20 the American Gardener

THE CHOICES you make aboutmaterials for your hardscape (thestructural, usually nonliving, el-

ements of the landscape) have an impacton this world, for better or for worse. Ittakes an awareness of the consequencesof your decisions as well as a willingnessto go beyond the norm (that is, tradi-tional landscaping materials) to makeearth-wise choices.

To be conscientious about landscapematerials, you must question everythingabout traditional landscape materials, thethings that you can purchase at your gar-den center, your local big-box store’s gar-dening department, your lumberyard,even your stoneyard. Because, as with a lotof current landscape practices, the statusquo is damaging our earth.

What follows are the things to thinkabout before you buy something new.These are guidelines, not hard-and-fastrules. Your best bet is to consider the fullrange of options, throw out what doesn’twork for you, and weigh the rest. Makingconscious choices—rather than buyingwhat the commercials tell us to buy—isthe best we can do.

Sustainable Hardscapingfor an Earth-Wise Garden

BY BETH O’DONNELL YOUNG

When it comes to environmental responsibility, many gardeners are aware of the need to make

wise plant selections and practice gardening techniques that conserve water and don’t harm the

ecosystem. But to be truly earth-friendly, it makes sense to think the same way about the other

parts of a garden, such as pathways, fences, and outdoor furniture.

This article is an excerpt from The Naturescap-ing Workbook© Copyright 2011 by BethO’Donnell Young with photographs by KarenBussolini. Published by Timber Press, Portland,Oregon. Used by permission of the publisher. Allrights reserved.

TO PURCHASE OR NOT TO PURCHASEDo you really need to buy it? Or can youbeg, borrow, or share it? Perhaps you couldrethink purchasing that fancy play struc-ture—after all, all the kids in the neigh-borhood need only one. Does every homeneed a patio set big enough for parties?What if all the neighbors chipped in for anextra patio set that anyone could borrow?Rethinking our natural tendency as Amer-icans to be independent might lead tosome good neighborly relations (or at leastyou might meet the neighbors).

INDIGENOUS, INGENIOUSIf you decide you need it, you can stillstretch your thinking process to go be-yond the standard materials. Think backto the time when folks could not go out

and buy prefabricated landscape materi-als and install them in a weekend. Whatdid they do?

They used what was at hand. Boards,yes, but also branches, grasses, bamboocanes, straw, dried manure, crushed rock,chalk dust, hide, hair, and hay. Twigswere soaked to make them pliable andthen bent and tied or glued into trellises,arbors, and furniture. Thin brancheswere woven between stakes to makefences or daubed with gypsum to makedurable walls. Bamboo canes were usedfor fences as well as paving and orna-mentation. Mud and straw were com-bined to make bricks and roof tiles.Stains were created from berries and veg-etable extracts. Structures were weather-proofed with gypsum, mud, and/orstraw. Stone was broken and carried tomake paving, walls, and water featuresthat stand centuries after being built.

To find out what techniques were usedin your region, you may have to do somesleuthing. Your local historical museumwould be a good place to start; it may haveinformation on how local people lived be-fore industrialization, what materials wereabundant, and how they were used. An-other source of ideas is to look toward an-cient (or just preindustrial) cultures withsimilar climates to yours: if you live in thecoastal Northeast, you could borrow ideasfrom England and Japan; in the arid West,you could look toward the Middle Eastand North Africa, and so on. Researchingthe old ways of making paths, fences, walls,and overhead structures around the worldmight inspire you to start an entirely “new”way of hardscaping in your area—one thatis gentle on the land as well as your wallet.

BY-PRODUCTS, NOT PRODUCTS TO BUYThinking in terms of using materials athand, particularly free materials that arethe by-product of some form of local pro-duction, can save you a lot of money. Findout what the local farms grow and whattheir by-products are. Here in Oregon we

have hazelnut groves, and the crackedshells make a lovely path material that islong-lasting and that ties in visually withnearby trunks and branches; walking onthis material generates a sharp crunch thatis somehow restful. Farms are usually eagerto give you by-products that are useless tothem, but you will have to haul these giftsaway yourself. You’d be surprised what youmight glean—anything from aged manureto mint hay to used tools.

Don’t forget local manufacturers. Ask-ing friends what their company’s (or de-partment’s) waste products are might getyou thinking: maybe I can make a fenceof that, or stack it into a wall, or lash it to-gether to make a trellis. Shipping pallets,for instance, can easily be recycled intocompost bins. Stone scrap from the man-ufacture of kitchen counters can be turnedrough side up to serve as stepping-stones.

Another source of materials is our pub-lic lands. If you ask the appropriate localk

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This fence was built using scrap lumber andbranches cut from juniper trees on the prop-erty. It serves the purpose of creating aboundary between a densely planted areaof the garden and a more open, casual area,and it adds texture and local character tothe scene. Design by Betsy Arriola.

GIVE OLD STUFF NEW LIFEHere are some ideas for jump-startingyour own creative musings about howto repurpose rather than purchase.

� Urbanite is an increasingly popularmaterial for making steps, retainingwalls, raised beds, and patios. It’s sim-ply broken-up concrete, repurposed. It’sfree and can usually be had for the ask-ing if you see a pile of it at a construc-tion site. You haul and it’s yours.� Wire can be used to string togethercans, bottles, or found objects such asbeads or keys from a secondhandstore to create rain chains or partitionsto divide outdoor rooms.� Old toolboxes make intriguingplanters.� Old toilet tank lids can be paintedand used as stepping-stones. Just besure to put strips of nonskid tapeacross lengthwise to prevent slippingand sliding on a rainy day.� Wire cages picked up at a home sal-vage or used-building-material store canbe filled with objects like cut branchesor glass bottles to create gabions, whichcan be used as tables or walls.� Old sheets can be transformed intoflags or canopies.

