Sustainable Landscape Design

Maintenance, the oft-neglected part of landscaping, is important for a healthy and sustainable landscape. The session will touch on growing expectations, seasonal care, addressing plant problems and pest, and learning from mistakes made in caring for and giving up on certain plants and dreams of how we thought we could use a certain part of our spaces.

Los Alamos County is in the semi-arid high desert of northern New Mexico. Your plants are going to require some level of watering and irrigation comes in many forms and expense levels. We will discuss an overview of the installation, maintenance, and expectations of different irrigation systems, from hand watering to utilizing swales to fully automated line systems.

The fun part of landscaping for most people is going to the plant store and picking out what you want to look at every day. This session will use what we learned in previous sessions about microclimates to make sure that favorite plant is in the perfect place. Plants look great at the store, let’s help them thrive once they’re in the ground.

Plants won’t grow if the earth isn’t in a condition to provide support. To begin soil preparations, you need to consider the current conditions and how to deal with what is there. This session will cover how to regenerate the soil for a successful and thriving landscape by addressing soil amendments, compaction, and the different weed barriers.

Now that you have assessed your plot, let’s consider the possibilities of the space. During this session we will consider plant characteristics (height, privacy, maintenance), your budget, workload and prioritization of the transition, and whether to do it yourself or hire professionals. This session will help you get an outline in place for transforming your outdoor spaces.

The first step in creating a sustainable landscape design for your yard is to do a site inventory and assessment. The more you know your site, the better your design decisions will be. Whether you’ve just moved to a new location or if you want to make changes to your current yard, this step will help you determine growing conditions on your property and what is needed to sustain a healthy landscape.

To many, outdoor spaces are simply an extension of your indoor space. But to others, looking out the window is overwhelming. This first workshop will provide an overview of what the Sustainable Landscape Design series will cover. We will discuss water conservation, landscape types, and touch on landscaping with fire protection in mind.