If you find yourself mumbling "Ick!" every time you walk out onto your doorstep and scan your landscape, or grumbling every time you fire up the lawnmower to clear-cut your weed-stricken, uninspiring front lawn, it might be time to employ some of the sustainable landscaping techniques highlighted by Stephen Orr in Tomorrow's Garden: Design and Inspiration for a New Age of Sustainable Gardening. Orr, the gardening editorial director for Martha Stewart Living magazine, traveled all over the country to find examples of beautiful, sustainable landscapes that require little water, designs that work well for nature and people.

In fact, the prestigious New York Times Book Review summer reading issue recommends Tomorrow's Garden, commending Orr's journey highlighting ways to make better plant and landscaping choices. The book is one part inspiration, one part how-to. Often, each story he tells is a blend of the two. For instance, one stop in Orr's book profiles a Brooklyn woman who plants sunflowers along plots of dirt near a new EPA Superfund site.

In telling the tale of Kirstin Tobiasson, the Gowanus Garden Lady, Orr weaves in info on her choices of plant species that help take your eyes away from the industrial Superfund sight: nasturtiums, bee balm, and sunflowers. He also shares examples of sustainable, functional designs in small spaces: the Chicago beekeeper who raises bees in an abandoned parking lot; a Napa, CA, a wall garden made out of recycled roof vents; and a Los Angeles flower gardener who created a business selling cut blooms at farmer's markets. "While doing my book, I was very interested in getting people intrigued by the practices of sustainability by showing them beautiful gardens that choose to move things forward without giving up on aesthetics," says Orr. "Gardens are a thing of beauty—and non-wasteful ones should be the most beautiful of all."

If you're thinking you don't have the money, know-how, or time to make positive change in your outdoor space, wipe that thought out of your mind. Commit to simple weekend projects here and there, and your space will be more earth- and people-friendly before you know it. (Just don't obsess over completing the perfect project…have fun with it!) "Most people who would describe themselves as avid gardeners want to do the right thing by the earth…. We can't be perfect, but we are always striving to do it better," says Orr.

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Here are some weekend projects to help you build a sustainable landscape:

• Turn a small yard into a stress-busting tool. Turn a boring yard into a mind-body-soul-connecting labyrinth. That's what one couple did with their small San Francisco yard, described in Orr's book. They made sure to use drought-tolerant grasses like Berkeley sedge (Carex divulsa in gravel to reduce mowing. Here's how to create a labyrinth.

• Ask yourself the following questions before picking up a shovel. Orr suggests figuring out the answers to the following questions to get a better understanding of what you want in your yard:

1. How do you want to use your outdoor space?
2. How much time do you want to spend gardening and maintaining a garden each week?
3. How can you divide up the space, and with what materials?
4. What is your budget?
5. How much water do you want to put into your garden?

Knowing if you want your area to feed you homegrown produce and herbs, serve as an entertaining area, or all of the above helps you lay out your initial design.

• Redirect rainwater. You could set up a catchment area system, more commonly known as a rain barrel, in an afternoon. Or, you can redirect the rain gutters around your house to make sure the water is going into the earth instead of out into the street, suggests Orr. You can also install a rain garden to prevent excess water sitting around in your yard.

• Build a more absorbent sustainable landscape. Continuous blacktop and concrete make for lots of runoff that winds up carrying pollution into rivers that often serve as drinking water sources. "In the middle of the last century, it was popular to use poured concrete to make impermeable areas in front and backyards," Orr explains. "Now, many gardeners are breaking up those spaces with concrete pavers interspersed with grass or gravel. This setup allows water to percolate down into the soil instead of being deflected into nearby storm drains and ultimately, rivers."

A few Tomorrow's Garden tips for laying down gravel:

1. Although each site is different, as an example, a simple site might require removing 2 to 2½ inches of soil before laying down gravel. (You can use the soil somewhere else around your home, maybe in a raised bed…keep reading.)
2. The soil that will be under the gravel should be compact, not loose. You can use or hire someone to use a plate compactor machine to prep the ground.
3. Don't overdo it. You might only need about ½ inch to 1 inch of gravel over road base (crushed limestone used for highways).
4. Considering mixing two or three different sizes of gravel.

Plain turf lawns, believe it or not, also create a lot of backyard runoff. Orr suggests replacing a section of your lawn with gravel or pavers so more rainwater recharges the groundwater. "Everything we do in our yards is connected to the world around us. I think we sometimes forget about what happens on the other side of the garden fence," Orr says.

• Construct a raised bed. If you'd rather not start shoveling up pieces of your lawn, there are still options—delicious ones that can feed you and your family, at that. Orr says building a raised bed or two allows you to grow vegetables, fruits, and herbs at home using minimal manpower. If you want to add blossoms to the mix, try edible nasturtium or calendula.

• Choose sustainable plants. For a truly sustainable garden, learn the native plants of your state and plant some of them. Also use climate-suitable plants. For instance, planting begonias, impatiens, and petunias in the South and West uses more resources than water-sipping succulent species. And Orr suggests Mediterranean spurge Euphorbia characias for areas like Los Angeles, where water conservation is a necessity.

Learn more at: morninghomestead.com

Thanks. I have a garden but I am too lazy to maintain it...

The pictures are mesmerizing. Love it! It's a very good thing to invest not only money, but time in your garden. The looks are very important. I invest at least 1 or 2 days per week in taking care of my beautiful garden. Before entering the cottage there are some beautiful garden bridges that complete the whole scenery. Flowers, birds, it's just like in the movies. The cottage I own is such a place close to my soul. I love taking care of it and its garden, I wouldn't let anyone else touch it. I see so many potentially beautiful gardens that aren't taken care of... Ah, give them all to me! I'll put flowers and bridges everywhere! Nature is all we need, it gives us hope and life. Such a waste not to invest in your garden...

In fact, making such a garden at home is a big cost, both financially and the effort that you will need to give to grow all this. Also, irrigation systems are needed, fertilizers, sometimes even the right lighting. I used the site https://bloomandgrowshop.ie/ a lot to buy all of this