Changing environmental conditions resulting from global warming are expected to cause more severe storms and other extreme weather events, such as increased rainfall and flooding, or periods of drought.
Making environmentally-friendly changes to your yard like the ones listed below can help make your yard and the community more resilient and adapt to these unpredictable weather patterns. Additionally, incorporating native plants, shrubs, and trees can actually help to “draw down” (sequester or remove) carbon from the atmosphere! Healthy soil alone can draw down carbon from the atmosphere and hold it, and can be achieved through regenerative soil practices.
Regenerative soil practices include planting native plants, planting a diverse group of plants, avoiding tilling of the soil and crop rotation in vegetable gardens, adding compost and mulch to gardens, avoiding soil compaction, and avoiding the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
Native flowers in a front yard rain garden 
Monarch on Purple Coneflower
Creating beauty and wildlife is an added bonus of incorporating native plants, shrubs, and trees to your yard. Spend time enjoying and relaxing in your space. Look and listen as you and your family explore your yard and discover birds, butterflies, and other animals flourishing from the nature that you provided.
Consider incorporating the following options to your yard which offer a multitude of benefits, including supporting regenerative soil practices:
- Adding native plants
- Adding native trees and shrubs
- Seeding lawn with no-mow native grass mix in areas that can grow to about 8 inches
- Reducing leaf removal from your yard
- Adding a vegetable Garden or fruit trees or shrubs
- Creating a rain garden in low-lying area of the yard that stays wet, near sump pump drainage, and by down spouts
- Reducing or eliminating the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers
- Reducing the size of hard surfaces in your yard, such as circular driveways. These are impermeable to rain, and increase storm water runoff.
- Reducing the size of lawn to mow by adding more plants, shrubs, and trees, and sectioning off no-mow areas which are not used for play areas, entertaining, etc.
Additional environmentally-friendly options for the yard:
- Adding a composter
- Adding a rain barrel
- Using a push-mower, or an electric powered mower
- Raking rather than using a leaf blower
Added benefits of these changes include saving money on water and lawn care, reducing storm water runoff, reducing erosion, and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from gas-powered landscaping machines.