Master Landscaping
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The Utah Rivers Council recently launched its fourth annual Rip Your Strip campaign at an open house at Staker Parson Landscape Center in North Salt Lake.

The council is a community-based, grass-roots, nonprofit organization dedicated to the stewardship of Utah’s rivers; sustainable, clean water sources for its residents; and conservation of wildlife.

The Council’s campaign encourages homeowners and businesses to conserve water by tearing out the grass in their parking strips and replacing it with native, water-wise plants and decorative rock.

According to the council, nearly 70 percent of the water consumption in Utah is used outdoors and almost half of that is used to overwater lawns. By simply designing and managing yards more suited to our climate, billions of gallons of water can be conserved each year.

A parking strip is a great place to start saving water outdoors, the Council contends. It is difficult to water efficiently and most homeowners flood the sidewalk and street in the process.

“When you convert your parking strip, not only do you save gallons of precious water, you add a lot of interest to your landscape and cut down on maintenance,” said Mark Danenhauer, spokesman for the Utah Rivers Council.

Gardening expert, Larry Sagers, agreed. “If the only time you step on the grass is to mow it, you might
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want to rethink your landscaping plan,” he said.Sagers offered a simple water-saving tip: Learn to water by how much (amount) instead of how long (time). “If you don’t quite understand this concept, order 20 minutes of root beer the next time you go to McDonald’s,” he quipped.

For his part, Brian Heslop, landscape center manager for Staker Parson, says, “The average American family uses 60 percent of its total water on landscaping. Xeriscaping is a water-wise landscaping strategy that allows you to create and maintain a varied, colorful, even lush garden and yard while reducing water needs as much as 70 percent.”

The Rip Your Strip campaign has been successful, Danenhauer said. The council had hoped for 100 participants in the first year. Instead, they got 1,000. Nearly 4,000 people have signed on.

“The beauty of this campaign is that the Utah Rivers Council will provide free information to help the average person with no previous landscape experience to be able to successfully convert their thirsty parking strip from grass to a beautiful, low-water-usage landscape,” Danenhauer said.

Once you’ve got a parking strip project under your belt, you’ll be familiar with drought-tolerant plants and the principles of low water-use design. Then you’ll be able to tackle a bigger project in your yard and keep on rippin’, Danenhauer said.

Tags: amp, drought, grass, grass roots, heslop, landscape, landscape center, Landscaping, larry sagers, lawns, low water, lush garden, native water, nonprofit organization, north salt lake, parson, plants, precious water, root beer, saving water, stewardship, utah rivers, water consumption, water sources, water use, xeriscaping
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Take the best in efficient, affordable home construction, figure in the latest in home automation and add in a cache of green-friendly brainstorms and you’ll get an idea of what the Museum of Science and Industry’s new “Smart Home: Green + Wired” exhibit is all about.

The exhibit, which opened this week and celebrates the museum’s 75th anniversary, is a freestanding, fully functioning home — called the mkSolaire — with 2,500 square feet of living space, running water, electricity and heating and cooling systems. To call it a house of the future might be an overstatement, since nearly all of the technologies displayed in this contemporary three-story home are available to consumers right now.

As expected, there are some interesting gadgets on display: a home automation system that tunes into the weather and learns the behavior of the occupant; a security system that lets you view who’s ringing your doorbell while you’re away (you can even let someone in); a plant-watering system that sends a text message from the plant saying “I’m thirsty”; a smart umbrella with a color ring that changes to blue if it’s going to rain and a kitchen countertop compost machine.

Some of the other cool features are: long strips of linoleum-like photovoltaic film (they cost about one-third less than traditional glass solar panels) that are applied to the roof with Velcro; shower tile made of recycled Chardonnay bottles; master bath vanity tops made of old toilets; a dual-flush toilet that regulates the amount of water used by measuring solid and liquid waste; and a rooftop garden. And, as expected, all the walls are painted with low VOC paint.

