Earth-Friendly Landscapes
Eco-Friendly Landscaping
By installing an eco-friendly landscape, you can help conserve water and reduce pollutants.
Bellevue and the Eastside Seattle have been subject to denser development in recent years, with higher numbers of people moving here, mounting traffic, and heavier rains. Our region now faces real ecological challenges. Adding an earth-friendly or eco-friendly landscape to your property can be part of the solution!
There are many ways in which you can take an ecological and holistic approach to landscaping:
- Minimize the use of chemical herbicides or insecticides, as well as fertilizers, which can all contaminate soil and groundwater. Instead use slow release and organic fertilizers as well as natural insecticides.
- Compost green waste in a compost or worm bin. By recycling yard waste, you can make your own nourishing compost to enrich your soil.
- Harvest rainwater in barrels has become popular and can be used to irrigate landscapes in the dry months, conserving water.
- Install a green roof to cool and insulate your property.
- Create a rain garden to conserve and filter rainwater.
- Install a bioswale or retention pond.
This Mercer Island green roof filters rainwater and minimizes stormwater runoff into Lake Washington.
Native Green offers Eco-Friendly Garden Installations:
Rain Gardens
Rain gardens are becoming more and more popular. They are part of a national movement to beautify landscapes, while conserving water and filtering out pollutants that can end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Native Green uses a mixture of drought- and flood-tolerant plantings to absorb and filter polluting runoff before it can flow into our vital waterways. Plants such as reeds (Juncus species) and Iris, which are tolerant of wet or dry conditions, are used in rain gardens for visual effect and also to remove heavy metals from water. There are also some species of iris that filter water.
Rain gardens are also an opportunity to add some visual interest to your yard, with contours defined with beautiful stones, attractive gravel, and your favorite plants to attract pollinators and birds. We carefully select plants with long, overlapping bloom periods, to provide food for pollinators over many seasons.
Find out more information about rain gardens here.
Green Roofs
A green roof (or living roof) is covered with vegetation and growing medium and planted over a waterproofing membrane. Native Green builds and maintains green roofs to absorb rainwater, provide insulation to the roof, host wildlife, and lower urban air temperatures.
Green roofs can also add interest and beauty to all dimensions of your landscape. Wouldn’t you rather gaze out of your window at a flourishing garage roof covered in sedums and other attractive groundcover plants? There are many attractive plant options for use in green roofs – succulents such as Sempervirens and Delosperma with bright flowers. Also grasses such as Carex flacca – a beautiful blue grass – and Ophiopogon – an attractive dwarf, ornamental grass.
Bioswales and retention ponds
Bioswale systems remove silt and pollution by guiding and holding storm water within sloped, planted sides. Retention ponds hold storm water to prevent flooding and erosion and slow runoff to improve water quality in nearby waterways.
They are also a way of guiding water on your property, moving it away from your house and other structures to where it can be utilized by plants. Bioswales and retention ponds can be used as an alternative to installing drains, which have the opposite objective, which is to remove excess water from your property and conduct it towards the street and storm drains.
Contact Native Green to ask about our eco-friendly landscape solutions. Serving Bellevue and the Seattle Eastside.
