Effective landscaping can produce environmental benefits in each of the green building categories defined by the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED ranking system: water efficiency, indoor air quality, materials, atmosphere, sustainability and energy. For simple, beautiful landscaping strategies that save energy and money, read on.
Huettl Landscape Architecture
Plant conifers where they can serve as a windscreen. They'll block cold winter gusts, provide beautiful green buffer zones and prevent winds from wicking away indoor heat.
Lee Ann Marienthal Gardens
While evergreens with dense foliage provide a stronger buffer, these highly structured conifers have an architectural appeal.
Cary Bernstein Architect
For a clean look or for an area where foliage will not thrive, a wall might also provide a similar level of wind protection.
Straight Line Landscape
Homes in colder climates can add warmth by placing fire features and outdoor kitchens close to the home, where the heat can permeate or serve as a buffer to colder surrounding temperatures. In this garden, the strategy provides another benefit: The structure of the home and fireplace, along with the roof, could make the outdoor space usable in colder months.
Weisz Selection Lawn & Landscape Services, Inc.
In warmer climates, it may be wise to place fire features and outdoor kitchens at a distance that prevents heat from enveloping or entering a structure during hotter times of the year.
Design your perfect outdoor kitchen
beautiful bones and purple stones
Deciduous trees, unlike many conifers, are fantastic energy savers, providing shade in the summer months while letting in light and heat in winter.
Hufft Projects
Trees are the ultimate air conditioners. They provide shade and can reduce temperatures underneath by as much as 20 degrees.
McClellan Architects
This home's striking floor-to-ceiling windows must provide lovely daylight lighting, making it possible to cut down on artificial light. The wall of trees filters the sun, reducing glare and heat.
Johnsen Landscapes & Pools
Of course, trees can provide the same shady benefit to an outdoor garden space.
Ron Herman Landscape Architect
In the winter, when leaves have fallen, deciduous trees let sunshine through to warm outdoor and indoor spaces, reducing home heating costs.
As you may have guessed, strategic placement of conifers varies from strategic placement of deciduous trees. Deciduous trees work best to the south and west of homes, the areas most likely to receive direct sunlight.
Kathleen Shaeffer Design, Exterior Spaces
Hardscapes such as concrete drives and patios are known for increasing the "heat island" effect. When sunlight reflects off their hard surfaces, it reverberates, heating an area. Opting for green foliage, even at ground height, keeps a space cool.
A meadow like this, especially as an alternative to a traditional lawn, is a great bang-for-the-buck sustainable landscaping strategy. It produces dramatic improvements in both indoor and outdoor air quality. By reducing the need for energy and water, it can save a family as much as $2,500 per 1,000 square feet each year.
The Garden Route Company
If hardscaping is necessary, it's good to know that light materials attract less heat.
Shades Of Green Landscape Architecture
Natural materials, such as this decomposed granite, may also absorb light and heat. Many of these materials are appropriate for driveways as well as patios.
Woolly Pocket
Creating a green wall prevents structures that receive excessive sunshine from transmitting the sun's heat indoors. This wall at Los Angeles' SmoggShoppe is not just energy efficient; it is living, vertical art.
Of course, if that heat is what you desire, this is not the approach for you.
Blasen Landscape Architecture
Planting thick foliage in external containers is a simple strategy that requires less technical expertise and commitment than a green wall. When temperatures cool, move the containers to sheltered or indoor spaces.
We'd love to see your photos of energy-saving landscapes. Please tell us about them below.
Huettl Landscape Architecture
Plant conifers where they can serve as a windscreen. They'll block cold winter gusts, provide beautiful green buffer zones and prevent winds from wicking away indoor heat.
Lee Ann Marienthal Gardens
While evergreens with dense foliage provide a stronger buffer, these highly structured conifers have an architectural appeal.
Cary Bernstein Architect
For a clean look or for an area where foliage will not thrive, a wall might also provide a similar level of wind protection.
Straight Line Landscape
Homes in colder climates can add warmth by placing fire features and outdoor kitchens close to the home, where the heat can permeate or serve as a buffer to colder surrounding temperatures. In this garden, the strategy provides another benefit: The structure of the home and fireplace, along with the roof, could make the outdoor space usable in colder months.
Weisz Selection Lawn & Landscape Services, Inc.
In warmer climates, it may be wise to place fire features and outdoor kitchens at a distance that prevents heat from enveloping or entering a structure during hotter times of the year.
beautiful bones and purple stones
Deciduous trees, unlike many conifers, are fantastic energy savers, providing shade in the summer months while letting in light and heat in winter.
Hufft Projects
Trees are the ultimate air conditioners. They provide shade and can reduce temperatures underneath by as much as 20 degrees.
McClellan Architects
This home's striking floor-to-ceiling windows must provide lovely daylight lighting, making it possible to cut down on artificial light. The wall of trees filters the sun, reducing glare and heat.
Johnsen Landscapes & Pools
Of course, trees can provide the same shady benefit to an outdoor garden space.
Ron Herman Landscape Architect
In the winter, when leaves have fallen, deciduous trees let sunshine through to warm outdoor and indoor spaces, reducing home heating costs.
Kathleen Shaeffer Design, Exterior Spaces
Hardscapes such as concrete drives and patios are known for increasing the "heat island" effect. When sunlight reflects off their hard surfaces, it reverberates, heating an area. Opting for green foliage, even at ground height, keeps a space cool.
The Garden Route Company
If hardscaping is necessary, it's good to know that light materials attract less heat.
Shades Of Green Landscape Architecture
Natural materials, such as this decomposed granite, may also absorb light and heat. Many of these materials are appropriate for driveways as well as patios.
Woolly Pocket
Creating a green wall prevents structures that receive excessive sunshine from transmitting the sun's heat indoors. This wall at Los Angeles' SmoggShoppe is not just energy efficient; it is living, vertical art. 
Blasen Landscape Architecture
Planting thick foliage in external containers is a simple strategy that requires less technical expertise and commitment than a green wall. When temperatures cool, move the containers to sheltered or indoor spaces.