A Guide to Florida-Friendly Landscaping
Florida Neighborhoods: Connecting Our Yards to Florida’s Water
Our yards and neighborhoods are channels to our waterways. Your yard is the fi rst line of defense for preserving Florida’s fragile environment. The health of Florida’s estuaries, rivers, lakes, springs and aquifers depends partly on how you landscape and maintain your yard. You don’t even have to live on the water to make a big difference. Rain that falls on yards, roads and parking lots can wash into waterways or leach into ground water, carrying pollutants — including fertilizers, pesticides, animal waste, soil and petroleum products. Improperly applied fertilizers and pesticides from residential areas pose a serious threat to the health of Florida’s waters.
Creating Your Florida-Friendly Yard
A Florida-Friendly Yard doesn’t merely offer good-looking landscapes; it also becomes an asset to the environment, protecting natural resources and preserving the state’s unique beauty. Recognizing that the home landscape is part of a larger natural system will help in creating a Florida-Friendly Yard. Designing an aesthetically pleasing Florida-Friendly Yard begins with good decisions based on what you and your landscape require:
- Your needs and desires
- Knowing your site’s conditions
- Maintaining a healthy environment
Whether you are designing on a shoestring budget or hiring a professional landscape architect, understanding a few basic concepts will help you make environmentally appropriate decisions and avoid problems down the road.
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