Guides
Water Saving Yard Products Checklist: Prep Before Picks
Use this water saving yard products checklist to prepare an existing irrigation system before choosing upgrades, from baseline readings to seasonal maintenance.
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Guides
Guides
Coastal Maine native plants for fog, wind, and salt spray
Coastal Maine native plants for fog, wind, and salt spray. Regional picks, lawn conversion, salt-flush watering, plus WaterSense and Miami coastal guides.
Guides
Native Plants for Erosion Control on Slopes: A US How-To Guide
Learn how to use native plants for erosion control on slopes. Zone your hillside, plant on contour, water wisely, and maintain with regional and coastal tips.
Guides
Native Plants for Erosion Control on Slopes: A US Slope-by-Slope Guide
Match native groundcovers and deep-rooted grasses to your slope grade, plant on contour, and use local rebates and rules to hold soil without endless watering.
Guides
Salt-Tolerant Native Plants for Atlantic Coastal Yards: A Regional Guide
Salt-tolerant native plants for Atlantic and Gulf coastal yards: regional picks, siting steps, and watering rules for each coast and its weather.
Guides
What the EPA WaterSense program means for native yard watering
WaterSense labels irrigation controllers and sprinkler bodies, not whole yards. Here is what the label proves and where your water district takes over.
Guides
How county extension offices help Texans pick native plants
County extension agents, AgriLife databases and Wildflower Center tools turn a Texas yard into a native planting list that fits its soil and rainfall.
Guides
How to use USDA NRCS and state extension help for native yards
USDA NRCS and state extension offices give homeowners free soil tests, regional native plant lists, and conservation planning help for native yards.
Guides
Guide to USDA plant hardiness zones for American gardeners
The USDA plant hardiness zone map rates winter cold, not summer heat, so it screens perennials before you buy and never picks plants for you.
Guides
What does the Xerces Society recommend for Oregon and Minnesota yards?
Xerces Society pollinator plants come as regional lists, so Oregon and Minnesota yards work from different species, bloom windows and pesticide rules.
Guides
Deer-Resistant Native Plants for New York Gardens
Deer resistant native plants for New York gardens, ranked by the yard conditions where each zone 4 to 7 species works and what deer still eat.
Guides
Firewise Landscaping with Native Plants: Sierra Foothills
Firewise landscaping native plants Sierra foothills means low fuel volume with high moisture. Four planting approaches compared for defensible space.
Guides
Which Native Grasses Can Replace a Lawn in the Midwest?
Comparing native grasses that replace a lawn in the Midwest: buffalo grass, sideoats grama, prairie dropseed and fine fescue, and when each one wins.
Guides
Native Plants for Dry Shade Under Oak Trees: Austin Picks
Native plants under oak trees in Austin have to survive dense shade and root competition. These five picks hold up without routine irrigation.
Guides
How to Design a Rain Garden for Clay Soil in Ohio
A rain garden on clay soil in Ohio needs a wide basin, compost amendment, and sedges that take both flood and drought. Check infiltration first.
Guides
Lawn replacement checklist: 6 phases through year one
Use this lawn replacement checklist to identify turf and soil, plan the replacement, remove it, plant, and care for the bed through its first year.
Guides
How to approach lawn replacement: never leave bare soil
What actually happens when you convert lawn: identifying the turf, killing it properly, keeping the soil covered, and planting something that stays.
Guides
Front yard planting checklist: 8 steps before you buy
Before you shop for front yard plant combinations, work this checklist of eight steps: draw the site, find the right-of-way, dig the soil, test one bed.
Guides
Native landscaping: observe your yard before planting
Native landscaping starts with observing your site: track sun, standing water, soil, boundaries and watering needs before choosing plants or converting a bed.
Guides
Native Yard Projects Planning: A Process Overview
Native yard projects planning covers site checks, regional plant examples and timing, utility safety, water-wise lawn conversion, and review through season two.