Page 10 - CooperatorNews Chicagoland Spring 2021

10 COOPERATORNEWS CHICAGOLAND
—SPRING 2021
CHICAGO.COOPERATORNEWS.COM
Time for a new
Time for a new
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630-215-7343
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Before
Before
Make Your Life Easier with
Make Your Life Easier with
shade, make better use of otherwise dead
space, and account for seasonality—a partic-
ularly important consideration in the face of
climate change and the severe weather events
it can bring to all regions.
Similarly, making use of plants native to
the region where they’re being planted has
both maintenance and sustainability benefits.
Landscaping experts advise that native plants
are already adapted to local climate and soil
conditions, and therefore require less water-
ing, fertilizers, and pesticides than non-native
vegetation. According to Ellen Sousa, author
of
The Green Garden: The New England Guide
to Planning, Planting and Maintaining the
Eco-Friendly Habitat Garden,
the best bet is
to “choose plants suited for your particular
site conditions, rather than trying to change
your conditions to suit certain plants. … We
should let go of the idea that we need fussy,
high-maintenance, exotic plants in order to
have a beautiful garden.”
Tom Lupfer, owner of Lupfer Landscaping
in Lyons, Illinois, and member of the Illinois
Landscape Contractors Association (ILCA),
says that an integrated landscape approach
will also become a more sustainable system.
Where plants are dying or struggling, he says,
pests tend to proliferate, which increases the
need for chemical applications. This has fur-
ther negative consequences for the health
and vitality of the landscape. “When you put
down herbicides, for example,” says Lupfer,
“you kill not only the harmful elements, but
many of the beneficial microbes that foster
life and growth in the soil. The soil becomes
barren, in a way, and has to be supplemented
artificially, which means more chemicals.” As
with any organic system, the less need for in-
tervention, the better. Native plants are more
likely to thrive on their own in the conditions
natural to the region, requiring fewer chemi-
cals, less watering, and less impact.
The National Wildlife Federation has
launched a Native Plant Finder on its website:
www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/. Enter your
zip code, and find all the flowers, grasses,
trees, and shrubs that are native to your area.
Go for Low Maintenance
A sustainable landscape is one that mini-
mizes use of non-renewable resources, ac-
cording to the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). The less we can apply chemi-
cals, fertilizers, pesticides, and even water to
our manicured environments, the better it
is for both our planet and our pocketbook.
Not only does overuse of these elements have
negative effects on the environment and our
health, but it’s expensive.
The move to a sustainable landscape need
not be immediate, nor need it be an extreme
overhaul of an existing plan. “The whole goal
of moving toward sustainability is to subtly
change it into a more vibrant-looking land-
scape and create a healthier environment,”
Lupfer says. “It should be a process of tran-
sitioning from a traditional landscape to a
PLANTS...
continued from page 1
more sustainable one. A healthier landscape
means that plants don’t need as much atten-
tion, since they are growing as they should
and are not afflicted by disease and don’t need
artificial food to keep them alive and flour-
ishing.”
One quick and easy way to save green by
going green is to control irrigation. Lupfer
estimates that watering plants and grasses
only as needed, rather than using a timer or
other automatic schedule, can save 60% to
70% on water bills. These savings can really
add up over time, and require little to no ini-
tial financial output. “You don’t have to put in
new systems or spend any money up front,”
he advises of this practice. “This is something
everyone can do right now.”
With a little more effort—but a lot of
payback both financially and sustainability-
wise—installation of a rain garden will allow
storm water runoff to be collected and used
for the property’s irrigation, rather than be-
ing wasted and leeching impurities into our
waterways. “Rain gardens are becoming very
popular,” says Debbi Edelstein, executive di-
rector of the New England Wild Flower So-
ciety in Framingham, Massachusetts. “The
water you use in rain gardens will feed back
into the soil and not run off the site. That way,
nature is managing the water. You don’t have
to manage the water when the site has been
designed properly by making it a sustain-
able landscape. When you make a sustain-
able landscape, you make a maintenance-free
landscape.”
Look Toward the Future
Even a small investment into an associa-
tion’s landscape design or maintenance can
have big payoffs for the long-term financial
and physical success of the property. By the
same token, what might seem like a costly
change or addition at first might have posi-
tive repercussions for the future. For example,
Lupfer points out that investing in permeable
pavers reduces the amount of land needed
for drainage solutions like retention ponds or
drains, leaving more of it available for other
uses. A thoughtful plan for an underused
outdoor space can add exponential value and
desirability for a community and its home-
owners.
Making landscaping decisions with an eye
“The whole goal
of moving toward
sustainability is to subtly
change it into a more
vibrant-looking landscape
and create a healthier
environment”
— Tom Lupfer
continued on page 11