Articles on Hedges | Topics: hedges, hedge, bushes, bush
by Xylia Weber
When you chose to go native with local hedge planting, there are many ways you will benefit besides just having a beautiful lawn. The following paragraphs will discuss some of the many benefits of choosing to go native with local hedge planting as your landscape choice.
One of the greatest advantages of going when using local hedge planting is that this type of landscape will require very little to no maintenance at all. Most native plants and hedges grow well together, and usually grow to predictable sizes. Normally, native plants and shrubbery do not require fertilization, watering, or any chemical compounds, at all. Native plants and shrubbery are known to adapt to their local conditions, including:
weather conditions
native bugs
soil composition
Another one of the many benefits of choosing to go native with local hedge planting for your landscape beds is the amount of money you will save on this type of landscaping. While the cost of having your native plants and hedges put into your landscape beds may be an amount higher than you would pay for a traditional landscape bed, the cost of maintaining it will be much less. Because native plants and hedges will effectively take care of themselves, as stated, there will be little or no maintenance required when you want to maintain the beauty of your native landscape. With little or no maintenance required, you can effectively cut the cost of hiring a professional lawn care company for maintenance, which can save you an average of $700 a year, according to some reports. Using your hedge in place of a fence is also cost saving.
As well as saving you time and money, selective native shrubbery and plants for your landscape can also aid in reducing health concerns due to pesticides and chemical fertilizers used to plant and maintain traditional landscape beds. Studies have shown that suburban homes often have lawns with an average of 10 times more chemical compounds per acre as rural areas. When precipitation hits landscape beds, and chemically treated lawns, a small amount of those chemicals wash into drinking water. Water is treated with chlorine, in order to kill all bacteria, but there are seldom tests run on drinking water, for pesticides and fertilizers containing carcinogens and mutagens, which can cause cancer and birth defects. Choosing native plants and hedges for your landscape will help to eliminate these health threats, because native plants and hedges do not require chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
Air pollution is also decreased when you choose to go native. Traditional landscape maintenance often requires machinery that will create exhaust fumes and form chemical drifts, not to mention the noise. Lawn mowers have been proven to put off an average of 10 times the pollution as an automobile, while weed trimmers average about 21 times the pollution as an automobile. Commercial leaf blowers are the worst with an average 34 times the pollution of an automobile. Going native can eliminate all of these tools, and help decrease air pollution.
The final benefits of going native are the benefits native plants and shrubs hold to our native song birds. Mainly because of loss of habitat, song birds have decreased in population at an average rate of 7 percent per year for the last several decades. Song birds include the species:
thrushes
grosbeaks
| Bit of History |
Alone and alone nine nights I lay
Between two bushes under the rain;
I thought to have whistled her down that way,
I whistled and whistled and whistled in vain.
Oro, oro!
To-morrow night I will break down the door.
| —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) |
|
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hummingbird
cardinals
Adopting a native landscape plan for your lawn can provide wonderful habitats for these song birds, and help put a stop to their rapid decline. And while providing homes for these birds, you will be provided with the added pleasures of their existence in your yard, as well as the music they provide.
Going native with your landscape holds so many more benefits than choosing to be traditional. With selective native shrubbery and plants for your landscape, you are not only benefiting yourself, but you are also benefiting society as a whole for several reasons, such as:
helping to decrease air pollution
providing homes for song birds
helping to decrease water pollution
On top of these benefits, when you use hedges you will save yourself a load of time and money as opposed to building a fence.
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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Go Native with Local Hedge Planting" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by FlowersPlantsGardening.com. |
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