Make your Deck a Green Space
If you’re interested in adding green space to your home, it’s important to know your options both inside AND outside the home. Your deck can be a great place to increase your greenery outside the home, improve your gardening skills and maybe even bring some homegrown edibles into your life.
Studies show that having more greenery in our lives in the form of plants and trees can reduce depression, improve air quality, and make your home infinitely more beautiful. But building a great green space needs to start with greener materials. Whether you’re building a new deck or refurbishing or expanding an older deck, redwood is one of the most sustainable decking solutions. Natural redwood is an easy and gorgeous answer for decking, but it’s imperative to *seek out sustainably harvested redwood.
Why is Redwood a more Sustainable Choice?
Using redwood to build or upgrade your deck makes sense for a lot of reasons, the least of which is the cost of the material. On average, the cost of adding a deck made of redwood to your home should cost about $10,000, compared to a plastic-composite material which will cost closer to $15,000. Redwood is a great option for pest resistance, too, potentially saving maintenance costs in the long term.
Redwood is also a much stronger material than its plastic-composite counterpart and doesn’t need as much framing to support it, reducing the overall environmental impact of the project. While it might seem that chopping down our natural resources might have a negative impact, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of sustainably harvested redwood ensures that it was harvested at a rate lower than the growth rate of the forest. And, the company that harvested the wood was also required to plant trees for every tree it cut down. Simple, yet effective in terms of managing the overall environmental impact of the material. So not only is redwood a less expensive option, it’s much stronger, more eco-friendly, and arguably more beautiful. A gorgeous redwood deck will complement your gardening and greenery in a way that no plastic material can do.
6 Ways to Make your Deck a Greener space
Once you’ve decided on a decking plan and materials that fits your home, you can begin thinking about adding the right gardening options to help make your deck into a great green space. Here are some of our favorite tips for bringing flowers, plants, and vegetables into your life:
1. A deck is the perfect place to feature container gardens: keeping your plants in smaller spaces can make them easy to care for and makes it easy to redecorate the deck as you see fit.
2. If you want to eat on your deck and FROM your deck, here are our tips for planning a kitchen (edible) garden.
3. Don’t panic, go organic! Organic gardening improves soil, produces nutritious foods, and is easier than you might imagine. Here’s how to start an organic garden.
4. If your deck has high sides or fencing, you can incorporate climbing plants like squash and flowering vines, but you can also pursue vertical gardening options to take advantage of your wall space.
5. Get fruity! Fruit trees are easier than you might think to grow in either containers or in the ground. A few dwarf fruit trees in containers can turn your deck a fruitful endeavor. Here are our tips for planting fruit trees.
6. Don’t forget the compost! Compost ensures that your garden remains green and healthy, and helps you reduce your overall waste output. Here’s a composting tutorial and another for a DIY compost bin.
This post is sponsored by Mendoco Redwood.
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