DIY LEED Landscaping
The landscaping has begun. We had a run of beautiful warm days last week and knocked off the front yard with the assistance of a bobcat artist named Wayne.
The landscape plan we developed hopes to maintain our goal of energy conservatism and sustainability but as usual with a large degree of pragmaticism. To follow LEED landscaping to the letter, we would have had to be way more diligent with our plant and material selections than we could as DIY’ers as well as provide the signature of a landscape architect for full points. In our case, we’re happy to use native (central Canada and Ontario, not exclusively Southern Ontario) hardy and drought resistant plantings along with locally sourced stone, screenings and soil as well as recovered mulch from local saw mills and fallen trees.
In addition, we designed the landscape to coordinate with our roof water run-off and site drainage so as to avoid site storm water run-off into the city municipal sewer system. We integrated berms, plantings, kitchy catch basins and mini-creeks or French trenches to keep water moving away from the foundation but with the goal to have it absorbed by plantings and the natural water table. We filled the catch basins and trenches with drainage tubes and covered with river rock for filtering, evaporation and simple clean aesthetics.
The main thing we wanted was a natural easy unstructured feel of the yard to balance the purposely structured building. This unstructured format will also be forgiving of a more wild result when the grasses and native plants start to mature and get slightly unruly – allowing us the grace to not use too much energy in maintenance.
The check list we achieved
+ minimal costs for max results (cost means more money through the wasteful industrial engine)
+ native species of plantings (creating habitat for native wildlife & suit local conditions to avoid artificial support)
+ low energy and efficient use and distribution of site rain water (gravity waters our plants)
+ drought resistance (but the plants don’t need it)
+ low mechanical maintenance (no grass to mow or trim, no fertilizers, no watering from municipal)
+ encourage or restore water table (moist soil is more absorbent and adds to natural plant moisture evaporation cycle)
+ minimized hard surfaces on site (most of our hard surfaces are porous or have cracks for drainage into site)
In the end, we have a natural and pro looking landscape design that works in conjunction with the house and ecology in a practical and achievable way without breaking the bank — though it did my back.
Resources
Native Plant Species Planning — Jason Pepetone (email)
Native Plant material — www.connon.ca
Stone — www.limberloststone.com