Natural Habitat Gardens

Water shortages are changing the landscape in arid states like Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. Homeowners with plush green grass lawns and unnatural habitat gardens are especially feeling

the pinch as water conservation policies have made it difficult and more expensive to keep all that vegetation watered. In response, landscapers are seeing a trend toward more natural yards and gardens that require far less water and labor to maintain.

A natural habitat yard is simply one that creatively uses ground aggregate and plants native to that region. Going beyond the typical rock and cactus garden, landscape designers today are creating sophisticated views using recycled soil, rock and gravel that can easily be sculpted and placed in both small and large areas.

For the landscape businessperson, these changes often require additional equipment to their collection of mowers, edgers, hedgers, blowers and Bobcats. To really take advantage of the trend toward natural habitat yards, the landscaper now needs a topsoil screener unit to separate soil, rock, dirt, gravel and sand.

OMH ProScreen, Inc. USA manufactures a series of portable topsoil screeners that are designed for just such jobs. Extremely affordable compared to other screeners on the market, OMH Portable Vibratory Grizzly screeners are fed by skidsteers and front-loaders. These screeners can separate 30 to 50 cubic yards an hour, depending on the screener model and the material being screened. Once the ground aggregate is separated, the soil, rocks, gravel and sand can be used according to the landscaping design.

While it might be painful for proud homeowners to give up their manicured, fertilized grass lawns, many see the advantages to converting to natural habitat yards and gardens. Not only do they require less labor to maintain, they save money on the homeowners monthly water bills. Primarily, they conserve precious water resources which, in the end, helps everyone.