Annotations on 7 Xeriscaping Principles for South Florida
(created by Ronald E. Mossman, Ph.D., edited and revised by Sebastian Eilert, AIA)
- DESIGN: Select low maintenance plants. Use few flower beds and only near entrances – not a ring of flowering plants around each tree. Evaluate the site for daily and seasonal wind and sun exposure. Buffer NW winter winds and lightly shade SE areas. Shade the AC compressor and west-facing wall. Determine major Residential uses: public, private, service and shade accordingly.
- PLANT SELECTION: Group plants by water needs. Native and regionally appropriate plant community and other plants with specific water tolerances (water, soil, light, salt and wind). Plan for different species to be in bloom each season. Select for wildlife food sources as well as human food sources. Select plants for their mature size, avoid instant landscape. Give the plants room to grow properly.
- IMPROVE SOIL: Compost flower beds, vegetable gardens and trimmings. Mulching gradually adds nutrients from decayed organic matter already in your environment.
- USE TURF WISELY: Xeriscaping principles suggest that 10% or less of the property should be lawn. Turf uses 50-60% of residential landscape water. Irrigate in the early morning. Water is only needed when a footprint can be seen in the lawn after you walk across. Cut at the highest mover setting and use a mulching mower. Use St. Augustine “Floratam” sod
- IRRIGATE EFFICIENTLY: Limit irrigation to first year after planting for non-turf areas such as bedding and patios. Use drip or micro irrigation systems and include recycled water from the roof and redirected water from paved areas.
- MULCH: Mulch assists in holding water in the soil by restricting evaporation. Mulch reduces soil temperature by up to 10 degrees compared to bare soil. 18% of all US waste is yard waste! Get mulch from local sources and keep timings from your own yard.
- MAINTANCE: do not rake and collect grass trimmings. Spread grass trimmings that are left to rot return nutrients to your lawn. It has been shown that 40% more nitrogen fertilizer must be added to return what has been lost in removal – a waste of money and energy. Keep fertilizers and pesticides to a minimum and use integrated pest management (IPM). Allow natural predators such as lizards, snakes, ladybugs and use clandosan. Read fertilizer labels and use appropriate fertilizer for correct plants. Practice selective pruning and raise canopy to channel wind from the Southeast to reduce temperature around your house and yard. Regularly check your irrigation system for leaks and damage as well as proper coverage.
Extensive plant information can be found at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu and native plant identification photos at www.plantsatlas.usf.edu
Filed under: Building knowledge, Construction and Permits, Energy Efficiency, Landscaping, Sustainable Living, Water Efficiency
Final post about tips to improve your home and make it a more green building; for your health, for your wallet and for your overall well being…
Part I will focus on small to no budget items (please see previous post)
Part II will look at medium expenses or items to look at if they break and need (NEED!) replacement
Part III will look at the big changes that will have a lasting impact on your life 9from a green building perspective, but who knows, maybe more…)
Part III. What really works:
Lighting. After changing the light bulbs and also some of the fixtures and installing dimmers, the next big step is to consider a building automation system. This low voltage system can connect all your lighting, temperature control, audio and video systems, including alarms and smart appliances. You can than control these devices much more precise and even get remote access (smart phones already gear up for these features). BY monitoring the output of the building automation system you can optimize power uses and fine tune any waste generated by lights left on or appliances not needed. These systems generally also have a vacation setting, enabling a quick way to trim all the power use you do not need on a daily basis when not in your home. Great feature but a bit expensive. These systems start around $5000 for a small home with limited low voltage tie ins.
Air Conditioning. The general rule is to look at a unit when it is 10 years or older. Typically systems have advanced in efficiency and the payback to upgrade can be realized in 4-6 years. Look for the SEER value. This is the indicator of how efficient the unit is. Current code required a 13 SEER unit; a 16 or 17 SEER unit is considered high efficiency and 18+ SEER is very high efficiency. The later are a choice investment and should be evaluated for Life Cycle Cost and Return of Investment. (THIS OPTION WILL REQUIRE A PERMIT)
Remember to upkeep the correct filters and also clean the ducts, if you do not replace them.
