In a time where companies and facilities are going “green” to reduce their footprint on the environment, we can’t help but wonder how we can make those changes at home as well. As it turns out, going green can also bring out your green thumb. Lifescape Colorado, one of a few Denver landscape architecture firms, is a landscape architecture and design company that helps to create and maintain sustainable outdoor spaces that enrich the lives of their clients, while conserving the resources of our planet.
Their ideas and concepts for landscape design can help inspire a creative green space in your own area, whether it’s your home patio or a community garden.
1. Invest in sustainable horticulture.
Horticulture is the agriculture of plants for comfort, beauty and decoration. Horticulturists apply knowledge, skills, and technologies to grow intensively produced plants for personal or social needs. Lifescape is recognized as an industry leader in sustainability, consistently on the forefront of water conservation, green construction and property care practices.
Sustainability is more than a thoughtfully designed and installed space, it is an ongoing horticultural process. Trees, shrubs and turf improve air quality, protect water quality, reduce heat buildup, reduce soil erosion and increase water retention. Lifescape have a wealth of experience in urban design and landscape architecture to help you decrease your carbon impact by increasing the green spaces in your life.
2. Create your own jungle.
Growers are naturally passionate for horticulture, and that’s why plant lovers often want to entrust the best of their large and small plants to fellow plant lovers.
LivelyRoot, a high quality nursery and retailer based out of San Diego, has a wide variety of plants that are lovingly farm-grown, hand-picked and sustainably shipped from their small batch nursery in San Diego. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, Lively Root offers the quality, health, simplicity and care that you need.
Lively Root’s nursery grows small plants, indoor plants, outdoor plants, large trees and flowering shrubs. They’ve even planted & maintained trees on residential and commercial properties of all types. Their knowledge and experience has equipped them to provide the very best horticultural experience possible. If you want to create your own personal jungle, you should probably reach out to these pros for advice on the best practices for plant maintenance so that your plants thrive.
3. Learn about longevity and maintenance.
If you want to make sure that your green paradise lasts, you should reach out to those who have experience developing sustainable green spaces. As a pioneer in the Colorado landscaping industry for over 40 years, Lifescape Colorado’s landscape architects and landscape designers take pride in developing unique designs to fit the style of the client and property.
Lifescape’s maintenance division is deeply committed to sustainable practices. They use a number of techniques, which you can apply as well, to ensure that their designs are sustainable and conservation-minded. These include making sure your plantings are native to the area in which you’re located, innovative water management with evapotranspiration (ET) smart controllers, incorporating indigenous and drought-resistant plants (perennials versus annuals), using organic soil amendments and herbicides and LED low voltage lighting.
Consider using these tactics as well and reaching out to Lifescape for more information about sustainable techniques.
4. Conserving Water
Another great way to conserve water and maintain a beautiful landscape is to consider Xeriscape. With Colorado’s semi-arid climate, water-wise landscaping uses low-water-use plants to create a sustainable landscape.
Xeriscaping is the process of landscaping and gardening that reduces or eliminates the need for supplemental water from irrigation. It is promoted in regions that do not have accessible, plentiful or reliable supplies of fresh water and is gaining acceptance in other regions as access to irrigation water is becoming limited.
According to Denver Water, there are seven principles to the Xeriscape concept: “….planning and designing, limiting turf areas, selecting and zoning plants appropriately, improving the soil, using mulch, irrigating efficiently and maintaining the landscape”. Designed properly, Xeriscape can be easy to care for, colorful and lush. You’ll be creating a beautiful space and helping out the planet at the same time.
5. Greener Today for a Calmer Tomorrow
Lively Root focuses on providing multiple options to ensure an open space becomes a plant owner’s desire. It all comes down to offering inspiration, guidance and education to potential plant lovers so that the process is fun. Lively Root knows that plants improve health by purifying the air, soothing stress, making people feel happier and offering style and ambiance. Everyone has a place for a plant that perks up and adds joy to their own personal green space.