Instead of
weekly
maintenance,
you’ll
transition
to seasonal
projects, like
deadheading
a shrub.to a reel mower. Gas lawn
mowers are statistically 25
times more polluting than
cars. For an acre or less, try
an electric mower with a
rechargeable battery.
Water less
Grass needs one inch of
water per week during the
growing season. East of the
Mississippi, as long as you
don’t mind dormancy dur-
ing a drought—meaning, it
may look crispy and brown,
depending on the type, but
still be very much alive —
you don’t need to irrigate
your lawn. Most varieties of
grass will tolerate drought
stress better than people
realize.
Organize it
From Claudia West: Make
your yard look even better
with frames, which can be
as simple as a neat and tidy
fence, a curb, a mowed edge
with a couple feet of turf
or clipped hedges. Main-
taining the edges, adding
a bench—these are cues
of care that indicate the
planting is something you
intended to create.Make it pretty!
Pay attention to what
blooms when, and factor
seasonal shifts of color into
your design. Says West:
“You probably remember
in fall when entire fields
bloom in goldenrod, a sea
of yellow. Or spring when
you walk near a floodplain
and see millions of Vir-
ginia bluebells. What if 20
percent of your planting
erupted in purple, pink,
white, or orange? That’s a
spectacular event.”Designs are more success-
ful when we choose a lan-
guage based on an ancient
perception of beauty.”STEP 5 :
Support It
Watch how the landscape
evolves. “Don’t be discour-
aged if some of the plants
in your palette don’t do
well, even though you did
the research,” says Max
Kanter, cofounder of
Saturate, an ecologically
minded gardening com-
pany in Los Angeles. Some
might not be placed quite
right, while others will
thrive in ways you didn’t
expect. “Start to practice
the idea that the garden is
a process,” he says. It’s not
an installation or a trans-
action; it’s a relationship.
You’re not just giving your
yard back to nature. You’re
sharing it, which in a way,
is giving yourself back to
nature, too.The finished picture doesn’t have to look “wild.”
@PopularMechanics _ July/August 2019 79