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environment and keep it in balance. We need the bees. And butterflies are delightful to watch.

So sit down and plan your garden. You will be removing most of your lawn and planting a garden. You can leave a little portion of lawn if you like but the trend today is to plant an entire garden. Just think of all that lawn mowing you won't have to do. If you decide to keep a small lawn, perhaps you can also decide to use a hand mower. The ones made today have sharp blades, are easy running, and very efficient.

You can also plant a garden that is a combination vegetable/herb garden and flower garden with vegetables and herbs nestled in with the flowers. Then you will not only have fruit to eat but also your own vegetables.

If you want both shade and sun in your garden, plant one tree or plant trees around the periphery of the garden. You will have shade at the edges of your garden, and fruit from your shade trees. Apple trees, peach trees, pear trees, and cherry trees are the best for shade and food. Plant a few pines trees also since they absorb more CO2 than other trees. You can also use the pine cones in decorations.

The shade from trees reduces energy consumption in the summer by about 20%. What a waste of energy to see people cutting down their shade trees as soon as they have taken possession of a new property. I have seen this many times.

Then in the middle of your garden can be walkways and perennial plants (those are the ones that come up every year). In between your perennials you can plant your vegetables each season.

Underneath the shade trees plant flowers and plants that grow in the shade such as fern (there are many kinds of fern) and Lily of the Valley. Make sure to plant perennials that come up in spring, summer, and fall. Lily of the Valley only comes up in the spring, so you will want other plants planted next to the Lily of the Valley that will come up when the Lily of the Valley have ended their season.

Most of the seed catalogs tell you which plants grown in which season. They also offer planting arrangements for shade and sun plants.

You can plant everything you need in your garden for optimal nutrition, environmental safety, and even a bird sanctuary. You don't have to have a boring chemically laden lawn. You don't have to have a lawn at all. Keep bushes, trees, and flowers in your yard and make it easy on yourself. Why use a lawn mower that bags up your grass for the waste and uses up your energy. Go green today without the green.

Learn more about this author, Colette Georgii.
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