Orientation of house - passive solar design
- The front of the house should face south. A row of fruit trees could be planted in front of the house (shade windows in summer; no leaves in winter so you get the winter sun). Or, use an overhang or awnings. You don't need lowE windows on the north side.
- Put a row of pine or spruce to the northwest. In some areas, people can make a channel through the trees to bring summer wind to the house.
- Notice the southern orientation of old farmhouses and barns.
Use of native plants
- A native plant guide is available for download from www.chesapeakebay.fws.gov.
- Plant close. Find out how far apart the species needs to be spaced. Then, divide the area you want to plant by the square of the distance between the plants in order to determine the total number of plants. For example, if you have an area of 100 square feet where you want to put plants that are supposed to be 2 feet apart, divide 100 by 2-squared (4) to learn that you could plant 25 plants in that space.
- Audubon has a sustainable gardening booklet, with resources listed.
- Also check out www.ehwp.org (or www.bhwp.org). You can get information from the Delaware Valley Watershed group at 1-215-862-2924.
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Updated 3-25-09
