When your yard is recognized by the Clemson Extension Carolina Yards program, you will get a cool sign to display in your garden.
But becoming a Certified Carolina Yard isn’t just a way to show off to your neighbors. It’s proof that you’re willing to use simple and effective principles to reduce your maintenance emissions, enhance the environment and protect local waterways.
That’s something to brag about.
“When you create a healthy yard, you benefit the environment in so many wonderful ways,” said Pickens County Clemson Extension natural resources agent Cathy Reas Foster. “You’re conserving water, reducing erosion, providing food and shelter for wildlife, removing invasive plants and replacing them with native varieties, creating healthier soils, composting food waste and limiting use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. This program seeks to educate on many topics which together make a large impact.”
One of the more recent yards to receive this recognition is at the EcoPlex, an energy-saving student housing project on the campus of Clemson University.
How did the EcoPlex earn the Carolina Yard certification?
- A decorated rain barrel is collecting water runoff from the roof.
- A compost bin is recycling garden and yard trimmings.
- Herbs in raised beds are providing food for pollinators.
- A bluebird house has five bluebird eggs waiting to hatch.
- Puddle dishes are supplying water for butterflies and other insects and toad houses are providing shelter for those hopping amphibians.
“The EcoPlex was a concept that I came up with in 2005,” said Gary Gaulin, Clemson University’s associate director for sustainability. “The idea was to take a student apartment and make it more sustainable. We did this through a variety of upgrades: a solar water heater, insulated windows, sustainable carpet, sustainable furniture, added insulation in the attic, storm doors and also a solar tube that comes from the roof and allows sunlight into the living room.”
But Gaulin didn’t want to stop there, so he collaborated with Foster and a student group called the EcoReps to create a more sustainable yard.
“With Cathy’s expertise and with the help of the EcoReps, we were able to plant sustainable varieties that absorb a lot of water when it rains to help with some of the erosion problems we were having,” Gaulin said. “We’re continuing to add even more improvements, such as putting up a fenced area to protect sensitive landscape and planting even more natives.”
Shea Alevy, Clemson’s graduate assistant for sustainability, has benefitted directly from these improvements. After all, he lives at the EcoPlex.
“I’ve been at Clemson for nearly two years, and one of my fondest memories is installing our rain barrel in the garden,” said Alevy, who hosts educational programs on sustainable lifestyles at the EcoPlex. “This has been a great experience for me, and it has helped some of our students grow in unexpected and transformational ways.”
Through the use of the Carolina Yard certification program, Clemson students have become more knowledgeable on how to plan and implement a better, more sustainable yard.
(Image Credit: Jim Melvin / Clemson University.)