Sustaining Sustainability
An Interview by Lenny Giteck
Sustainability may be a hot buzzword in the world of landscaping these days, but Bruce Zaretsky is no Johnny Appleseed-come-lately to the concept. According to Zaretsky — owner of Zaretsky and Associates, a landscape design, installation and consulting firm near Rochester, New York, and a frequent contributor to the pages of WaterShapes — he’s been concerned with sustainability throughout his entire landscaping career.
“I’ve always tried to be careful with resources and less invasive to the environment,” Zaretsky says. “For instance, whenever I would replace a brick patio for a client, I’d never throw out the old bricks; I’d always leave them at the road, on a wood palette, so other people could take them. The palettes themselves — I’d either leave them for people to take or I’d have them ground down into mulch. A lot of people in the industry just bring — in a dumpster and throw everything away, but my goal is to dispose of as little as possible.”
Recently, WaterShapes.com spoke with Zaretsky about his philosophy of, and passion for, sustainable landscaping:
Different people seem to define sustainability in different ways. What does the term mean to you?
To me, it’s simply a matter of using common sense. Some people take extreme positions: It’s either use native plants and nothing else, or plant whatever you want and don’t worry about resources. We need to find a middle ground. In areas of the country where water is a major issue, it definitely makes sense to put in native plants. But there’s nothing wrong with using non-native plants, as long as they are fairly adaptable, don’t create a lot of work and — here’s the big thing —don’t use a great deal of resources.
When people think about sustainable landscaping, they focus on water usage. But equally important, perhaps, are the resources used in manufacturing and transporting materials, fertilizers. chemicals and so forth.
Exactly. That’s why for the vast majority of the work I do, I use materials I can buy within a 300-mile radius of my facility. It’s not really about dollars and cents, because my clients would pay extra if I brought stone in from, say, Montana. Philosophically, I just can’t do it. Big diesel tractor-trailers use a lot of fuel and spew out a lot of pollutants, so I try to minimize that by buying locally.
What about sustainability when it comes to waterfeatures?
I don’t think waterfeatures are inherently wasteful. You get people complaining, “We’re suffering from a water shortage, and you have a fountain in your backyard!” Or they complain about ponds and pools. But the water pretty much is there, and it’s replenished little by little, so you’re not really wasting a lot.
One of the things you can do with waterfeatures is to use high-efficiency pumps. I often use very high-efficiency submersible models, and I put timers on them so they’re not running all day. You can get away with this even with pools. A lot of pool guys will fight me on this, but both at my own home and at job sites I’ve experimented successfully with running pool pumps only half the day.
If I install a naturalistic pond, I’ll often put in two pumps — one that’s giving us the main feature and one that’s just keeping the water circulating. Especially if we’re talking about dual-income families, where both the husband and wife work, the big pump is not running during the day. Only the small pump is running, keeping the water circulating at a very high efficiency — at times less than an amp.
Lawns are seen as prime examples of unsustainability. Are there ways homeowners can have lawns without using up a lot of resources?
It depends where you live. Here in upstate New York, water isn’t an issue — we’ve got plenty of it. In the desert Southwest, lawns don’t make a whole lot of sense. To tell you the truth, when I fly over Las Vegas and see all those beautiful green golf courses, I just cringe.
But even around here, if lawns are being mowed once a week, they’re using up a lot of resources and, in the case of gas-powered lawnmowers, causing a lot of pollution. So homeowners can mow their lawns less often. Also, the key is not to have an irrigation system, because when you do, you’ll probably mow once a week.
How often should lawns be mowed?
Say you have two acres of frontage on the front of your house, which is the case with a lot of people around here. Let three-quarters of that grow up, and mow it once a year. The look of grass waving in the breeze is beautiful — and it won’t get totally overgrown, because grass from domesticated seeds simply don’t grow all that tall.
In my own backyard, I’m experimenting with a prairie grass called buffalo grass, which only grows three to five inches tall. Basically it’s touted as drought-tolerant and needing to be mowed only once a year. Although it costs a little more initially, you don’t have to pay someone to mow your lawn every week.
Are you turning to more natural processes in your designs?
We’re doing a lot of work with bioswales, depressions to which water is allowed to run. The concept is to keep the water on site, rather than sending it off to storm sewers and sewage treatment plants, and then into lakes and rivers, with all the pollutants it picks up along the way.
A bioswale catches the water and gradually percolates it back into the ground on the site. Now these swales are being planted with water-loving and drought-tolerant shrubs, which is not an oxymoron, that slow the water down, minimize erosion and allow the water to perk back into the ground. The mulch removes heavy metals, and the plants remove salt — in the winter, they salt the roads up here — plus fertilizers, antifreeze and all sorts of other contaminants.
What other natural systems are being used?
A lot of development is happening with green roofs, where a vegetated garden on the top of a building collects rain water and perks it through the soil. Most of the water is caught by the roof, but anything that’s left over usually runs down into a cistern, so nothing leaves the site. You can’t use that water for potable purposes, but you can use it to irrigate the landscaping around the building or to flush toilets inside the building.
There’s one building in Germany with a green roof on which they’ve put a small solar panel that controls a low-voltage pump in the cistern. So when they have dry conditions — as determined by a moisture censor on the roof — the system pumps water back up from the cistern. Talk about being totally “off the grid”!
Does your commitment to sustainability limit your options and creativity? Is it actually liberating in any way?
I admit that I would love to use some gorgeous marble out of, say, Italy — but consider the fuel expenditure to ship it across the ocean, plus the pollution that comes out of the ships’ smokestacks. So, yes, sustainability can be a little bit constricting in that the palate you’re working with is more limited. On the other hand, it can be liberating in the sense that it forces you to be more creative in what you do. A lot of people in our industry are always complaining about design challenges; I like the challenge of creating something beautiful with materials that are close by.
Will sustainable landscaping eventually become an issue for government intervention?
In areas of the Southeast that have been experiencing severe drought conditions for a few years, some municipalities already have mandated that you can’t water your landscaping. Las Vegas is paying residents to get rid of their lawns and replace them with landscaping that uses less water. So I think the precedent has been set — that government has a role in at least encouraging people to make certain decisions about their landscaping.
How do you sell your clients on the concept of sustainability?
When I do a design for a client and I think about the plantings I want to work with, I try to get them to buy in on the concept. However, although people talk about “landscape sales,” I’m not a salesman. The only thing I sell to clients is myself. So I never try to force-feed the idea of sustainability to people. I’ll say, “Look, this is what I want to do, and these are the reasons I want to do it.” I always tell clients, “In the end, I leave and go home, but you have to live with the final product.” In most cases, they trust my judgment.
Doesn’t sustainable landscaping promise long-term cost savings for homeowners?
Yes, in terms of water and energy use. But what may be an even bigger point for people is the philosophy of acting as a good steward of the earth. It might sound hokey, but most people have children, and they want to leave this planet a little better for the sake of their kids.
Will the new emphasis on sustainability create a huge business opportunity for people like you?
Absolutely. The public is increasingly interested in the idea of sustainability. Every gardening magazine, every trade magazine in the field, is exploring the topic. Wherever you turn, you hear about global warming and “green” issues.
As more Americans want to have landscaping that doesn’t eat up an enormous amount of resources, the opportunities for landscaping professionals who know what they’re doing in this area will only grow.