Backyard Bayscaping

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay describes bayscaping as landscaping practices that incorporate sustainable ideals such as creating diversity, conserving water, and using beneficial plants.

These goals are achieved in most residential design through a careful balance of a variety of landscape elements. Native plants provide food and cover for wildlife while remaining cost and water efficient. Hydrology and water quality are managed through the use of vegetative erosion control, rainwater collection, and buffer zones along existing drainage routes.

Additionally, ecological schemes such as these are typically better long term investments and add interest to the garden with butterfly or bird gardens, bat houses, and colorful year round interest from plants indigenous to the region.