Bloomfield Hills landscaping is known to be elegant and chic. Another suburb that calls for elegance in Landscaping Birmingham MI is another Detroit suburb. Landscaping is inherently green, but let’s get a bit subversive and make the green even “greener” by growing plants that are nourishing as well as beautiful.

To start with, the most useless and polluting use of land is the suburban lawn. Especially in stylish suburbs, lawns are expected to be perfect. The perfect lawn require chemicals. It requires weed killer to keep out the dandelions, crab grass, and other unwanted plants we call “weeds.” It also requires pesticides to kill off grubs that attract moles. Burrowing moles put trails of tunnels through the front yard. What will your neighbors say? The problem with these chemicals is that they also affect the family members who want to play on the lawn. Then, when the rain falls, these chemicals are washed away and flow along the street or the ditch until they reach the nearest creek. From the creek, they flow into the nearest river. All of these streams of poisoned water add up to measurable pollution.

What is the solution? Maybe you can’t totally eliminate lawn area, but it is possible to reduce it significantly. Start by enlarging the beds around the perimeter of the house where the shrubberygrows. Plant trees in the center of the yard, and plant a flowerbed around the base of the tree. If you add a layout of paths through the yard, you can also put planting beds along them.

Here are some even more subversive ideas. Where can you plant edible plants without making your luxurious home look like a farm house? A good good starting place is a planting of cabbages in front of the shrubbery in the front yard. Cabbage plants are beautiful. The leafy green head is nestled within large ruffled leaves that unfurl from the head as it matures. Then, when they are ripe, you can harvest them to make coleslaw, sauerkraut, stuffed cabbage, soups, and many other healthy meals. Between the cabbages, you may want to plant the carrots that complement the cabbage so well in the coleslaw. Carrot leaves are as lacy as a fern but more edible.

IBehind the house, the landscaping makes your back garden into a shady haven. Just as shrubbery adorns the front of the house, it also adorns the edges of the back yard, particularly if a fence surrounds the perimeter. Thus, rather than setting up a rectangular garden plot that provides minimal beauty, plant your vegetables in garden beds laid out like flower beds. You may also want fruit trees that can give your family a healthy source of nutrition. Another source of healthy fruit is raspberry bushes and strawberry plants in the flower beds.

These tactics will keep your home and its yard beautiful while making smart use of the land and enhancing the nutrition of your family.