Very few prospective homeowners will actually factor a
proper landscape into their plans. It is an established fact, however, that a
good landscape is one of the few home improvements you can make that not only
adds immediate value to your house, but also increases in value as the years go
by. In the words of Lew Sichelman, although mechanical systems sooner or later
wear down, interior decor and design concepts frequently go out of style,
plants, on the other hand, will continue to grow fuller and more robust as the
years go by. "In fact, done
correctly, the addition of trees, shrubs, plants, walks, lighting and patios
can increase the value of your property by as much as 20 percent — almost
instantaneously."
The first step in establishing a vibrant garden is
attitudinal change. Garden landscapes are usually taken for granted and
subsequently treated with far too much nonchalance. As a result of this
lackadaisical attitude, the lawn is seldom, if ever, fertilized properly and
mown very irregularly. After all, it is just grass, isn’t it?
Yet your eyes continue to wander across the fence to gaze
wistfully at that beautiful lush lawn on the other side. You admire the
well-manicured and edged groundcover and the beautifully honed hedges and
trained topiaries. As your gaze grudgingly shifts back to the environmental
chaos around you, you blame your underpaid, overworked, under skilled and
overwhelmed gardener. You blame the kids. You blame the missus. You blame the
dog. And yet the groundcover is left to its own devices and the trees and
shrubbery grow wantonly.
This delinquent mind-set precipitates the neglect of basic
yet crucial establishment and maintenance procedures such as soil conditioning,
aeration, pruning, grooming, edging and trimming. How hard can it be? After
all, they’re getting it right next door, aren’t they?
If stark envy and self-worth aren’t enough to get you to
change your general attitude towards landscaping, maybe you need to consider a
few words from Dr. N. M. David, as he elucidates six further reasons for
landscaping your home or office.
1. Trees are
nature’s air conditioners. A single isolated tree may transpire approximately
88 gallons (400 liters) of water per day. This is comparable to five average
room air conditioners, each with a capacity of 2500 kcal/hr, running 20 hours a
day. Trees casting their shade on the walls and roof of a building can greatly
reduce the heat transmission caused by solar radiation. Even on a hot day,
temperatures can drop by 10 degrees Celsius under trees due to cooling breezes
produced by convective air currents and shading from direct sunlight.
2. Soft ground
surfaces (groundcover or lawn) around a building can reduce heat reradiated
from the ground. During the dry season, ground re-radiation, normally reflected
towards the windows, is significantly reduced by green groundcover that absorbs
solar radiation. On the contrary, hard ground surfaces reflect as well as
absorb heat and radiate it back into the atmosphere, increasing outdoor
temperature.
3. For indoor
landscaping, potted shade loving plants are ideal as absorbents for indoor
pollutants like cigarette smoke and odors. They control dust levels and effectively
counter the harmful effects of toxic vapors from new paint, polish and
upholstery.
4. Water bodies
adjacent to a building cool the air passing over it, thus improving the
microclimate and significantly improving human thermal comfort.
5. Tall trees
used as windbreakers can serve either of two functions. The universal use of
such plantings is as a barrier, reducing wind pressure around a house. Another
less popular, but no less effective, function is to serve as a funnel
increasing wind pressure and improving ventilation through a house.
6. In the Middle
East, two courtyards – one with soft and the other with hard landscape – are
used to induce air current in the adjoining rooms. The courtyard with soft
landscape tends to be cooler than the one with the hard landscape. As
temperature and pressure are inversely proportionate, the cooler courtyard
attains greater air pressure and moves towards the courtyard with lower air
pressure, thus inducing air movement where there was none.
These scientific facts, for me, make home and office landscaping
an absolute must in Nigeria where the weather tends to be almost unbearably hot
for most of the year.
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