Restoring Your Back Yard Ecosystem

A natural home landscape offers advantages over a traditional high maintenance yard in several ways:  1) Natural plantings of trees can reduce energy consumption in summer by better shading the home; 2) natural plantings require less time and energy to maintain; and 3) natural landscapes provide a virtual outdoor classroom of biological process to watch and enjoy.   The challenge in moving from a high maintenance landscape to a more natural and sustainable one is to understand how your yard functions as its own ecosystem and then work with nature to restore the natural processes. Eric King, ASLA has been designing gardens in Georgia for decades and has appeared on numerous TV/Radio programs and in garden magazines throughout the country, and he will demystify the process of natural succession and offer a better path to creating a more natural home landscape.  Those new to GUFC will receive complimentary one-year individual membership.