Sustainable Landscaping with Greening Corporate Grounds
Sustainable landscaping projects have many benefits, but getting started can feel like a challenge. That’s where Greening Corporate Grounds (GCG) comes in. We can help you make your sustainable landscaping goals a reality while also helping you:
- Achieve your environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals
- Engage your employees or community in hands-on, team-building activities
- Lower your property maintenance costs
- Enhance the climate resiliency of your property
- Improve native plant and animal biodiversity
We’ll take a step-by-step look at the process to show you how, but first, let’s define sustainable landscaping.
What is Sustainable Landscaping?
Sustainable landscaping combines the native biodiversity of plants and animals with aesthetics to create beautiful, healthy landscapes. It includes planting pollinator-friendly gardens for wildlife, using green infrastructure, working with nature to manage stormwater, planting native trees and shrubs and more. When compared to conventional landscapes, sustainable landscapes are more resilient and adaptable to the impacts of climate change.
Now that we know what sustainable landscaping is, let’s explore how we can help you with your next project.
Step-by-step Sustainable Landscaping
Step 1: Connect With Us for a Free Site Visit
Once you’re ready to start your next project, connect with us to arrange a site visit. We’ll come out to your property and work with you to create a free, sustainable landscaping assessment and action plan (SLAAP). This plan will be instrumental in determining which sustainable landscaping projects are best suited to your property.
Step 2: Determine the Scope of Your Project
Now comes the planning. We’ll help you determine how to get the most out of your budget and whether you’ll need a contractor or if stewardship action can be taken by your employees or community volunteers to bring your project to life. No matter what you decide, we’ll make sure it stays within your budget by providing you with project cost estimates.
Step 3: Collaboratively Design Your Project
Once you’ve decided on your project, we’ll offer advice on which native plants will be best for your property and tailor a free planting plan to go along with your SLAAP and help you meet your goals. If needed, we can provide additional planting plans at a cost of $250 to $300 per plan.
Step 4: Make Your Project an Event
Once you’re satisfied with the plans, we’ll work with you to coordinate the date and time to do the work. On the day of your event, we’ll be on site to help make your vision a reality. Depending on the project, we’ll lay out the plants, according to plan, and provide the tools needed. We’ll demonstrate proper planting techniques and ensure volunteers are supported through the event.
Post-event, we’ll come by to monitor your project. Plantings need attention and care to establish, and we’ll provide you with maintenance recommendations and ideas for additional sustainable landscaping projects during these visits.
Getting Started
Let’s get in touch! We would be happy to help you start planning your next sustainable landscaping project. Connect with us to get started.
From Paper to Plants: Visualizing Your Sustainable Landscaping Project
On paper, a sustainable landscaping project can be hard to envision. While the project plans show what the final product could look like, seeing how everything comes together can be difficult. Let’s take a look at how we transformed the planting plans for Credit Valley Conservation’s Anniversary Garden at our head office from colourful blobs on paper into a thriving garden.
Pre-planting: The Plan
Part of the planting plan for the gardens planted at CVC’s head office to mark the authority’s 70th anniversary. In this example, we’ll be focusing on the Medicine Wheel Garden.
Planting in Action
In this photo, the plants for the Medicine Wheel Garden are laid out and ready to be planted according to plan by CVC staff during a planting event.
Post-planting: Two Months Later
Two months after the planting event, the Medicine Wheel Garden is thriving and in bloom. In the months following your planting event, our Greening Corporate Grounds team will come by to monitor the progress of your project.
Post-planting: One Year Later
One year after the planting event, the Medicine Wheel Garden has filled in and matured into an ecologically beneficial garden. With thoughtful planning and expertise, Greening Corporate Grounds can help you turn your ideas into reality. Connect with us to get started.
How Sustainable Landscaping Can Improve Biodiversity and Support Public Health
A black-legged tick.
Now that you’re more familiar with what a project with us looks like, let’s explore one of the many benefits that sustainable landscaping provides you, your employees and your community. Sustainable landscaping can improve biodiversity which can lead to lower populations of disease vectors, such as ticks.
The Problem with Ticks
The habitat ranges of some species of ticks are expanding northward because of warming temperatures associated with climate change. This means ticks are becoming more common in the Credit River Watershed and elsewhere in Ontario.
Some species of ticks can carry and spread serious diseases to humans, such as Lyme disease. As tick populations continue to grow, it’s important to take precautions when spending time outdoors.
Working with Nature
Ticks thrive in many types of habitats. While they can be found in lawns and gardens, they’re more abundant in spaces desirable to their host animals. Common host animals of ticks include deer and mice. These animals prefer grassy or shrubby fields and forest understories.
You may be concerned that some sustainable landscaping practices, such as leaving fallen leaves or planting prairie meadow gardens, may encourage ticks. The good news is that you can take actions to balance supporting natural ecosystems and preventing tick bites. Consider:
- Installing fencing to deter deer and other host animals
- Using wood chips or stone to create a barrier between different activity areas on your property
- Pruning trees and shrubs to increase sunlight and reduce potential tick and host habitat
- Adding native deer-resistant plants, such as wild bergamot, orange butterfly milkweed or black-eyed Susan, to your garden
For more ways to work with nature and deter ticks, consult this interactive tool from eTick Canada.
If you’re ready to take the next step and start your own sustainable landscaping project, connect with us. We’ll be happy to help.