherwise hire a professional.
We're in the middle of repairing our crazy paved patio at the moment:
- Due to being too high, it's breached the damp course on the house so the top has been removed, the top course of bricks on the supporting walls removed and the top sand/cement base removed.
- There is subsidence damage to the supporting walls due to no [proper] foundations and a leaking drainpipe soaking into the ground under the patio. The pipe will be permanently repaired and the damaged section of wall properly rebuilt.
- The patio has also been reduced in length (due to breaching problems and to reclaim so lawn) so a new retaining wall will be built across the end. Behind this a layer of hard core will be packed.
- The top will be covered with a sand/cement base onto which the crazy paving top will be replaced.
Due to a skip lorry, our brick driveway has been really mashed up and needing repair (more that it already did - it has sunk where the car wheels stand). This will involve:
- Removing the bricks
- Putting in a layer of hard core (probably digging down a bit first as I suspect original layer didn't put in enough foundations (if any) - we will find out when the bricks are lifted)
- Putting on a sand/cement base
- Putting bricks back down (in original pattern).
My warning is if you're not too sure of a builder take a careful look around for where he's tethered his horse (my mother who had the work originally done didn't spot his horse and I'm having to get it redone).
