Improving Yard Work

A couple of low-cost steps you can take are to clean up your yard and quit fertilizing your lawn so much. Use hand clippers or loppers to trim bushes, shrubs, and trees that are overrunning their space. Remove dead or diseased branches, open up bushes such as roses to promote good air flow, thin out the branches of flowering shrubs that only bloom on new wood. Quit adding chemical fertilizers to your lawn, stop bagging up the clippings and let them fall to the ground to act as a natural fertilizer. Use them as mulch around other plants to conserve moisture and keep weeds down, or add them to your compost pile. Earthworms won't live in gardens where the lawns are chemically treated; it's either too acid or too alkaline for them.

Earthworms are natural soil builders. They aerate the soil, keep it from compacting, and their worm castings are almost pure natural fertilizer; five times more nitrogen, seven times more phosphate and eleven times more potash than ordinary topsoil. The tunnels earthworms dig allow water and plant roots to penetrate more deeply into the soil, making plants stronger and in need of less watering.

Using plants that are native to your area is another way to take advantage of nature to improve the health and beauty of your garden. These plants have evolved over thousands of years to the climate and conditions of your area. Their roots run deeper, they have natural resistance to local pests and diseases and they require less fertilizer and water to thrive. The website of the Wild Ones (www.for-wild.org), a national non-profit organization that promotes the use of native plants in landscaping, will have links to local chapters where you can find information specific to your area.