Bay-Friendly Gardening mimics natural systems, which recycle everything—water, debris, and nutrients—endlessly. It pays attention to climate and local conditions and uses appropriate plants that are adapted to those conditions. It follows maintenance practices that support the goals of conserving resources and reducing waste.

Bay-Friendly gardens aren’t a mold you have to fit into—they offer endless opportunities, from backyard wildlife gardens to kitchen gardens to native plant communities, and more. Bay-Friendly gardening offers an approach to landscaping that makes it easy to have a garden you can enjoy while reducing waste and conserving resources.

Bay-Friendly gardeners:
* Conserve water and other resources.
* Reuse plant trimmings through mulching and composting.
* Provide wildlife habitat.
* Feature native and Mediterranean plants.
* Choose least-toxic pest control methods.

The Bay-Friendly Gardening program was developed to encourage residents to make environmentally friendly gardening choices. It is not a particular style, but an approach. Bay-Friendly Gardeners work with nature to reduce waste and protect the watersheds of the San Francisco Bay.

Bay-Friendly is….
….. a holistic approach to gardening and landscaping that works in harmony with the natural conditions of the San Francisco Bay Watershed. Bay-Friendly practices foster soil health, conserve water and other valuable resources while reducing waste and preventing pollution.

The Bay-Friendly Gardening Program offers the home gardener tools for creating a beautiful and healthy Bay-Friendly garden. Likewise, the Bay-Friendly Landscaping Program provides resources for the professional landscaper to design, construct and maintain Bay-Friendly landscapes for clients.

For more information please visit the Stop Waste website http://www.stopwaste.org/home/index.asp?page=8