Introduction to Green Lawn Care & Other Environmentally Friendly Landscape Practices

Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden.

Andy Yencha, Lynden's new land manager, launches a series of workshops on environmentally friendly landscape practices for homeowners and backyard gardeners.

Like other urban areas in the United States, the cities and villages that make up the greater Milwaukee area are largely covered by residential properties. Depending on how they are managed, their lawns and other landscape features can have a tremendous impact--both positive and negative--on our local environment, especially the water in local streams, rivers and Lake Michigan. This program will look at a variety of landscape practices and management strategies, many currently in use at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, designed to make our lawns and planting beds look good while reducing storm water runoff as well as the need for pesticides and fertilizer applications. Topics will include tips on designing, siting and building rain gardens; low input lawn care techniques; rain water harvesting tips with rain barrels and larger cisterns; and the use of water permeable materials, like brick pavers and porous masonry blocks, for patios and walkways. The two hour session will include a tour of the lawn, prairie and rain garden at Lynden.