The home also puts the spotlight on how stormwater runoff can be collected to water the garden and landscaping; how toilets can be equipped to use waste water from the shower and bath; how spray-in foam insulation can completely seal a building and provide better air quality, sound reduction and reduced energy costs; and how strategically placed windows can reduce electricity and heating bills. A survey by Kouba-Cavallo Associates concluded that the Smart Home costs $837 per year to heat and $125 for cooling. (In comparison, it costs roughly $2,021 per year to heat a Chicago bungalow.)

The contemporary, loft-style home showcases the ways people can make eco-friendly living a part of their lives, said Anne Rasford, director of temporary exhibits for the museum.

“The exhibit is about choices and options [for consumers]. We were very deliberate in the choices that we made and wanted to be sure there were interesting stories for each of the products in the exhibit,” she said. “People will be able to see the new innovations in renewable resources, smart energy consumption, and clean, healthy-living environments in a functioning home.”

With the help of experts from Wired magazine, the home became “smart” with technologies that include a full-home automation system that allows homeowners to control heat, window coverings, lighting, security sensors and cameras. A touch screen tracks electricity and water consumption in the home on a real-time basis.

“We’ll have a guide available that goes floor by floor through all the room choices made for the home,” said Rasford. “It’ll also be available online.”

The interior architecture is designed to demonstrate the use of natural light with open spaces and energy-efficient building components. All of the materials in the home, from the windows and lighting fixtures to the counters and floors — tell a story of sustainable engineering and eco-friendly design, Rasford said.

Also, all of the furniture in the home is renewable or reused.

“Some of the furniture is from the Salvation Army. The dining room table is a slice of a fallen ash tree from Michigan,” Rasford said. “The two lighting fixtures above the table are called the Thomas Edison Twins. They’re made by a local artisan, Ted Harris, and are 16-inch wide globes filled with used light bulbs in all colors and sizes. We also have hemp bean bag chairs and are using FLOR carpet tiles in some areas instead of wall-to-wall carpeting. These tiles can be easily removed and washed.”

A team from the University of Illinois Extension Horticulture, Environmental and Green Educators and a landscape architect created the landscaping that surrounds the house. Some of the highlights include a sustainable vegetable garden and rain gardens.

Tags: 75th anniversary, brainstorms, compost, dining room table, doorbell, dual flush toilet, energy costs, heating and cooling systems, home automation system, landscape, landscape architect, Landscaping, liquid waste, museum of science, museum of science and industry, quality sound, running water, showcase, shower tile, smart home, square feet, tiles, vegetable garden, water consumption, water use
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If you want to be able to keep your grass looking healthy and green all year round but you still want to be able to leave your home on extended vacations, then you will certainly need to install sprinklers for your home’s landscaping. While old style sprinklers were only designed for use on grass and other plants that could stand a lot of abuse, you can now find sprinklers in all shapes and sizes that are perfect for everything from watering your trees to watering the most fragile flowers you can imagine.

Even with no experience whatsoever when it comes to designing a sprinkler system, you can create your own sprinkler array in no time so long as you know how to shovel dirt. Obviously, installing a lawn sprinkler system will be easier if you have experience with plumbing and all of your grass has not been laid, but even if you are a complete novice and have already laid your grass, you can still create a professional quality sprinkler array in a few short hours.

When installing a garden sprinkler system, the first things that you will want to figure out is what areas of your property you want to water and where that water will come from. For most of us, watering a patch of grass with water from the main water line that runs near our house will be the solution; however, if you live in an area that is surrounded with wide open spaces and has a small body of water on the property, you will need something with a little more oomph. Living out in the countryside has its advantages though, as you will not have to pay for water usage if you have a small pond and a lawn sprinkler pump to draw the water with. This can help you save money in the long run because you only have to buy the pump and you never have to pay a monthly fee for the water consumption.

