Tips for Selecting Trees

• Plant local trees for regional character. What seems common here is unusual elsewhere and reflects our unique natural history and ecosystems.
• Plant native tree species instead of ornamental varieties. Birds and wildlife prefer native trees and can benefit more from their flowers and seeds.
• Trees that evolved in this region are better suited to our climate of wet winters and dry summers and to our soils that are often rocky, acidic, and low in nutrients.
• Consider the final size of the tree to make sure there is clearance above and around the tree as it grows. Often trees are smaller in cultivation but many of our native trees can still get quite tall.
• Consider the water and sun preferences. Some trees can grow in either sun or shade but require more water when grown in full sun. Plant drought-tolerant trees where they won’t get watered by sprinklers.

On average, a welldesigned landscape provides enough energy savings to return your initial investment in less than 8 years. An 8-foot (2.4-meter) deciduous (leaf-shedding) tree, for example, costs about as much as an awning for one large window and can ultimately save your household hundreds of dollars in reduced cooling costs, yet still admit some winter sunshine to reduce heating and lighting costs. Landscaping can save you money in summer or winter.

Summer
You may have noticed the coolness of parks and wooded areas compared to the temperature of nearby city streets. Shading and evapotranspiration (the process by which a plant actively moves and releases water vapor) from trees can reduce surrounding air temperatures as much as 9° F (5°C). Because cool air settles near the ground, air temperatures directly under trees can be as much as 25°F (14°C) cooler than air temperatures above nearby blacktop. Studies by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory found summer daytime air temperatures to be 3°F to 6° F (2°C to 3°C) cooler in tree-shaded neighborhoods than in treeless areas. A well-planned landscape can reduce an unshaded home’s summer air-conditioning costs by 15% to 50%. One Pennsylvania study reported air-conditioning savings of as much as 75% for small mobile homes.

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:

The purpose of this guide

The Oregon Rain Garden Guide was written to help Oregonians learn how to design and build rain gardens to treat the stormwater runoff from their own homes or businesses. Rain gardens are “gardens with a purpose”; they help reduce the amount of excess water and associated pollutants reaching local lakes, streams, and bays. Ultimately this results in healthier waterways, fish, other wildlife, and people.

This how-to guide provides information specific to Oregon’s conditions, including the rainfall and appropriate plants for your site. You don’t have to be a stormwater, garden, or landscape professional to use this guide. It provides the necessary information to safely build and maintain a rain garden, along with references for more detailed guidance for special conditions. You may also contact the authors and partners directly for more information.

What is a rain garden?

For the 2008 and 2009 field seasons, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and the Lake Tahoe Basin fire chiefs have agreed to make some changes to Best Management Practices (BMPs) recommendations to make it easier for homeowners to implement effective defensible space practices. These are described in the “Living With Fire—A Guide for the Homeowner, Lake Tahoe Basin” (Second Edition). Please make note of the following changes to specific pages in the “Home Landscaping Guide for Lake Tahoe and Vicinity,” University of Nevada Cooperative Extension (UNCE) publication EB 06-01.

Defensible Space Zones

The area from 0 – 5 feet from structures should be a noncombustible zone. In this zone, you should remove flammable shrubs and trees, dead branches and dried grass, flowers and weeds. Do not use pine needles, bark or wood mulches in this zone. This zone includes both the drip lines and gable ends of structures. It can be covered with gravel, rock, brick, concrete, or low-growing, irrigated herbaceous plants such as lawn, erosion control grasses, clover, forbs and succulents. Firewood, flammable construction materials and dead plant materials should be removed from this zone. Do not cross this zone with wood landscape timbers or boards.

What is Water-efficient Landscaping?

Water, many agree, is our most precious natural resource; without it, life ceases. Yet judging by our water use and consumption practices, many of us in the United States seem to take it for granted. A typical household uses approximately 260 gallons of water per day. “Water conscious” individuals often install high-efficiency shower heads and toilets and wash only full loads of clothes and dishes to reduce consumption. But in the summer, the amount of water used outdoors by a household can exceed the amount used for all other purposes in the entire year. This is especially true in hot, dry climates.