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authority for permission, you might besurprised to find that you can help your-self to (a small amount of ) an abundantnatural resource, such as beach sand, rivergravel or cobble, or fall leaves. Before ask-ing for permission, be sure to have inmind what you want, how much youwant, when you would like to remove it,and how you propose to haul it.

REIMAGINE AND REPURPOSEEvery culture since the dawn of time hasused what is abundant to make shelter andlandscape structures. Our 21st-centuryworld also has things in abundance. Sadly,our abundance can be found in our land-fills, where we have discarded householdgoods that have outlived their usefulnessor stylishness, or simply don’t work any-more. Enter repurposing, which takes ausually discarded item, say an old door,and fixes it up so it can have a new life assomething else, say a picnic table.

I’ve seen great repurposed items ingardens: an old desk fitted with a sec-ondhand sink to make a handy pottingbench with a built-in soil funnel; cut-offsneaker soles placed in a concrete path tolook like footsteps; and even a string-and-yogurt-cup rain chain. House sal-vage shops and secondhand stores aregreat places to start. Walk around theseplaces with new eyes; don’t see what itwas but what it could be.

One caveat, though: to avoid tackiness,the repurposed part should not be easilyidentifiable as its former self. Better tomake beautiful, useful garden pieces andelements that look vaguely familiar butcan’t quite be placed. It will add a touch ofintrigue to your yard, and humor as yourvisitors solve the riddle.

IF YOU MUST BUY NEW…In some cases, buying new is your onlyalternative. Purchasing new can be guilt-

free if you choose products that are non-toxic, have high recycled content, are lo-cally produced, are durable, and aremodular. It would be difficult to find oneproduct with all of these attributes, butthinking in these terms will help youmake informed decisions.

Toxic substances to avoid includepaints and coatings with volatile organiccompounds or VOCs, which contributeto smog and groundwater pollution. Alsoavoid arsenic and creosote, often used aswood preservatives in the past and foundin old railroad ties, which have been soldas landscape timbers for many years. Stayaway from any treated wood; perhapseven rethink wood if it decays quicklywhere you live.

More and more new products havehigh recycled content. Recycled content ishigh in some plastic landscape items suchas rain barrels, composters, hoses, com-posite decking, and furniture. There is

Reused bricks are a good choice for a naturescape path because they hint of the area’s history and save resources. Design by Betsy Arriola.

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even recycled wood mulch, made fromold pallets rather than virgin wood.

Taking a cue from locavores, whomake a good effort to eat only locallygrown food, you can make a good effortto purchase only locally manufacturedlandscape materials. You might find thatthis is harder than it sounds. But it canbe done with a bit of sleuthing. Start atyour garden center—ask where the itemwas made. If they don’t know, ask for thename of the distributor, who can tell youwhere it was manufactured. You mayfind that the product is not made nearbyat all, but by asking around you are rais-ing retailers’ awareness that this is im-

portant to consumers. When given achoice, choose durable. For example, ifyou have decided on plastic lawn edging(to keep the grass roots from spreading tothe adjacent flower beds), choose themore durable plastic. But also considerthe bigger picture: What else can keepthe roots at bay? Perhaps the answer isdeep-set concrete blocks or natural stone.

And last, when buying new, choosemodular over built-in. For example, ifyou want a patio, consider setting con-crete blocks or natural stone in tampedsand rather than poured concrete (but doit accurately so it lasts for years withoutbecoming uneven). That way, as the tides

of landscape fashion change (they do, butslowly) you can give away, resell, or resetthe pieces as you please—with no wastegenerated in the process.

THE AFTERLIFERegardless of whether your landscapematerials are shared, natural, by-prod-ucts, repurposed, or new, there’s one last(and lasting) thing to think about: whathappens when they are no longer need-ed? Will they take a lot of energy to breakup and remove? Will they fall apart, leav-ing an unsightly, even toxic, mess?

The best choice, in respect to the af-terlife, are the biodegradable items. Na-ture knows what it is doing. Naturalmaterials do not need to be removed;when they are done, they revert to theirelements and regroup into somethingcool like food for a termite or mealybug.And rather than requiring energy tobreak down, they generate energy for thegarden as they all but magically disap-pear. Espaliered trees, walkable groundcover, even cacti can make excellent hard-scape stand-ins; we just need to expandour definition of hardscape. �

Beth O’Donnell Young owns a residentiallandscape design firm in Corvallis, Oregon.

PLANT YOUR HARDSCAPEAlthough hardscape is conventionallyunderstood to be nonliving, there’s noreason why plants can’t serve as struc-tures that are incorporated into thelandscape. Here are a few ideas:

� For a security wall, try planting ahedge of cactus, barberry, pyracantha,or holly.� For a fence, why not use a thinhedge of upright shrubs or trees likehornbeam or arborvitae, or a cordon (afreestanding tree or shrub that hasbeen trained to grow flat)?� For latticework, an espaliered tree orshrub (one trained to grow flat againsta structure) will work just fine.� For a patio, let an organic lawn or awalk-on groundcover be the pavement.� Instead of building an arbor, plant atree to provide shade and somethingfor your clematis to twine on.

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Old stuff can have a new life in your garden—and bring your garden to life. This rose-themed path makes creative use of old tiles and manhole covers gleaned from an urbanrenewal project in Portland, Oregon (the Rose City).