Super Therm
Roof / Shell: you already looked at your windows and doors and have sealed all leakage. The next step is to invest in the buildings shell. The big collector in South Florida is the roof. Over 80% of heat gain to the house will come from above with our year round sunshine. Do not just consider Hurricane issue but go beyond and think about the energy savings from this large surface. All roofs in Miami Dade County are required to withstand Hurricane strength winds, by code, so any roof will comply with this general concern. Move away from the low budget option of asphalt tile and a great value are metal roofs. These reflect well and are sturdy. This will overall be my recommendation for it is safe and efficient. (THIS OPTION WILL REQUIRE A PERMIT)
You can also consider sealing the existing or new roof with a high SRI (Solar Reflectance Index) coating, such as SuperTherm. I had applied this system over my existing asphalt shingle roof and lowered my attic temperate from over 140 degrees to about 85 during last summer. Great savings translating to your energy bill. A product like Super Therm runs about $2.60 per square foot installed.
If you like to kick it up one more notch, consider adding photovoltaic panels to your roof. A 5kW system will cost about $50,000 initially, but there are rebates and tax credits available lowering the out of pocket cost to potentially less than $15,000; not a bad number, especially when you considering adding this system instead of a generator (and you are sure not to run out gas, should the need arise). The installation of such a system will also require connection to your electrical system and requires assistance of professional services. (THIS OPTION WILL REQUIRE A PERMIT)
In regard to landscaping and water savings, the big ticket item is a cistern. After installing gutters and properly channeling your rain water run off, collecting hits precious water as well some of the waste water already generated to reduce the amount of potable (drinkable) water used ion your home is the final frontier. These tanks are similar to septic tanks in size and can be installed above or below ground.
Currently you can use this water for irrigation, in the future, legislation will adapt to also use reclaimed and collected water for toilet flushing.
For specific help, contact Sebastian Eilert to get a custom plan to green your home.
Sebastian@SebastianEilert.com 786.556.3118
www.SebastianEilert.com
Filed under: Building knowledge, Landscaping, Resources, Sustainable Living
A great article by Donna Shelly for the South Miami Town Center magazine, now called SOMi…. Look for a copy around town.
Contact Donna for freelance writing @ writeamount@yahoo.com
Going “green” to reduce greenhouse gasses, shrink the size of our carbon footprint and wean ourselves off an insatiable thirst for petroleum involves a wide variety of potential solutions. In some cases, the remedies are complicated and costly; in others, they are straight-forward and downright economical.
We would like to share some of those environmentally-responsible practices with you through a series of columns over the next year. We hope to inspire you to adopt new habits and make informed choices for a healthier planet. And we want to hear from you. Tell us your success stories and share your greening tips with us and the readers of SoMi Mag.
The choices you make regarding what you plant in your backyard or on your balcony can have a profound impact on the environment. That is especially true in our neck of the woods where certain exotic plants, freed from the ravages of frost, went from being pretty to being a pest. In some cases these species were brought here decades ago to dress-up the native scrub, sand and palmetto landscape. The list of invasive-exotic flora is quite extensive in Florida. In SoMi, we fight two of the State’s most noxious plants: rosary pea vine (Abrus precatorius), with enough poison in one pea to kill a human and Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius), a particularly adaptive member of the sumac family that thrives in all eco-systems from hammock to mangrove swamp.
Selecting appropriate landscape materials can save water, reduce the need for pesticide and fertilizers, and make gardening a whole lot easier for you. Not bad when you think of it—cheaper, less work, and good for the environment.
