Sustainable Landscaping

Sustainable Landscaping: Think Outside the Lawn

The landscaping practices we choose can have important impacts beyond mere aesthetics. They can also impact water quality, soil erosion, flooding, and the ability of birds, insects and other wildlife to survive. A sustainable landscape can be beautiful without sacrificing those other important values. In fact, it can enhance them.

This web page is under development, so please check back in the future for new content. In the meantime, please consider attending this spring's Sustainable Landscape training sessions described in the next section.

Sustainable Landscape Handbook and Training Sessions

A lot of property owners want to maintain their yards in more sustainable ways, but don't know where to start, and/or don't want to pay a professional landscape designer. We have a solution! Winchester was recently awarded a grant to help homeowners, landscapers and others learn how to maintain properties in ways that save water, reduce pesticides, improve wildlife and pollinator habitat, reduce soil erosion, and make properties more attractive. With a grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, Winchester will create a Sustainable Landscape Handbook and hold training sessions on sustainable landscaping practices. The Handbook and training sessions will be appropriate for a variety of audiences, from novice do-it-yourselfers to professional landscapers. The project will run throughout the 2023 calendar year. The Handbook and recordings of the training sessions will then be available from this website permanently.

Upcoming Sustainable Landscape Training Sessions

Sustainable Landscape Maintenance
Time: Thursday June 8, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Location: Arlington Community Center, 27 Maple St., Arlington
Contents: 
- Pest management
- Reduced and reused water on your property
- Organic fertilizers

Past Sessions

Sustainable Landscape Design
Video recording available here

Time: Tuesday April 11, 5-7 p.m.
Location: Stoneham Town Hall Auditorium
Contents: 
- How to analyze your yard
- Goals & Vision for your space
- What questions to ask your designer/ landscaper (for those who do not undertake the project on their own) to ensure that you are starting off sustainably
- Sustainable approaches (lawn alternatives, native plants, minimize lawn, reduced water use)

Sustainable Landscape Construction / Implementation 
(Video rcording will be made available by mid-late June, 2023)
Time: Saturday May 20, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Location: Winchester Public Library, 80 Washington St., Winchester
Contents: 
- Erosion control methods
- Where to find locally grown native plant material
- Great questions to ask the nursery
- Minimizing land disturbance on your property