Environmental Services
Green Gardening
You can have a beautiful lawn and garden, and protect the environment too! Learn more about composting, grasscycling, green landscaping, native plants, rain barrels and rain gardens!
Composting
Composting is a great way to recycle trimmings from your yard, such as leaves and grass, into a rich soil amendment that you can use in your garden. You can compost all sorts of yard materials, such as grass, leaves, and plant trimmings. Find out more on our composting page.
Grasscycling
Grasscycling is a great way to recycle the nutrients from your grass clippings back into your lawn. Grasscycling means leaving the grass clipping on your lawn as fertilizer for the grass. And, it saves you time by not having to bag the grass clippings!
Green Landscaping Professionals
View a list of professional lawn care services in Northern Virginia who have signed the Water Quality Improvement Agreement with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). These companies offer their customers lawn care services to minimize pollution in order to protect our waterways while maintaining green and healthy lawns. If you use a professional lawn care service, please consider a firm on this list and help keep your neighborhood streams clean and safe for aquatic life.
View a List of Sustainable Landscapers who completed a training series on Sustainable Landscaping. These professional can assist you with landscape design, raingardens, and more!
Find Green Landscapers in ACE's Green Home Building Directory (page 15).
Landscaping and Lawn Care
Clean streams, lakes and rivers are vital to healthy communities. You may have heard that overuse of lawn fertilizers is considered a source of pollution in local streams, the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. Excess fertilizer results in excess nutrients which are washed by rain into local waterways and on to the Chesapeake Bay where they harm fish, crab and oyster habitat as well as pollute local waterways.
- Mow high and let it lie! Set your mower to at least three inches high, and leave the grass clippings on the lawn. The grass clippings contain nutrients to feed your lawn.
- Get a soil test to learn the best type and amount of fertilizer for your yard. Virginia Cooperative Extension (703-228-6400) offers very affordable soil tests .
- Hold off on fertilizer until fall to avoid creating weak roots. Excessive fertilizer won’t help your lawn; it will weaken it and send runoff into the Bay where crabs and oysters are already at risk.
- Use compost to fertilize your lawn. You can spread it on the grass and rake it into the grass.
- Apply the fertilizer right. Use only the amount of fertilizer you really need. Too much fertilizer will actually weaken your lawn. Keep fertilizer off paved surfaces and don't apply it before it rains. Otherwise, you’ll just be sending the fertilizer—and your money—down the drain.
Read more Lawn Care Tips to help you protect the Environment!
Native Plants
When selecting plants to use in your garden, plants that are native to this area and are well adapted to the climate are best. Native plants will survive better than non-native plants and do not require as much watering or maintenance. Find out more about native plants and invasive plants and check out our local native plant guide, Keeping it Natural. Where can you get native plants? Check out the native plant sales below.
Check out the excellent guidebook - Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping.
Chesapeake Conservation Landscape Council - List of local native plant sales
Long Branch Nature Center Plant Sale. Twice a year, April and September. Join us for our highly anticipated native plant sale! The vast majority of our plants are propagated on site. There will be a variety of spring and summer bloomers along with ferns, vines and shrubs. Cardboard boxes will be provided for transporting your new purchases. Payment can be made by cash or check (sorry, no credit cards). Plant advice is free, fee per plant as marked. Information: 703-228-6535. 625 S. Carlin Springs Rd. Arlington, VA.
Parkfairfax Native Plant Sale. Twice a year, on the last Saturday of April and September. This non-profit community plant sale in the Shirlington area has been organized by a local resident for the past 8 years! Check out plants from fifteen vendors from five nearby states. View the list of vendors, location information, and more on the web site! www.ParkfairfaxNativePlantSale.org
Rain Barrels
Why not reuse some of the water that runs off your house to water your plants or garden? Install a rain barrel, cistern, or a rain garden! Rain barrels and cisterns collect rainwater that runs off your roof, storing it for later use, and reducing the amount of stormwater that enters our local streams. The County and partners started a low-cost rain barrel program in 2007, or there are many commercially available rain barrels - search on the internet under "rain barrel".
Rain Gardens
Rain gardens are vegetated areas that collect and absorb rainwater, and contain plants that thrive in wet and dry areas. Put your garden to work for clean water!
