The organic approach to landscaping and gardening has a number of long-term financial and health benefits for you and your environment. Long-term is the only way to think about organic/ecological land care. Quick and easy synthetic solutions create more problems than they solve – mother nature creates a perfect balance with more moving parts than we can conceive, and when we kill or suppress one of the parts with a manmade chemical, we’ll need another chemical to solve a new problem that we created, and another, and another. As companies that make toxic synthetic products get richer and richer, we become more and more dependent on their products to achieve the landscape we desire. This process can cost significant amounts of money and time, but ultimately will not provide you with a regenerative landscape.
Here’s how the organic/ecological approach to land care saves you money, time, and stress:
1. Decreased Need for Plant Replacement
Conventional landscaping practices have spread the incorrect stereotype that it is normal for new plants and trees to die. Our services at McCoy Horticultural include an industry-leading three-year guarantee for a reason. Simply put, we follow the cultural and natural guidelines of a planting site to ensure the plant is properly suited and will establish itself quickly, reducing the need for excess watering and maintenance in the future. Have a look at our Right Plant, Right Place Checklist for more information on what to look for when choosing a planting site.
2. Utilizing Natural Assets
Organic materials naturally provided on-site are what we call “free money.” For some, leaving leaves is associated with an aesthetic nightmare – however, there ARE leaf management solutions that not only maintain the visual appeal of your landscape, but also employ the valuable aspects of fallen leaves – essential organic material for your beds and lawns (meaning decreased need for both synthetic and organic products), as well as shelter for the cornerstone insect species that keep your landscape (and the surrounding environment) pollinated, healthy, and vibrant.
Stormwater management is another way to work with nature to your benefit. Instead of letting all stormwater flow out into the street and sewer system, it can be funneled into self-sustaining rain gardens and then sink into the ground, helping to recharge groundwater basins.
3. Avoiding Excess Watering & Maintenance
Native plants have evolved over eons to fit just right in your yard. Once established, they require very little maintenance and are draught-tolerant enough to require no extra watering outside of extreme circumstances.
Secondly, if plants and trees nursery-selected and planted correctly and with ecological consideration, you’ll save money on the material and time it takes to prolong the lifespan of a wrongly planted plant or tree.
4. Home VALUE and Quality of Life
If your property is installed and maintained organically/ecologically, that means toxic synthetic chemicals are never applied in regular maintenance, and if they are ever used at all, they are used frugally and only under extreme circumstances where no organic options remain. This one aspect of the organic approach benefits you in many ways: it allows soil health to thrive using its natural systems, which in turn produces healthy plant material – and potentially most appealing of all, it creates cleaner air and a safer overall environment for your family, friends and pets, which needless to say is boundlessly valuable in the long-term.
From a purely ecological perspective, there are even more benefits to natural landscaping. It’s our responsibility as earthly citizens, who benefit greatly from the earth’s generosity, to give back to the natural systems that we take for granted. Within the confines of our own properties, we can do this, and save ourselves money and time in the process.
To learn more about our organic and ecological land care services, visit www.mccoyfinegardens.com, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
EcologyMatters 