First, rip out your lawn.

Thats the first rule to GreenScaping. If you cant buy into that, dont bother reading any further. A nice green lawn has an insatiable appetite for water and fertilizer. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection estimates that nearly 50% of all water used by the public goes to watering their lawnsan estimated 900 million gallons a day! Thats crazy! For what? So you can look out over a nice green lawn? Forgedabouit!

Really. You must start thinking in terms of the bigger picture. Rip that lawn out now and replace it with plants that were there before developers bulldozed them into oblivion. Or tried to. Although it is still difficult to find native species available at local nurseries, it is not impossible. Start with the Yellow Pages. If you come up short, hit the Internet. Youll be surprised how many nurseries specialize in native plants for your region of the world. And, although many organizations frown on this, if you cant find them through nurseries, look for them just outside of your development or just outside of town, on roadways carved through wilderness. Walk deeply into that forest so what you take isnt missed by the prying eye of man. It may require digging them up but thats called exercise and its good for you too so take along a shovel and something to carry back your piece of saved wilderness. Make it a family outing. If you Google your states agricultural departments to find the best environment-friendly native plants, you can make a game out of who can identify the most varieties. Youll discover most of them need little or no watering, fertilizing, or insecticides because they reside in harmony with nature. Once youve replaced your chemical dependent lawn with a free-range garden youll notice your quality of life has gotten better. Why? Youre spending more time relaxing with the ones you love instead of fretting about finding the time and money for mowing, weeding, and watering. Your goal should be to watch your gardennot water it.

And lets not forget the things with a heartbeat. Butterflies, bugs, critters, and more will come back to entertain you and to remind you of your interconnectedness with them and this one and only beautiful but hard scrabble world.

Finally, besides saving money and finding more free time to relax, your self-esteem will rise because youll know youre doing something positive for the environment. This kind of thinking will make you healthier. In fact, you may even discover a spiritual connection with the earth you didnt have before. Slowing down and smelling the wild flowers in your harmonious garden has that kind of effect. Who knows, with enough people ripping out their feed-me-work-me-lawns and replacing them with harmonious gardens, maybe it could save the world-- one neighborhood at a time.