Here are a few convenient tips to increase the energy efficiency of your gardening and landscaping efforts this summer:

• Plant, water your plants, and do general landscaping activities when it is cool outside. The EPA recommends doing these things in the early morning, as that is generally the coolest time of day during the summer.
• Collect rainwater and use it to water plants—it’s effectively free water!
• Mulching around your plants is a great way to reduce water loss, as well as making it harder for water-stealing weeds to thrive. Aside from purchasing mulch, you can use pine needles or compost. You can even use your grass clippings and fallen leaves in flower and vegetable gardens. Inorganic options include landscaping paper, rocks, and pebbles. However, these aren’t well suited for all climates—they can overheat in very warm parts of the country.
• Adjust how you manage your lawn. The typical suburban lawn can soak up over 20,000 gallons of water each year, but it doesn’t have to be that much! Choose varieties of grass that don’t require as much water. For example, Bermuda and buffalo grass require 20% less water than fescue, bluegrass, and other cheaper options. What’s more, keeping your grass a bit longer will shade roots and slow evaporation. To get this, you can mow less often, and when you do mow, raise the height of your mower blade.
• After mowing your lawn, leave the clippings around in your yard as a natural fertilizer for your grass.

Visit the rest of our Bright Insights blog for more energy efficiency advice!

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Luckily, many companies make energy-efficient leaf blowers that can keep your yard looking good and money in your wallet!

Energy-efficient leaf blowers

Best Leaf Blower has curated a helpful list of the top 10 best-selling leaf blowers in 2015, each of which have their own unique advantages and disadvantages. However, it is important to note that determining the best model for yourself will depend on a variety of factors, so you shouldn’t just run off and buy the model with the best reviews or lowest price.

The following factors should influence the type of leaf blower you are searching for:

• Identify how much space you’ll be using the leaf blower on. Will you be getting a leaf blower just for your driveway and walkway, or for your entire yard?
• Determine how frequently you will use your leaf blower. If you only need to use it a few times per month, you might want to go for a cheaper and lower impact model. However, you’ll want to splurge on a high quality model if you’ll be using it frequently.
• Know how heavy of a leaf blower you’ll need. Some situations will require a delicate touch, like blowing leaves around your garden.

If you are looking for an alternative to your standard leaf blower, check out these alternate options for increasing your energy efficiency!

Electric leaf suckers

Electric leaf suckers are specifically designed to suck up leaves and other small pieces of debris in your yard. Instead of blowing them around or out of the way, a leaf sucker sucks them into a large detachable bag. Many of the models have a variety of options as well, allow you to turn the power down when using it around your flowerbed but let loose on the mountains of leaves on your sidewalk!

Beyond being an energy-efficient option, the fact that leaves are sucked into a bag is an attractive feature of a leaf sucker. You can easily use those leaves for mulch in your flowerbed or vegetable garden! Plus, you will actually be removing leaves from your yard instead of simply blowing them around and letting them pile up.

Manual leaf pusher

Manual leaf pusher: if you’re looking for the most eco-friendly option, forego the leaf blower entirely and choose a manual leaf pusher. They are 100% human powered and can quickly collect your leaves. Just like with the electric leaf sucker, you can use the collected leaves as fertilizer in your flowerbeds and gardens! Check out this model from Gardener’s Supply Company to learn more!

Looking to invest in a new leaf blower? Make your purchase through our Star Energy Rewards app to receive cashback! Download the app on iOS or Android to learn more.

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While landscaping during the fall can be a chore, the season can see your energy bill beginning to climb higher, compared to the rest of the year. However, there is something that can be done! There are several ways that you can adjust your landscaping habits to save energy around your home to make those beautiful autumn months better on your wallet.

Wind flow

Wind flow is important because it can block cold winds during the winter, thereby decreasing the amount of money you must spend on fall and winter heating costs. There are several ways that you can use wind flow, and other such techniques, to position the landscaping elements of your yard in such a way that your heating costs will decrease.

For instance, if you plant evergreen trees in your yard to block the northwest winter winds, you can cut your heating costs by up to 25 percent! Another great way to lower your heating bills is to ensure that the lawn on the south side of your home has open areas where snow can collect. Sunlight will reflect off this snow onto your house, providing a natural source of extra warmth!

Watering plants

The simple way to decrease your water usage is to water your plants in the morning, when evaporation rates are low. This will keep you from having to use extra water to gain the same results.

Leaf management

Leaves become quite troublesome during autumn, so having an efficient leaf management strategy is important to keep you from wasting extra time and energy on landscaping. Here are some best practices for dealing with fallen leaves in your yard:

• Rake up your leaves at least once per week, making an effort keep them away from your driveway and walkways. Not only can excessive leaves pile up and obscure these paths, they can also become dangerous slipping hazards when wet.

• A light amount of leaves can be mowed over, ideally with a mulching lawn mower, and left on your lawn. This is the simplest way to deal with leaves, but only works if you’re dealing with a small amount of leaves at a time. If you can stay on top of your mowing, then this will be an easy solution. However, if you are dealing with a large quantity of leaves, it is recommended that you mow your lawn with a mulching lawn mower that has a bagging attachment. This bagging attachment will collect the shredded leaves, which you can then use as mulch.

• Mulch is a natural source of fertilizer that provides nutrients to the rest of the plants on your property as the mulch decays. You can use this free source of mulch as fertilizer around your trees or in your garden. As a result, you’ll save the money that you would have normally spent on mulch or fertilizer at the hardware store!

• Lastly, you can compost your leaves; click here if you are interesting in learning how to do so properly!

Has all of this landscaping talk got you thinking about investing in some landscaping equipment? Make your purchase through Star Rewards and receive a cash-back bonus! Download the app on iOS or Android to start saving.

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