By Marne Hayes EBS columnist
While we are waiting in the last months of winter or spring – depending on the day – there is no time like the present to think about how we can proactively change our landscapes in order to meet our climate and water capacity of our community. Consider water -related landscapes as the new black when you like. In other words, water -dependent, non -local landscapes belong to the past, especially in Montana's summer months, in which water resources are stressed more due to high demand and little rain and our landscapes become more susceptible to drought.
The landscape conversion may sound like a large elevator, but in small steps it can be just as effective in the long term. While we pass on the official first spring days and summer until summer, we invite you to get into planning mode. There are a few things you have to think about, and we hope to put them out for you in a way that inspires you to think about how your own rooms outdoors, more resistant to fires, friendly for our ecosystems and more on water can be more mindful if summer approaches.
Although we understand the desire for a well -groomed lawn, there are more practical and still aesthetically appealing opportunities to build outdoor spaces. First, ask yourself a few questions about the elements of your outdoor area and the way you tend to use them. Take an inventory of the type of natural sun, shadow, water outflow or snow melting, which are exposed to the areas. Who uses the room? Is there a lot of foot or animal traffic or is it mostly undisturbed in the amount of the outdoor use of summer? Could your space use fewer grass and more local elements that can survive in our hot, dry summer?
And what is more important, ask yourself to take the advantages of a changed landscape into account. Water protection is of essential importance in our growing community, and local landscapes protect our community from forest fires. In a climate in which drought is a natural event in late summer, the proactive change in your own space will contribute to a healthier and more sustainable landscape in a small way.
First of all, try to select locals and drought -tolerant plants that need less water after furnishing. These plants adapt more often to our climate and can thrive with minimal irrigation. When adding plants to your outdoor space, consider your water needs and arrange plants with similar water needs. With this organization, of course, you can avoid overarching plants that do not need a lot of water and subject those that need more. On the subject of irrigation, select the irrigation times. Water in the early morning or late evening water to maximize and avoid the absorption, while the hottest parts of the day is quickly evaporated.
Next, look at the lawn yourself. Lawns usually need a lot of water. Consider reducing the lawn by adding more drought -tolerant plants, soil covers or artificial lawn in some areas. If lawn is not your style, there are other grass alternatives such as clover, creeping thyme or sedum. These alternatives can provide ground cover without needing a lot of water. With regard to plants, they take into account non -flammable landscape materials to maintain moisture, suppress weeds and regulate the floor temperature. Organic materials such as brick chips, pea gravel or washed rock are ideal.
If the rain falls, rainwater functions could be a friend of a garden. Help reduce water from your gutters or the driveway back to your landscape or through a permeable stone surface so that it can be returned to the floors and groundwater.
And finally find inspiration. Apart from the very fundamental inherent maintenance advantages to use less water in the outside rooms, the mindful landscape development can lead to visually appealing rooms that respect the water resources of our community. Alpenscapes is a great local resource and a community partnership that is based on the collaboration of four existing Big Sky organizations, based on the conviction that landscapes can be both beautiful and advantageous for the environment. In a future in which wild fire-resistant, water-related and wild-friendly landscape design is the norm, we encourage you to find your own steps today for a more resilient community tomorrow.
Marne Hayes is a content contribution to the Gallatin River Task Force.