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Imagine having a beautiful garden full of bright, colorful flowers without having to install expensive sprinkler systems or stand outside on hot summer days with a hose in hand. Imagine having grass that does not need constant mowing.
Wildflower expert Miriam Goldberger has been teaching homeowners how to create low-maintenance lawns and gardens for over 16 years.
She is the co-owner, with her husband, of Wildflower Farm near Orillia, Ont., where they grow and sell over 100 different wildflowers. The couple also developed a drought-tolerant, low-maintenance turf grass called Eco-Lawn.
Eco-Lawn is a blend of fescue grasses that grows in sun or shade and requires very little upkeep.
“It saves people time and money and it’s good for the environment – not to mention, it looks gorgeous,” Goldberger says.
A low-maintenance lawn will help save energy and improve the environment but it will also add significant savings to your budget – $5,000-$6,000 on a 1,000-square-foot lawn over a 10-year period, Goldberger says.
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The main difference between a low-maintenance lawn and traditional grass is the energy required to keep the plants healthy and looking good. Since the roots of Eco-Lawns are deeper than more traditional green turfs, they are more self-sufficient; they can absorb extra water and nutrients from the soil and therefore need no additional watering.
Furthermore, they do not require the use of fertilizers, which are expensive and can contain harmful chemicals.
As for mowing, the low-maintenance grass grows very slowly, so you don’t have to worry about cutting it at all. If you do want your Eco-Lawn to have a neatly groomed look, you won’t need to trim it more than once a month.
Goldberger says anyone who has a lawn, or wants a lawn, can easily get an eco-friendly one: all you have to do is sprinkle the Eco-Lawn seeds in the spring and fall onto an existing lawn or bare dirt; once the grass starts growing, you don’t have to do anything to it.
Curb appeal can stay this simple even if you want to add some colour. To keep your garden low-maintenance, Goldberger suggests planting native wildflowers – flowers that have been growing in Canada and the northern U.S. for thousands of years on their own. Plants such as purple coneflower, orange butterflyweed and bright yellow coreopsis don’t require any fertilizers or extra watering once they are planted in the right conditions.
Now that Canadians are more eco-conscious, they want to do the right thing when it comes to their carbon footprint and they are choosing eco-gardening as a way to help save resources, time and money.
Miriam Goldberger was one of the speakers at the 2010 International Home & Garden Show.