Green Decor For Your Garden
A garden is more than just plants. You will need to accessorize your garden so that it's more than just a flower bed, but more of a place that you'll actually want to spend time in. Thus, you will need to add decking, fencing, furniture, and play areas to your backyard. When planning your garden decor, try to use green decor. That is, select sustainable and eco-friendly materials that promote healthy living for both your family, and Mother Earth. To follow are some tips on how your can create an environmentally-friendly garden using green decor.
Green Decor Tip: Reduce consumption of wood supplies
- Rainforests provide the bulk of our Earth's oxygen and house many exotic species. Don't kill rainforest trees. Go for green decor by choosing fencing and outdoor furniture that is constructed from ancient-forest-friendly timber.
- Re-use second-hand furniture from garage sales and second-hand stores.
- Use synthetic wood products made from recycled plastic and wood composites.
Green Decor Tip: Avoid use of wood treatments
- Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) is a highly toxic compound used in "tanalized" or "pressure-treated" timber which has been linked to various forms of cancer.
- CCA can be left on the skin when pressure-treated wood is handled, and it can also leach from the wood into the surrounding soil. We still do not understand the cumulative long-term effects of exposure to CCA.
- Burning pressure-treated wood can cause tremendous harm.
- Choose untreated wood for your backyard. Protect wood where it meets the soil by encasing it in a metal shoe or concrete.
- Do not treat wood with motor oil, because motor oil can leach into and contaminate the soil.
Green Decor Tip: Utilize green deck washes and finishes
- Decks are usually sealed with flammable, petrochemically-derived varnishes. These sealants emit air-polluting gases, which can trigger allergies.
- Apply a deck sealant formulated from plant oils to a clean and sanded deck.
Green Decor Tip: Landscape to save energy
- Landscape to optimize the amount of light and heat that enters your house.
- Trees provide better shade than artificial structures. Air passing through the branches is cooled by transpiration from the leaves.
- The most important shade tree on home grounds is usually located near the southwest corner of the house. If placed properly, it will shade the house during the latter part of the afternoon in summer.
- If the house faces south, or southeast, maximum shade on the front will come from a tree that is placed to the southwest, or left front.
- If the house faces southwest, a tree for maximum shade would have to be placed centrally and south of the house.
- Make a diagram of your house and determine from sketches and observation where the tree should be for maximum summer shade. Check the shade movement of this spot. Use a long stake or board and fix it at the selected point. Watch the shadows to determine if your plans are right.
- If the house is situated so that trees must be planted in the front for maximum shade, select trees that will be high branching so that the outdoor areas can be seen below the branches. This will also permit good air movement. The main shade trees should be deciduous so that a maximum amount of sunlight can reach the house in winter.
Green Decor Tip: Use natural materials
- Try to limit the use of materials like concrete for groundcover. Concrete prevents the seepage of rainwater into the ground, and kills all living things underneath it.
- For groundcover, use bark, or paving that allows rainwater to seep through it.
Green Decor Tip: Use Products Which Utilize Recycled Materials!
- Many compost bins, rain barrels, preformed pond shells, garden planters, and furniture pieces are made from recycled materials and will fit nicely into your green decor motif.
Green Decor Tip: Purchase a greener BBQ grill
- Go for the gas model.
- Charcoal-burning barbeques product more air pollution and are less efficient than gas models.
Green Decor Tip: Use solar power!
- Solar-powered garden lights are ideal for outdoor lighting because they do not require any electrical connections. Although they are more expensive that electrical lights, they provide free, clean lighting.
- Check out this solar-powered garden clock and weather gauge!