When it comes to enhancing the beauty of your home, landscaping is often seen as a purely aesthetic endeavor. After all, it makes perfect sense, with this boosting the value of your home. But with that said, while it’s great thanks to its aesthetic appeal, there are far more benefits to doing this than you may even expect. However, what many homeowners most likely don’t even realize is the fact that landscaping can go beyond creating a visually appealing outdoor space – it can also contribute significantly to environmental conservation!
That’s right, this is something that most homeowners don’t know about, but there are some benefits to landscaping. Of course, it will all depend on what you do when you landscape your home, but chances are high that it can be beneficial. So, here are the positives you can count on!
Carbon Sequestration
As you probably already know, plants are little powerhouses for carbon capturing. While humans breathe in oxygen and carbon dioxide, it’s the exact opposite for plants. So it’s like a give-and-take relationship that we all have with plants. To a small degree, this can help with climate change. So, strategically planting trees and shrubs in your yard can contribute to carbon sequestration and improve air quality in your local environment.
Enhancing Biodiversity
So, one thing to keep in mind when it comes to this is that it needs to be local plants, so nothing from other regions or countries. Everything needs to be native for it to help out with biodiversity. Native plants, in particular, attract and support local wildlife, such as birds, butterflies, and bees.
Potential Reduction in Energy Consumption
If you have plants and shrubs in front of your windows, you’ll want as much shade as possible in the summer, and in the colder months, you’ll want to hire a tree surgeon to cut down some branches. It’s all about the sun; in the summer, when the sun hits the house, it will get hot, meaning you’ll need to use energy to cool it off. In the colder months, you’ll want the sunlight to come in, so you’ll have free heating. Plants can act as a nice shield during the seasons, so the right landscaping can help conserve energy.
Better Soil Health
So, there’s a catch-22 with this. Landscaping is known for harming soil thanks to chemicals that prevent weeds and pests, but at the same time, it can be good for the soil, too. If you don’t use chemicals, it will be way better for the environment. Landscaping practices, such as mulching and planting cover crops, can significantly improve soil health. For example, mulch helps retain moisture, suppress weeds, and regulate soil temperature.
Water Conservation
So, this is something else that’s going to depend on heavily. For the most part, you can count on native plants adapting better to your region’s climate, so native plants usually require less water. But it’s also hard to say, as some areas are getting hotter and hotter by the year, but for the most part, native plants can usually adapt to certain changes.
