Linking Land to Lake:
Landscaping in Celebration of Water

Proceedings and action agenda from the sustainability symposium sponsored by the Cleveland Botanical Garden and the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes on Feb. 2, 2008.

Symposium summary

Gardens in the spirit of place
Noted gardening writer Page Dickey kicked off the symposium with a talk about gardens that evoke the spirit of place – gardens that are sensitive to local ecology, topography, soils, climate and culture. By taking design cues from nature, one can integrate a house into the native landscape. Indeed, some of the most appealing landscapes have been encouraged to revert to a more natural state, such as when a lawn becomes a meadow with much higher biological diversity and ecological value. Sometimes it takes courage to abandon a conventional, manicured look and challenge community expectations, but sometimes it’s okay to offend the neighbors in order to do the right thing.

State of Lake Erie
Jeff Reutter, director of Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie, presented an update on the state of the lake, arguably the most important lake in the world. He said that the health of the lake was improving until around 1995 but then began deteriorating. There are six key issues, all of which are interrelated:

• Climate change
• Sedimentation and water clarity
• Nutrients and phosphorous
• Harmful algal blooms
• The dead zone in the Central Basin of the lake
• Aquatic invasive species

Reutter said that citizens could do a number of things to help improve the health of Lake Erie:

• Reduce stormwater, nutrients (such as fertilizers) and sediments from running off your land.
• Support the Great Lakes Compact, which will prevent the diversion of the lakes' water to other places. And support calls to reduce phosphorous in detergents, to stop the introduction of harmful invasive species into the lakes by ocean-going ships, and to stop the disposal of dredgings in the open lake.
• Reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
• Support funding for work to correct combined sewer overflows.

Sustainable plant selection
Garden editor and writer Ray Rogers emphasized the principle: Think before you plant. One of the basic principles of sustainability is to think about the long-term impact of your actions. So it’s important to think about the long-term implications of a plant through its entire life cycle – a plant’s impact on family, neighbors, and the earth (soil, water, and biological diversity).

Wrap-up
David Beach, director of the Center for Regional Sustainability at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, helped people appreciate their deep connection to the water quality of Lake Erie. Our bodies are about 70% water, and most people in the Cleveland area get their water from the lake. So we are exchanging water with the lake every day on a cellular level. It’s the most intimate relationship we have.

Over the past 30 years we have done a pretty good job reducing water pollution from point sources, such as pipes from factories. Now the big water quality issue is nonpoint source pollution – the stormwater runoff from land, streets, and buildings. This runoff is everyone’s responsibility. Yard by yard, landscape by landscape, everyone can help reduce the amount of pollution washing off the land. In addition to site-level techniques to reduce the impact of development, we also need to do more at a regional or watershed level to reduce urban sprawl and promote development in locations where impacts to rivers and streams are minimized. A noteworthy attempt to promote better land-use planning at the watershed scale is the Lake Erie Balanced Growth Program.

Finally, an overall theme of the symposium was changing the aesthetics of landscaping. The cultural norm of manicured perfection and domination of nature is giving way to a more enlightened appreciation of ecological function. We can find more beauty by working with nature.

Action agenda

The symposium had five breakout sessions on ways to improve water quality with better landscaping practices. Participants in each session recommended steps to promote more widespread adoption of the practices.

• Designing with native plants (session led by Judith Siegel, The Plant Manager): Develop programs for intergenerational gardening to capture wisdom of experience and promote community. Change "dumb" ordinances that prevent people from doing the right thing. Extend today’s message about the benefits of native plants to commercial/small businesses, including local garden centers, etc.
• Solutions for seasonally soggy soils (session led by Roger Gettig, The Holden Arboretum): Expand public education about plants that can tolerate soils that are wet in winter and spring, yet very dry by the middle of the summer. Promote awareness of landscape options via community newsletters, newspapers, and personal communications to neighbors.
• Sustainable lawn care (session led by Alec McClennan, Good Nature Organic Lawn Care): Create  sustainable lawn landscaping specifications for landscape designers. Promote public awareness of healthy, nontoxic lawn practices by spreading messages about children, dogs, and the real costs of lawn maintenance practices. Write legislators about the need for stricter controls on phosphorous.
• How to create rain gardens (session led by Jan Rybka, Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District): Convince more communities of the need to allow downspout disconnections. Draw examples from other cities that have successful rain garden programs (e.g., Seattle or Hamilton, Ontario).
• Building healthy soil through composting and vermicomposting (session led by Lara Roketenetz and Denise Natoli-Brooks, Nature Center at Shaker Lakes): Do more public education about vermicomposting (perhaps using terms like "bio-recycling" that sound less objectionable). Provide more information about how to do composting and where to get supplies. Hold more workshops and training sessions.

Presentations and handouts

• Composting and vermicomposting presentation (Powerpoint 1.4MB) and additional handout with resources (Word doc 171KB)
• Organic vs. chemical lawns (PDF 810KB)
• Rain Garden Manual for Homeowners (PDF 2.4MB)
• Sustainable Plant Selection by Ray Rogers (Word doc 43KB)
• The State of Our Lake: Why Your Efforts Are Important by Jeffrey Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant (Powerpoint 12.5MB)

More resources on landscaping and water quality

• Center for Watershed Protection
• Chagrin River Watershed Partners
• Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization
• Gardener's Guide to Global Warming from the National Wildlife Federation (PDF 1.6MB)
• Good Nature Organic Lawn Care
• Great Lakes Forever
• Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
• Lake Erie Balanced Growth Program
• Laudable Lawn resources from the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes (Word doc 52KB)
• Rain Garden Network
• Sources of native plants
• Tips for helping urban streams from EcoCity Cleveland