Create and Maintain a Bay-Friendly Yard

There are so many ways to help restore Sarasota Bay just by the way you garden! And there are several approaches to creating and maintaining a bay-friendly yard but several things are always true no matter what your approach.

Bay-Friendly gardening mimics natural systems, which recycle everything—water, debris, and nutrients—endlessly. It pays attention to climate and local conditions and uses appropriate plants that are adapted to those conditions. It follows maintenance practices that support the goals of conserving resources and reducing waste.

Bay-Friendly gardens aren’t a mold you have to fit into—they offer endless opportunities, from backyard wildlife gardens to kitchen gardens to native plant communities, and more. Bay-Friendly gardening offers an approach to landscaping that makes it easy to have a garden you can enjoy while reducing waste and conserving resources.

Bay-Friendly gardeners:

• Nurture healthy soil and plants.
• Conserve water and other resources.
• Reuse plant trimmings through mulching and composting.
• Provide wildlife habitat.
• Feature native and Florida-friendly plants.
• Choose least-toxic pest control methods.

For more information on the hidden effects of traditional gardening methods and the benefits of using native plants visit http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/

For more information on Florida Yards and Neighborhoods, a type of Bay-Friendly gardening visit http://www.floridayards.org.

To learn how you can certify your yard as a backyard wildlife habitat visit

http://www.nwf.org/backyard/  http://manatee.ifas.ufl.edu/backyardhabitat.htm  http://livinggreen.ifas.ufl.edu/landscaping/landscaping_for_wildlife.html

Visit http://www.nationalgardenmonth.org/index.php?page=LandE for more general info on responsible gardening.

How to create a Bay-Friendly Landscape?

Plant lots of different species of plants. Don’t be conventional, mix it up! Group plants based on their needs (water, soil and light), not the species. Avoid creating monocultures or areas where there is only one type of plant. Since the biodiversity of animals is directly related to the biodiversity of plants, monocultures do not attract a lot of wildlife. Instead, get creative and plant lots of different kinds of plants. You’ll be rewarded with lots of beautiful visitors!
For more information on planning your yard visit

http://www.floridayards.org http://manatee.ifas.ufl.edu http://sarasota.extension.ufl.edu/  http://www.fnps.org

Minimize the lawn. Although the idea of a lush expansive lawn has burrowed its way into the American psyche, its hurting our natural systems and the maintence may prove to be hazardous to our health. Reduce the area of sod in your yard by expanding flower beds. Leave lawn only where you need it, for example where the kids play soccer. You can also plant turfgrass alternatives like sunshine mimosa and perennial peanut. These native and Florida-friendly (respectively) groundcovers have pretty little flowers, only grow to a maximum height of 6” and can be mowed. They also need less water and no fertilizers to stay pretty. Can’t say that about your lawn. For ideas on expanding your plant beds visit

http://www.floridayards.org http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/

Conserve water. You hear this everywhere but it is so important! There are so many ways to reduce your water use in the yard. Reducing water consumption is one of the best ways to help Sarasota Bay. Runoff from yards doesn’t just happen when it rains, it happens when people over irrigate too. To avoid overwatering you can educate yourself about your irrigation system. Make sure there is a rain sensor so the system shuts off when it rains. You don’t need to water twice! You can also install micro-irrigation which uses less and waters only where you need it. You can install a rain barrel and use captured rainwater to water your yard. You can put thirsty plants at the bottom of your downspouts and let Mother Nature take care of the watering for you. Heavily mulch your flower beds to help them retain moisture.

http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/                http://manatee.ifas.ufl.edu/water.htm    http://manatee.ifas.ufl.edu/FYN/floridayards.htm

Mulch it right by using cypress mulch alternatives. Unfortunately cypress mulch is made out of native cypress trees. Cypress trees are better left in the swamps where we find them so that they can control flooding, purify water and provide wildlife habitat. There are many cypress mulch alternatives around including eucalyptus mulch, pine needles or melaluca mulch. Melaluca mulch or Florimulch is made out of invasive melaluca trees that have been removed from Florida’s wild places. For more information on cypress mulch alterniatives visit

http://www.gomulch.com/index.cfm/name-FloriMulchLanding
http://manatee.ifas.ufl.edu/
http://sarasota.extension.ufl.edu/

Softer is better. The less hardened or impermeable surfaces in your yard the better. Impermeable surfaces like roads, driveways, sidewalks and patio enhance stormwater runoff. Water can not pass through these hardened surfaces so usually it goes out into the street and into the Bay. Try to minimize the hardened surfaces in your yard instead. You can replace a concrete driveway with crushed shell or pervious concrete (which looks and feels like conventional concrete but allows water to pass through it to the ground underneath). Instead of paved walkways use mulch or stepping stones to define walkways. When building a patio space the pavers. This way water can be absorbed by the ground when it rains. Not only will this improve the Bay’s water quality by reducing stormwater runoff but it will help recharge our water table too. For more info on pervious concrete check out

http://www.scgov.net/Frame/ScgWebPresence.aspx?AAA498=C8B3BEA7C5B0C1A
683B7C4BAB7AFC0AEC4C07ABBB8AD7BAAB9C7
http://manatee.ifas.ufl.edu/

If you are not sure whether a plant is invasive or not visit the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council http://www.fleppc.org/ to find out.