Certify Your Garden as a Wildlife Sanctuary

Host a healthy and sustainable nature sanctuary, right in your own garden. You can even get it certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a bona fide wildlife habitat, complete with a yard sign you can stake on your grounds.

To transform your garden into a wildlife-friendly haven, start by replacing the grass with native and indigenous plants, whether they're succulents, bunch grasses or natives. Already adapted to local conditions, native plants are easy to grow and maintain, generally requiring less fertilizer and water, as well as less effort to rein in pests.

Besides tending to the needs of native birds, you should also extend some hometown hospitality to our pollinator pals, such as butterflies and bees, by growing a diverse variety of native flowers they're particularly drawn to, such as Toyon, Calif. Lilac, and Coffeeberry. Also, gardens with 10 or more species of attractive plants have been found to entice the most bees.

"Green" Roses

Sure, roses in general are beautiful, but need gallons of water and artificial fertilizers and require regular applications of pesticides. Rose gardeners who are singularly devoted to coddling such fussy, exotic species no matter what the cost may have their priorities out of whack. Some consider roses to be the Hummers of the garden.

Fortunately, it looks as if the rose-obsessed can finally do their thing without wasting water and poisoning area honey bees and other beneficial insects. During the last several years, Texas A&M University research scientists have tested hundreds of roses to determine which varieties can be grown in existing, unamended soil without extra watering and sans fertilization or spraying. From "April Moon" and "Carefree Wonder" to "Louis Philippe" and "Mrs. Dudley Cross", there are scores of "Earth Kind" roses which demand little attention.

Many are antique varieties which may not be quite as prolific or showy as hybrid roses, but at least they can hold their own without special treatment. Best of all, the research is ongoing, and, should you be interested in field testing some of these low-impact roses in your own back yard, the university welcomes your evaluations of any Earth Kind varieties you choose to grow. Scientists must agree to evaluate the performance of their Earth Kind roses at one, two, three, and four years after planting, and the use of commercial fertilizers and pesticides -- not even neem oil allowed.

Photo Voltaic Costs to Plummet

The solar industry is poised for a rapid decline in costs that will make it a mainstream power option in the next few years, according to a new assessment by the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Prometheus Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Global production of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells has risen sixfold since 2000 and grew 41 percent in 2006 alone. Although grid-connected solar capacity still provides less than 1 percent of the world's electricity, it increased nearly 50 percent in 2006, to 5,000 megawatts, propelled by booming markets in Germany and Japan.

This growth, while dramatic, has been constrained by a shortage of manufacturing capacity for purified polysilicon, the same material that goes into semiconductor chips. But the situation will be reversed in the next two years as more than a dozen companies in Europe, China, Japan, and the United States bring on unprecedented levels of production capacity, stated the assessment.

Wind Industry Thriving Worldwide

The wind industry is undergoing temporary growing pains similar to the silicon shortage experienced by the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry: there are simply not enough materials or manufacturing capacity to keep up with the increasing demand for wind turbines. The need for steel, copper, concrete and other materials has driven up project costs, restricted turbine supplies and created a difficult market for smaller wind developers.

But despite a two-and-a-half year stretch of materials shortages and rising costs, the global wind industry is experiencing steady growth worldwide and increased acceptance by utilities, governments and citizens.

"Between 2004 and 2005, the global wind turbine market experienced a rapid period of escalation...Within the span of just that year the global demand for wind turbine components and supply jumped to a new plateau and a new rate of growth," says Joshua Magee, senior analyst for Emerging Energy Research's (EER) North American Wind Advisory Group.

Leland Walmsley
everGREEN - landscape architects
http://www.evergreen-sb.com/
Santa Barbara, CA