Friday, June 6, 2014

How Landscaping Contractors In Palo Alto CA Can Help Design Sustainable Landscapes

By Sally Delacruz


When planning and designing landscape features whether softscapes or hardscapes, you need to ensure, you come up with functional, beautiful, and sustainable landscapes. Working closely with landscaping contractors in Palo Alto CA can help in designing a sustainable landscape. It is not about placing plants, flowers, and trees within your gardens and yards but how the various vegetation will complement the beauty while also serving the purpose of conserving water and protecting a building.

One important step is conducting a sustainability audit. This will determine how the vegetation as well as the hardscapes will offer the beauty you want while not costing you more than expected. There are different elements that are looked at in planning for landscapes, and they include the size of the lot, the physical property including the house, driveway pavements, and the kind of vegetation, which you will plant.

When you establish the kind of soils that are within your yards and gardens, you can select plants that work on those soil profiles. This will ensure you do not keep on treating your soils to suit specific plants. A visually pleasing, functional, environmentally friendly, cost efficient, and maintainable landscape requires a lot of input especially in the design and planning.

The vegetation can also help in protecting the building from damages arising through exposure to sunlight and strong winds. Trees can act as barriers, which break strong winds and prevent the roofing structure from being ripped off. However, when placing the plants, the contractors have to examine the direction of wind to ensure the plants are put in the right location.

Proper planning can enable you save money in maintaining landscapes. The growing conditions of a yard or garden will dictate which plants need to be introduced and planted in the area. Although you could make amendments on soils to suit certain plants, this might not be sustainable in the long.

Using irrigation can be costly especially during the dry spells. However, the watering needs of the flowers, trees, shrubs, and grass can be reduced by ensuring that much of the surface water does not flow down to streams. Holding the water in soils can help increase the water table thus reducing the watering needs.

Besides, plants can be used to protect your building from things like ultraviolet rays and strong winds. The wind flow can help you determine where the tall trees that have a canopy able to break the strong winds should be planted. Raging winds can cause damages on building by tearing the roofing structures apart or blowing objects, which break the glasses.

If you have trees planted on the direction where strong winds blow from, you can be able to protect your property. Similarly, you need to consider the direction of sun. The UV light that heats your roofing structure, walls, and penetrates the window and door classes can cause damages on property.




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