If you’re anything like us here at Sweet Earth Co., you want your home and landscape to be as “green” as possible.

Using sustainable gardening practices and doing our part to protect the environment is important to us. We believe that if we all take small actions, they work together to create a larger patchwork of progress that has a big impact on the Earth!

Today we want to share a few ways you can make your landscape more eco-friendly.

#1 — Create an Herb Knot Garden

A knot garden is a formally designed garden in a square frame. They were originally used in medieval times as a way for gardeners to organize their plants for culinary and medicinal uses.

We took on a project where we created an herb knot garden for a homeowner who wanted to better use their front lawn.

The result was a functional, environmentally beneficial, and very pretty space that added great curb appeal.

Applying the precision and formality of a traditional English knot garden, but using herbs and natives instead, provided a soft and casual result. One that was functional, providing herbs for the homeowners as well as a food source for pollinators, and looked great to passersby. This garden included lavender, thyme, salvia, butterfly weed and nasturtium.

Consider a knot garden, with herbs or other types of plants, as a way to reduce your lawn and improve biodiversity in your area.

#2 — Convert Your Lawn Into a Meadow

Another option for reducing lawn is converting it — or just part of it — into a meadow or micro-meadow.

Not only are meadows the perfect place for connecting with nature and inspiring creativity, they’re also important for pollinators and wildlife in your area, as they often rely on meadows for food and shelter.

If you want to learn more about converting your lawn into a meadow, read this blog post.

#3 — Plant Native Varieties

Whether you’re converting your lawn or just adding a few plants to your landscape, consider planting some native varieties.

Native plants are beneficial for many reasons:

Being from your area originally, they’re accustomed to the climate and have developed natural defenses against pests, and therefore require less water, fertilizers and pesticides to survive and thrive
Because they require less fertilizers and pesticides, there is less runoff of chemicals and excess nutrients from your landscape, resulting in better water quality in your entire area
They improve biodiversity by inviting pollinators and wildlife which is a key element of a healthy habitat

To learn more about native plants and their benefits, read this blog post.

If you want to take your eco-friendly practices a step further, download our free garden audit where you can identify just how sustainable your current practices are and make an action plan for how to do even better.