How to Be a Backyard Superhero Like TurfMutt

For the last 15 years, the TurfMutt Foundation has encouraged kids and their parents and guardians to be backyard superheroes like TurfMutt. But what exactly does this entail? We have the answer!

1. Identify Your Backyarding Personality Type
Are you an Entertainer Extraordinaire? Or maybe Zen Master best describes you? Or perhaps you're something else entirely? Knowing your backyarding personality type is the critical first step to creating the yard of your dreams.

2. Remember, Nature Starts at Your Back Door
Nature is closer than you may think. In fact, it's just outside in your yard. The plants, trees, shrubs and grass in your yard are "environmental superheroes." They work to capture and filter rainwater, produce oxygen, and absorb carbon...to name a few.

3. Know Your Climate Zone
Consult the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map to find the plans that will do best in your yard - with minimal input from you.

4. Practice the "Golden Rule" of Backyarding
This means putting the right plant in the right place by choosing plants that will support your family's lifestyle and thrive in your environment.

5. Support Backyard Wildlife & Pollinators
Select plants that bloom throughout the year to help backyard wildlife and pollinators prosper. Your yard helps reconnect fragmented habitats into a connected ecosystem.

To learn more, download the TurfMutt Foundation’s International Backyarding Fact Book here. Sign up for Mutt Mail, a monthly e-newsletter with backyarding tips and all the news from the TurfMutt Foundation here. Look for Mulligan the TurfMutt on the CBS Lucky Dog television show on Saturday mornings.