In Florida, gardening and landscape management are different in many ways. Obviously, Florida has higher sustained temperatures including warm evenings. There are distinct wet and dry seasons, with 7 dry months and 5 wet months. Florida has a wide variety of soil types, from Georgia red clay in the north to sandy acidic soil running down the peninsula to alkaline limestone from Miami into the Keys. Given all these differences, Florida gardeners have wonderful choices for sustainable lawns and for lawn alternatives─they just won't be the same as the rest of the country.
The 9 principles of Florida-friendly landscaping and for specific how-to's.
Design Strategies for a Sustainable Landscape in Florida.
Sustainable Gardening for Florida by Ginny Stibolt is hot off the presses - after being vetted for accuracy by all of academic. It's getting great reviews and we think it'll have impact.
A model home for Low Impact Development for Florida includes sustainable landscaping in addition to green building features.
A brochure from the Florida Native Plant Society on Native Clumping Grasses to Replace Turf [pdf]
A thorough analysis of both native and non-native ground covers for all of Florida by Robert J. Black. And here are more of Dr. Black's publications.
Bahia grasses are often good choices for more sustainable lawns - even those with salty soils. Here's Extension information about Bahia grasses.
Enviroscaping to Save Energy article states, "Water quality and availability have some important issues in Florida. Depending on location, Florida lawns need 20 to 35 inches of water from irrigation per year. Over 8 million Btu of energy are required to supply water to a one-half-acre lawn in Orlando. If a one-half-acre yard is landscaped so one-fourth is lawn and the rest is planted with ground covers, shrubs and trees in mulched areas, over 4 million Btu of energy can be saved annually along with 224,000 gallons of water. See Ground Covers for North Florida.
If DOT can save money and time with roadside wildflowers, just think what you could do. "Establishment of Lanceleaf Tickseed (Coreopsis lanceolata) in Roadside Right-of-Ways". And see "Native Wildflowers on Roadsides of Central and South Florida".
Compiled by Ginny Stibolt. Ginny has written several articles on more sustainable landscaping in Florida: The Lawn Less Mown, Reducing the Lawn in your Landscape, Cutting Edges, and more on http://www.transplantedgardener.com/.