To start “Going Native,” we recommend some websites that are packed with great information about native, non-native and invasive plant life, xeriscaping, integrated pest management, composting, capturing rain water for irrigation, and more. (Narrative wc = 309)
www.floridaplants.com Is chock full of information. Warning! You could spend hours here.
www.ifas.ufl.edu This is the University of Florida’s site with particulars about plants that help you make an informed decision before venturing out to your local plant nursery.
www.floridanativeplants.com Florida Native Plants descriptions and prices
www.floridagardener.com Listing and links for many Florida Native Plant providers
www.afnn.org Association of Florida Native Nurseries
www.fnps.org The Florida Native Plant Society
www.nsis.org Your Florida Backyard with a lot of information about all aspects of gardening in Florida, including how to attract butterflies.
www.compostinfor.com Florida’s Online Composting Center
www.miamidade.gov/conservation/rain_barrel.asp Rain barrel workshop information
www.davesgarden.com Make your own rain barrel, with pictures to help you along.
Filed under: Landscaping, Water Efficiency | Tags: Water. Irrigation. Sebastian Eilert Architecture
Irrigation must be the next important issue to talk about in regard to landscaping, and this goes beyond just proper landscape selection and planting techniques but also crosses into water savings. In South Florida irrigation accounts for almost 70% of residential water use. This is a very high number and is not necessary to be that high. Look at Landscaping 101 for proper plant selection and watch out for upcoming plant tips.
Install gutters to start. This should be a basic feature of each house, but the building code does not require them….so request them from your design professional and builder or retrofit them if applicable.
Once installed, channel the water and make it work for you. Rain gardens are a great way to have some more intense landscaping. You can create a natural pond and have it overflow into a gravel bed or other water managing feature.
If possible, collect the water. Rain barrels are cheap and there are many affordable options (http://www.greatamericanrainbarrel.com/). You can of course also create your own with any size barrel, a hose bib and some wire mesh as a filer. Here is a good YouTube clip for a how to build your own (the 40% do apply to the rest of the nation, we are closer to the noted 70%): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGFDlkJOdaM .
Filed under: Landscaping
To start of, landscaping is different in South Florida than the rest of the country. As the only continental sub tropical area in the US, we have the benefit of year round growth. So this end of summer, beginning of fall rainy season is actually the best time to plant something here. Anything you put in the ground will hardly need any manual watering and is likely to take roots before the season is over.
So what to plant? There are a few things that do not benefit from the above rain, such as vegetables, herbs and other flowering plants, as the excess rain will likely harm their growth. You can plant these types in pots and move them to the inside or covered patio.
Natives and plants that are adapt to this climate are the way to go. I personally like plants that have a benefit beyond aesthetics and some of best ones are Mango and Avocado trees. Another great growing mid size tree is star fruit, or Carambola as it is called here. You can also plant something smaller and go for limes or key limes. A great resource for Florida natives can be found here at the Florida Native Plant Society (http://www.fnps.org/pages/plants/landscape_plants.php). In Miami-Dade, DERM also has good resources (http://www.miamidade.gov/derm/adoptatree.asp) and they also feature the Adopt-a-Tree program to get some great native trees for free. The prohibited plant list can be found here: http://www.miamidade.gov/derm/library/prohibited_plants_eng.pdf
In the even smaller scale we have a huge variety of grasses and shrubs appropriate for this climate. I would recommend to install some citronella plants as they provide natural mosquito control. If you have the time and space plant a neem tree…(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem). It has so many positive uses, it really is the “Tree of Life”. I got mine at the Neem Tree Farm (http://www.neemtreefarms.com/). This will grows into a large tree, so plan for it and beware of any setback encroachments or future neighbor disputes.
Plan for mature sizes when locating your plants. Figure 2-3 years for small plants and 5-6 years for trees and large bushes. If you need, help get professional advice. There are number of good licensed Landscape architects in town and most architects are hobby landscapers, like myself.
Learn more at www.SebastianEilert.com or the “Greenign of Chamber South” (www.ChamberSouth.com) partner Geomantic Designs (http://www.geomanticdesigns.com/html/home.htm)
