The Yard Zone
The space outside your walls should be as thoughtfully considered as the space within. Aside from contributing to pleasant, functioning outdoor space, well-placed landscaping can protect your house from solar gain in the summer while letting it inside during the winter.
Perform a yard audit.
Talk to a landscape architect who is versed in your region’s native species.1
Install SmartPlants.
After you give turf grass and any other resource-sucking plants the boot,2 plant low-maintenance perennials. Consider a purposeful schmear of Arboreal Shading Devices, Sylvanic Carbon Vacuums, and Solar-Powered Humanoid Food-Generation Stations.3
De-water.
Your nifty new native yardscape will require far less watering than whatever was there before. Continue the love by reducing your impact on your community’s storm sewer system: Plant a rain garden and collect rain in a barrel.
Get dirty.
Maintain your existing dirt by mulching, and create new dirt by composting your kitchen and yard waste.
Get lit.
Install a motion-control sensor or timer on your exterior lights—–or use a solar-powered light.
- Beware the tendency to play Weekend Warrior on this: If you’re serious about reducing your impact on the environment, you’ve got to get it right.
- Remember: Every time you run the mower, it’s like leaving grungy carbon footprints all over your nice Prius. Eliminate as much turf grass as possible, and take care of what’s left with an old-school manual mower. Whip that thing around the yard and drink a cold eco-Schlitz when you’re done.
- You know—–trees, shrubs, vegetables. And maybe some nice purple coneflowers, too.
Articles
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The Modern Family Zone
The Modern Family Zone was a respite for Dwell on Design attendees with young children, with all manner of cool and stylish coloring, playing and resting opportunities. My six-year-old tried…
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Preview: Modern Family Zone
Don't leave the kids at home when you head downtown to Dwell on Design this weekend! We've got plenty of activities for the young and young-at-heart, nestled within the Modern Family Zone at…
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Water Wise Finalists
We are very pleased to present this gallery dedicated to our talented top finalists in our Water Wise competition, sponsored by Kohler. All the creative solutions made for a very difficult…
Products
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Wallpaper by the Yard
Intrigued by the prospect of papering but not quite ready to commit to an entire wall? Artist Julia Rothman has done a great collection for Hygge and West that's available by the yard, which can be…
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Covered Wooden Sandbox By Tierra Derco
We live in an urban, mixed-use neighborhood, and what we don’t have in the way of a yard we more than make up for with our super-huge deck. While a walk to the park is almost always nice…
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Green Cone System
If you wince every time you toss a banana peel into the trash and think, I really need to compost, let your guilt evaporate (or decompose). The Green Cone offers a simple, tidy alternative to the…
Dwell Collection
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Modern Family at Dwell on Design
With considering the ever-expanding children's market in the modern design realm, the plethora of visitors, tiny people, and exhibitors at The Modern Family Zone at Dwell on Design was not…
Events
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Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain
The art of textile design changed radically after World War II as Britain was transformed from a country devastated by war into an optimistic consumer society. Three women designers were pivotal in…
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Sustainable Futures
This exhibition showcases a range of design and architecture projects that explore the most important issues associated with sustainability. Celebrated through a selection of pioneering and forward…
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Water: The Exhibition
Want a living planet? Just add water. The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents Water: The Exhibition, a celebration of the power and wonder of this life-giving substance and a call to each of us to…
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Wallpaper by the Yard
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