by CeCe Haydock The Sustainable Sites Initiative™, or SITES™ for short, was born from a need for a nationwide, voluntary rating system for landscape construction. The collaborative effort involved forty…
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.
The Patina of Found Materials
Text by Ben Crouch Photos by Kimberly Moa The use of environmentally friendly materials is becoming widely accepted in all trades. Eco-friendly products are common on the shelves of every…
The Consciously Designed Life – Living with the Active Voice of Permaculture, Part 1
by Lauren Chase Rowell “The finest design for society will not be one worked up by specialists but a design created by the people themselves to fit their needs. Planners…
Conservation and Landscaping Professionals Working Together in Ecologically Sensitive Areas
by Theresa Sprague As the landscape paradigm continues to shift towards sustainable/regenerative design, ecological function, and land management vs. landscaping, it becomes clearer that collaboration between the conservation and landscape…
Planning for Resilient and Sustainable Communities
by Jack Ahern An original method for planning resilient and sustainable cities is presented here. The method builds on established planning methods and models. The method has five themes: (1)…
Incorporating Vegetables into the Urban Landscape
by Jessie Banhazl Incorporating vegetables into the urban landscape is not as difficult as it may seem. As with ornamental and perennial plants, placement, light, and spacing between plants are…
Establishing Resilient Urban Landscapes Using Native Plants
by Claudia West Imagine yourself strolling along a typical metropolitan street. What vegetative characteristics might you experience? Are window boxes and containers bursting with seasonal color? Do low growing sedges…
Learning from the Land: A Permaculture Design Provides an Outdoor Classroom for the Conway School
by Mollie Babize On a south-facing hillside in Conway, Massachusetts, an eight-acre experimental landscape and permaculture classroom is evolving. In its third year, this outdoor “learning lab” sits in close…
Installation and Early Maintenance of an Edible Garden
by Tricia Diggins The first plantings of the Edible Ecosystem Demonstration Garden at Wellesley College Botanic Gardens (WCBG) went into the ground this spring, beginning the multi-year implementation of a…
WCBG’s Edible Ecosystem Demonstration Garden: A Cutting Edge Exploration in Ecology and Botany
This article is reprinted with the authors’ permission from the Spring 2011 issue of the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture (WCFH) Newsletter. Photos courtesy of WCFH. by Dave Jacke and…
Quantifying Sustainability: Santa Monica’s “Garden/Garden” Project
by Owen Dell Amid a sea of talk about the benefits of sustainable landscaping, there is precious little information to prove that it actually makes sense, environmentally or economically. Landscape…
Santa Cruz Native Garden Tour
by Lindsay Goldberg June 12, 2011 marked the first ever annual California Native Garden Tour, a self-guided tour of sustainable private and public gardens in Santa Cruz County. Nine months…
