The visual click here of today’s North America mainly consists of wide open grass, interspersed by shrubs or trees. Though social media and culture has engrained that landscape in our minds, it basically remains ecologically exhausted, requiring a substantial quantity of chemicals and capital expenditure for the maintenance, particularly the areas with dry climate.
Though the particularities of natural landscape differ depending on the region, the essential ethics apply from one coast to another, and can be employed on wide-ranging sites of varying areas in rural and urban areas containing university grounds, backyards and the rooftops of residential buildings.
Usual turf landscapes are associated with ecological problems and financial burden, but there are many advantages of natural landscaping. Here are some of the main benefits:
Reduction in the pollution of air: Usually, natural landscaping doesn’t call for regular cutting and trimming, thereby reducing air pollution as caused by turf landscaping. Yet, this landscaping too can cause pollution due to fire management.
The reduction of extra nutrients: Since natural landscaping doesn’t need fertilizers, there is no overflow or penetration of nutrients. You can create buffers to confine overflows from solid planes to prevent the pollutants from going into surface waters. Preventing nutrients from flowing into the groundwater also saves surface waters from getting harmed, as groundwater appears in the form of springs and finally takes the shape of streams or rivers.
Reduction in the use of pesticides: Since a natural landscape incorporates well-balanced ecosystems, generally, there is no need to use insecticides and herbicides, or other pesticides. Moreover, the usual machines, such as lawnmowers or other earth moving machinery, are not used very often, and as a result air pollution is significantly reduced in the surrounding region, leading to a better state of health. Additionally, making the water supplies free of pollutants also causes positive effects on our health.
Enhanced biodiversity: Natural landscapes support a larger biodiversity in comparison to usual turf landscapes. Local plants supply diverse food and surroundings for birds, insects, reptiles, small mammals and amphibians. In large urban areas, even small plots of natural landscape play a significant role in the survival of local flora and fauna.
Financial benefits: The local authorities are expected to make savings amounting to thousands of dollars annually by replacing the present turf with natural pampas landscaping.
Cost reduction: Considerable savings can be made in the cost of landscape management by transforming lawns to normal landscapes. Though the initial expense of building natural landscapes would be relatively high, the yearly working expense for maintaining the natural landscapes would be much smaller than annual expenses required for maintaining the lawn area.
There are many benefits offered by native plants and these include a minimal maintenance and care, their ability to survive with little rainfall or irrigation and innate resistance to diseases and pests. Yet, they have their own limitations.
They naturally find a place for themselves out in the wild, but when facing an urban setting, their charm is lost and quite a few of their positive features become hazardous. Landscape designers and architects feel that their choice is restricted to a few plants that would do well in urban environments. For example, we would like trees to be narrow and tall for urban plantation along the street and pathways. This is not possible with plants that grow naturally wild, with branches reaching down the streets and making the entire place untidy.
Another problem is that most of those plants have natural thorns or sharp edges towards the end of leaves, which can prove hazardous to people passing by and even to cars, by scratching them. All these features of plants growing in natural surroundings call for increased maintenance and thus additional expense when planted in urban areas.
Natural landscaping demands additional skills and information for their development and maintenance. It also involves additional costs. Moreover, it is natural for humans, designers included, to resist any change.
