Home Guest Columns How to Minimize Your Use of Water, Fertilizer & Chemicals in Landscaping

How to Minimize Your Use of Water, Fertilizer & Chemicals in Landscaping

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Ecotourism began in the 1980s as people developed an awareness of the cultural impact of globalization, tourism, and political conflict in places such as El Salvador and Colombia. Over time, this trend began permeating the way people think and their responsibilities in everyday life—whether in the United States or abroad. Now is a great time to reevaluate our values as property owners—especially as the manager of a large lodging property such as a hotel or resort.

The immediate need for water conservation is starkly apparent, these days, in many areas around the country. In Boise, Idaho, for example, the snowpack from the foothills and nearby mountain ranges is the lowest it’s been in years. The absence of Idaho snow packs is echoed by the USDA’s assessment of a number of mountain ranges and snow packs throughout the Western U.S., from Colorado to Oregon to California. Moreover, recent California legislation strictly limiting water usage makes the need for water conservation more concrete than ever.

Aside from property-wide appliance and plumbing-related upgrades, you can conserve a great deal of water—as well as dollars—by changing the landscape surrounding your lodging property. Other than a recalcitrant adherence to tradition or the Motherland, there’s no good reason to continue feeding an enormous, thirsty lawn. A huge lawn is not only expensive but pointless, in terms of anything other than a Frisbee tournament, for your guests. Guests can always meander over to the nearest park—or national forest, if your property happens to be a stone’s throw from the great outdoors. If you want to reduce the amount of water, fertilizer, and chemicals used to maintain your landscaping, start by tearing out the bulk of the turf grass and planting native and drought-tolerant native plants, instead.

Best Practices

Luckily, there are a good number of examples of businesses in the lodging industry with best practices that we can look to for guidance. Florida and California both have detailed guides to best practices for lodging property managers hoping to minimize their environmental impact. Green landscaping guides for lodging properties are less common than green landscaping guides for private residences. However, the majority of the changes involve planting native and drought-hardy plants, and replacing as much grass as possible with perennials that don’t require annual replanting and ground cover that is much less thirsty than grass. Getting creative with low-water landscaping can greatly diminish your monthly expenses for water and upkeep, and native plants are relatively easy to maintain.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association has an impressive list of individual resorts and hotels that have enacted energy-efficient best practices: lots of ideas, here, about how to achieve excellence in the ‘greening’ of your property. Leading the way in eco-friendly practices are cities like Las Vegas, home to Caesars Palace—the first hotel in the country to adopt the Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense H2otel Challenge, in 2014. The challenge encourages hotels to “ACT”: assess water use and savings opportunities; change products or processes to incorporate best management practices; and track water-saving progress and achievements.

Another specific example of best practices, when it comes to water-usage and natural practices, in landscaping, is Loews Lake Las Vegas, which implements a number of solutions (listed on the above-cited page) that include switching from overhead irrigation to a drip-irrigation system, installing flowering perennial plants to provide a sustainable and affordable replacement for seasonal color changes, and practicing hydro-zoning, or grouping plants with similar water requirements on the same irrigation valve to reduce overwatering. It’s important to note that Loews didn’t sacrifice aesthetics for practicality’s sake: the landscape incorporates plants such as succulents and colorful native wildflowers in order to ensure that the Moroccan theme is beautifully illustrated and embodied.

Three Basic Water Conservation Tenets

The EPA also cites The Resort at Pelican Hill as an example of excellent practices. The latter case study lists a three-pronged approach to outdoor water conservation: replace most of the grass with low water and native plants; install smart irrigation and water control; and adopt a rainwater collection system to help supplement water needs. It really is that simple: the less thirsty the plants on your grounds, the less need for creative rainwater collection and smart watering and irrigation systems. However, smart irrigation is really as simple as replacing your automatic sprinklers with sprinkler and irrigation systems that sense humidity levels and moisture in the soil. Smart watering systems won’t turn on in the middle of a downpour.

Rainwater collection systems make sense, as well, regardless of how many inches of downfall is the average in your area. You might think they are most valuable in relatively arid ecosystems such as mountain deserts and canyons where gales are a rarity. However, if you take advantage of the precipitation in more naturally rainy areas, you can use the rainwater for indoor laundering, cleaning, and plant-watering. The University of Warwick has compiled an excellent list of online resources related to rainwater harvesting and collection that you may find useful. However, these resources are general, rather than targeted toward hotel owners. Peter Goren, of the America Green Lodging & Hospitality Association, has made a presentation on storm water management available online. This will give you a better idea of water conservation specifically for hotel and lodging property managers. Don’t be afraid to consult with the local tree experts.

Reducing Chemical & Fertilizer Use

If you would like to reduce fertilizer and chemical usage, again, look no further than the plants you choose to grow on your property. Native plants, in general, do not require fertilizer—precisely because they are native. Since they grow naturally in your particular area and eco-system, native ground cover, shrubs, and non-turf grasses simply are less thirsty than turf grass. If you still have areas of non-native grass, shrubs, or flowering plants to maintain, perform a soil fertility test to determine exactly how much phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium to apply.

The more concentrated the fertilizer, the more it must be spread thinly and evenly in order to avoid burning the very plants you are attempting to fertilize. In general, try to avoid phosphorus, as it creates weed growth and algae in local lakes and rivers. Reduce the amount of fertilizer used by treating only stressed patches of lawn, in order to reduce weed growth. Conversely, you can try removing weeds by hand and reseeding the grass, instead. Organic fertilizers include compost, animal and green plant manure, fish emulsion, grass clippings, and finely ground mulch. Don’t forget the mulch. It retains soil moisture and makes your grounds more attractive.

Aside from the chemicals in many fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are the other two main types of substances applied to plants commonly used in traditional landscaping. Again, the use of native plants largely negates the need for such chemicals, since the plants grow naturally in your eco-system. Moreover, native plants attract wildlife and pollinators, which are good for maintaining the eco-system around you. They also increase the interest level and uniqueness of your property, so guests will have greater impetus to want to stay with you again. Visit a local nursery that specializes in native plants to get a sense of which plants grow best in your area.

Conclusion

Here’s hoping the above-mentioned resources serve as impetus and inspiration for you to make landscaping changes to the grounds of your lodging property, if you haven’t already. Part of your operating budget originally allotted for upkeep and watering costs will instead go toward supporting your local economy through purchasing perennials and ground cover from local nurseries. The latter is also environmentally sustainable because, instead of contributing to pollution and fossil fuel industries by relying on plants delivered to you from hundreds of miles away by truck or plane, you will reduce your carbon footprint as well as your reliance on limited water resources. The above changes are not only good for the environment and the Earth; they are also greatly beneficial to your budget and operating costs. Eventually, you’ll wonder how you ever maintained your grounds without them.

Rodrick Johnson enjoys backpacking, hiking, fly-fishing, and camping with his family. When he’s not busy trying to spot native plants and animals in the wilds of Idaho, Johnson reads about local history in his spare time. During the work week, he works for HD Supply Facilities Maintenance as a Green Building Advisor and Environmentally-Preferable Purchasing (EPP) consultant.

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