Ellen Sousa, author of The Green Garden, is a garden coach who helps local gardeners build, maintain, and nurture safe, healthy, and beautiful landscapes. She writes and speaks about habitat…
Designing Ecological Landscapes
Landscapes that mimic natural systems deliver important ecosystem services and are also aesthetically pleasing. Guided by principles that reduce resource consumption, ecologically designed landscapes provide natural solutions when land is disturbed by the construction of buildings or roadways, and they support landscaped communities from tiny rooftops to grand urban parks.
Habitat Essentials
by Ellen Sousa The following excerpt is reprinted from The Green Garden (Bunker Hill Publishing, 2011) with the permission of the author. Habitat gardening is just like planning and designing…
Enjoying Our Gardens More with Native Plants
by Margery Winters To some of our visitors, the Marabeth Storrs Finn Native Plant Butterfly Garden at Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton, CT, is more of a wild area…
Farmscaping with Native Plants
by Josh Fodor Farms worldwide have contributed greatly to the loss of native vegetation and wildlife habitat. Over the past twenty years native plants have begun to creep back in…
Native Plants from the Portuguese Shore
by Joao Oliveira If I look at nature only and forget cars, houses, and signs, I might say that I live in California. Instead, I am in Portugal where there…
You Calling Me a Purist?
by Sue Reed In the world of landscape design, my second-least favorite sentence begins: “Oh, you’re just one of those native plant purists who …” and then goes on to…
Edibles in the Landscape
A far cry from the lone tomato plant wedged in among geraniums in the backyard, edibles are now found front and center stage in many residential landscapes. Property owners are…
First Year’s Harvest from Wellesley’s Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden
by Dave Jacke and Keith Zaltzberg On April 2nd, 2011, a team of perplexed students, gardeners, and community members gathered with shovels and rakes in hand at the base of…
It’s Not a Fairytale: Seattle to Build Nation’s First Food Forest
by Clare Leschin-Hoar This article was first published on February 21, 2012 and is reprinted with permission of TakePart, Beverly Hills, CA. Forget meadows. The city’s new park will be…
Thinking about Nut Trees
by Tricia Diggins Nut trees, more than any other aspect of landscaping, make me think of the old proverb “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago,…
Book Review: The Holistic Orchard
The Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way Written by Michael Phillips Published by Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011, 414 pages Reviewed by Nick Novick Interest seems to be…
Measuring Progress: Permaculture Responds
by Ben Falk Sue Reed’s article, “A Talk of Three Garden Shows: Progress?” oversimplifies an important and complex issue. Since Sue did not attend my talks at the ELA Conference,…