Once you have determined roughly how much land your sprinkler system will need to cover, you should head to your local hardware store to buy the parts. First on your list should be a lawn sprinkler timer so that you can easily set the times in which your sprinkler system activates. This can allow you to run your sprinklers at night and when you are on vacation, meaning that you do not have to constantly worry about watering your lawn manually. Next, you must decide what type of sprinkler you want to use. Most commonly, you will have a choice between a copper sprinkler and a plastic sprinkler. Both varieties are well built and will last you for a long time, so if you do not feel like the extra money, go for the plastic parts.

The most common type of sprinkler you will probably see when you are looking for your own parts is the pop up lawn sprinkler. These tuck away underneath the grass when they are not in use. Alternatively though, you can purchase an orbit sprinkler or a tripod sprinkler with your own sprinkler head so that you can completely control the amount of water you are distributing to your outdoor flora. However, these freestanding sprinklers can be exposed to both the elements and to vandals who may wish to steal your sprinklers right out of your yard.

After all is said and done, and you have decided on the perfect sprinklers for your home, be sure and purchase some spare parts so you can do a little home lawn sprinkler repair if ever anything breaks. That way you will not have to run back to the hardware store at a moment’s notice just for a leak or a busted sprinkler head.

Tags: grass, Landscaping, money, plants, rta, water consumption
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erry Seinfeld’s East Hampton, N.Y., residence received the top spot in OK! Magazine’s list of the top U.S. celebrity summer homes, beating out properties such as Katie Couric’s $6.3 million, two-story house in East Hampton (No. 6), Gwyneth Paltrow’s _$5.4 million, five-bedroom compound in Amagansett, N.Y. (No. 8), Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s _$4.7 million, two-story beach house in Amagansett, N.Y. (No. 9), and Renee Zellweger’s _$2 million, four-bedroom farmhouse in East Hampton (No. 10).Seinfeld, 53, bought his waterfront property from Billy Joel in 2000 for $32 million. The 12-acre property includes a seven-bedroom home that Seinfeld has extensively renovated. He and his wife, Jessica Seinfeld, added a playroom, nursery, dressing room and den to “make it more family-friendly,” the magazine reports.

The house also has a 22-car garage and a baseball diamond.

“I like the way the air smells,” Seinfeld is quoted in the magazine as saying of the property.

The magazine also includes George Clooney’s $7 million Italian villa, Donald Trump’s $10 million Palm Beach estate, Rosie O’Donnell’s $6 million Biscayne Bay, Fla., mansion, Elton John’s $9.75 million property in the south of France, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas’ $7 million villa in Spain.

Nationwide, landscape irrigation is estimated to account for almost one-third of all residential water use, totaling more than 7 billion gallons per day. Experts estimate up to 50 percent of that water is lost due to over-watering, evaporation, or bad irrigation-system design and maintenance. Here are some tips from Toro on how you can water your lawn and landscape with the utmost efficiency.

n Put a layer of mulch around your plants. Mulching helps to retain moisture and prevents evaporation. A generous amount of 3-5 inches is best.

n Raise the blade on your lawn mower. Closely cropped grass requires more water.

n If you use a hose and portable sprinkler, buy a hose-end timer to regulate your watering time.

n Consider installing a home irrigation system. Properly installed automatic-sprinkler and drip-irrigation systems can eliminate the time and hassle of hauling hoses around your property. Irrigation systems decrease water consumption by improving the accuracy, timing and delivery of water.

n Sweep your sidewalks and driveway rather than hosing them down.

n Plant native plants that are adapted to your climate; they require less watering.

n Install a drip-irrigation system around your shrubs, hanging baskets, and flower and vegetable gardens. Drip-irrigation systems use 50 percent less water than conventional sprinklers.

n The best time to water is in the morning. Watering during this time of day reduces the amount of evaporation and allows plants to dry out during the day, which cuts down on diseases.

Tags: amp, grass, irrigation, irrigation system, landscape, mulch, native plants, plants, rta, shrub, shrubs, sidewalks, vegetable garden, water consumption, water use
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