Sharon asks…
What are the most sustainable plants to use in landscaping?
Live in the upper midwest, looking to use more native plants that will be a good compromise between sustainability and attractiveness.
answers:
Contact your local nursery like others before me have said. However, most Lowe’s or Home Depot will have books with all this information in that are specific to your area if you are doing all this yourself and don’t want to deal with the high pressure sales of a nursery. I live right on the line between 2 of the “Zones” and so it gets too hot here for some plants and too cold for others. But I found a book at Home Depot that had good suggestions for this “cross-over” climate zone.
Donald asks…
What defines a “sustainable plant’ in regards to landscaping?
answers:
Sustainable plantings have several characteristics:
1) They are not invasive non-natives.
2) They do not impose an extra burden on the local water supply because they are chosen to be compatible with the local climate and so will not need to be watered once they are established.
3) They do not need regular applications of fertilizers to thrive because they are compatible with the local soil type.
4) They do not need regular applications of pesticides to thrive because they are pest resistant.
5) They harmonize with the local ecosystem by providing food and shelter to the local wild life, like bees, butterflies, birds, and small mammals.
Native plants always fulfill all of these requirements and frequently have the added benefit of being lower maintenance than non-native ornamental plants. The non-natives often either struggle to survive because the local environment is not that similar to where they evolved or non-natives can become invasive and crowd out native plants because whatever predator kept them in check in their native environment is missing so they spread wildly.
Carefully chosen non-natives can also fulfill these requirements. You should ask especially about whether or not they are invasive. Avoid invasive plants. Also ask if they are native to areas with a similar climate and soil type. If so they should be sustainable.
With a carefully chosen sustainable landscape, often the only maintenace required is occational pruning and had weeding. Planing of annual wild flowers each year is optional 
.
Steven asks…
How is environmental planning different from landscape and sustainable development..?
answers:
Environmental is looking at bigger picture than landscape – mainly for beautification purposes
sustainable is the biggest picture with world physical/ climate / etc. Without damage to environment.
Thomas asks…
How are communities supposed to be sustainable?
Forests clean the air and water and provide emotional calmness to the landscape.
In suburban communities, forests are being cleared for construction of malls, dealerships, and housing developments.
How is nature supposed to stay sustainable when all the forsent ecosystems are being disturbed and more pavement hits the ground? How much forestly is enough to keep it balanced?
answers:
Mrwiz, how do you expect food to be grown, if everyone is living on that a 2 foot square area?? That doesn’t even make sense to present that in support of an argument suggesting their is still plenty of room!
Do you realize how much space is required to raise just one cow for milk?
How about another for beef?
How about land for just one house?
If you figure that up realitisticlaly, you are looking at
at least 1 acre per dairy cow
at least 1 acre per beef cow
and at least 1 acre per home
that is already up to 3 acres per person, now figure that into your math problem.
After you do that, realize that isn’t even considering how much space is needed to grow fruit and veggies.
That doesn’t even figure in, the amount of acres of plants we need to consume the CO2, that is generated per human, for the products and services we consume that generate it.
To answer your question, it isn’t!
The oceans are dying off, and so are trees and other plants as a result of the imabalances we have caused.
David asks…
How about a better, more sustainable life without the illegals to clean your house and mow your lawn?
The pro-illegals kept saying that without the work of these illegals, the U.S. would not be able to function.
Any one with a brain could see how untrue it is, but if we look at the way many American citizens live and work today, it’s not too hard to see that the dependency on cheap illegal labor is also the excuses for companies, communities, even the states to not take on the inevitabble transition to a more sustainable way of living. Take a closer look at the spending/consumption patterns of the majority of people, you can see how wasteful and unnecessary people spend their money(likely on things they can live without). What the need for cheap illegal household help(landscape, maids, nannies) really shows, is not how much we need the illegals to clean our houses or mow our lawns, it really shows how far away many are from a normal, wholesome, balanced family life.
whoever voted down Turtle is legal, is, like many of the chest-pounding, lie-spewing, arrogant, illegal Mexicans on this site, a certifieble MORON!!!
Spazz,
one doesn’t have to be “rich, stuckup, white” to not want to do a lawn mowing job for $2 an hour. It has nothing to do with what color or race you are. It simply is because $2 an hour is not a livable wage for any self respecting citizen.
answers:
Who were doing these jobs and still are before the illegals? Yes, Americans! Cheap labor is for the cheap people. Both should be terminated!
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