A lawn is certainly green - with enough water - but it's anything but ecologically sound! Here are ten tips from a landscape architect on truly greening your yard.

In drought-prone Australia, where water restrictions are (almost) accepted as a fact of life, keen gardeners are turning on to the idea of no lawns, and water-wise gardening. And with global climate change set to affect pretty much everyone, it’s time for suburban gardeners everywhere to consider how to make their green spaces environmentally friendly.

Landscape architecture professor Carl Smith from the University of Arkansas School of Architecture has tackled the topic in the book Residential Landscape Sustainability: A Checklist Tool.

Ten Tips for Green Gardens

Here are Professor Smith’s top ten tips for making your garden a greener place, and incidentally, giving you more time to enjoy it.

1. Plant More Trees

Trees can provide protection for your house from hot sun and cold winds, reducing winter heating and summer air-conditioning. Planting trees and larger shrubs in the right place can save up to a quarter of your energy bills! Trees also help provide habitat for bird and insects and, just as importantly, make our human habitat that bit more attractive too..

2. Think Natural

When adding surfacing or features to your plot, remember that naturally occurring materials such as timber, stone and aggregate will have less environmental impact in their production than metals, plastics, bricks and cement.

3. Think Local

A naturally occurring material is not automatically the ‘green’ choice. Ask your supplier where materials come from – natural stone trucked from hundreds of miles away may be no better for the environment than a concrete block manufactured just down the road. Look for timber that is local and certified as being from a sustainable source.

4. Diversify your Plantings

Planting local native plants contributes to biodiversity by maintaining an endemic stock. They are also likely to grow better, becoming an attractive feature and attracting birds and beneficial insects. Non-invasive exotics can also add colour and flair and attract the birds and bees.

5. Think in Layers

To attract the maximum biodiversity to your yard, you should use several layers of plants – ground covers, shrubs, larger shrubs and, of course, trees.

6. Hedge your bets

Rather than build a fence, plant a hedge and help provide a ‘green corridor’ for animals to move through your neighborhood. And if you don’t like your neighbor you can always let your hedge grow tall!

7. Design for Re-use

At some time, you may want to remove, replace or repair garden items such as decks, fences and areas of hardscape. Using screws and bolts rather than nails to secure timbers, or lime mortar or sand to bed paving rather than cement, can allow you to easily dismantle and reuse them.

8. Harvest Rainwater

Avoid using drinking water for garden use. Plants would normally get their water from rainfall – so disconnect the down-pipe from the storm drains and introduce a rain barrel that stores roof-water for when rain is scarce.

9. Don’t Forget the Compost

A compost heap made up of veggie waste from the kitchen, plus the leaves, cuttings and branches from yard work will rot down to provide a ready resource of soil improver. As much as one in five truckloads of waste sent to US landfills should be on a compost heap instead.

10. Find Beauty in Chaos

Choose plants carefully to match your soil, weather conditions and their location and they will need less water and fertilizer. Looser designs can allow some plants to fail and others to come in without ruining the overall effect. Herbicide and water use will decrease, there’ll be less weed pulling – allowing more time to spend relaxing under your trees.

And, if you're ready to lose your lawn, Sustainable Gardening Australia has some great ideas for lawn alternatives.

See also: 12 Tips for a Greener You in 2008