by Trevor Smith Water’s most amazing quality is that it is simultaneously part of the mystery of life and an essential element in the most mundane routines of life. We use it to cook, brush our teeth and wash our cars, but few can deny the majesty of a waterfall or resist watching waves crash […]
Archive | Landscape Design
Beyond the Vegetable Patch – Strengthening the Food Connection in the Garden
December 16, 2018 in Edible Landscaping, Landscape Design
by Kerry O’Kelly and Darcy Paige There is a growing understanding that people need to make a connection between their food and its sources, but this is often difficult to achieve. When we think of food in the landscape, we most often think of the vegetable patch. That is a great place to start. However, […]
Mitigation of Suburban Deforestation: The Important Role of Designers
December 16, 2018 in Landscape Design, Trees
by Marie Chieppo I looked out the window this morning and with great pleasure watched the wide variety of birds at my feeders. The speed at which they landed and took off reminded me of an airplane runway. My eyes followed to where they perched to consume their meals – the oldest and largest tree […]
Native Plants for the Small Yard: Easy, Beautiful Home Gardens that Support the Local Ecology
November 15, 2018 in Gardening Basics, Landscape Design, Native Plants
Text by Kate Brandes Illustrations by Tom Maxfield Social scientists have looked at how people feel about their yards, and their research shows that preferences are determined mostly by people’s desire to fit in with the neighbors. Unfortunately, native plants have developed something of a bad rap among homeowners as messy and hard to manage […]
Digging into Ecological Landscaping by Following Nature’s Lead
November 15, 2018 in Biodiversity, Landscape Design
by Kate Hartnett, Mary Tebo, and Marilyn Wyzga This article first appeared in the Winter 2009 issue of The Ecological Landscaper, the newsletter of the Ecological Landscape Alliance. As evidence of extreme weather and ecological stress become more obvious, ELA’s mission to “promote the design, installation and maintenance of landscapes that are guided by a […]
The Garden in Every Sense and Season
September 14, 2018 in Gardening Basics, Landscape Design
by Tovah Martin Taken from The Garden in Every Sense and Season© Copyright 2018 by Tovah Martin, photographs by Kindra Clineff. Published by Timber Press, Portland, OR. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Grape Nuts You suspected autumn was in the air. Maybe you even feared fall’s inevitable arrival. But you didn’t come […]
Lessons Learned from the First Year of a School Garden
September 14, 2018 in Landscape Design, Native Plants
by Missy Fabel A lot can happen in a year, especially in High School. In the spring of 2017, a dozen students, a couple of faculty members and a handful of PTA parent volunteers planted more than 3,000 native plant plugs in an enclosed courtyard at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY. The project […]
Wait! Do you really want to plant that there?
August 15, 2018 in Landscape Design, Native Plants
by Bruce Patterson The wise advice gardeners often hear is to “plant in the habitat type where the plants are naturally found. Be sure to select plants that prefer the habitat (or microhabitats) of your garden.” Sometimes that good advice conflicts with the vision we have for our gardens. (more…)
A Walk in the Garden
August 15, 2018 in Landscape Design, Native Plants
Text by Dan Jaffe Photos by Penny Lewis Before the hot weather took hold in New England, ELA took a late spring walk through Garden the Woods in Framingham, MA to see what was blooming. A return visit a month later offered additional photo ops. In addition to lovely individual plants, we also found some […]
Breaking up a Boxy Backyard
August 15, 2018 in Landscape Design
Excerpted from The Less is More Garden® Copyright 2018 by Susan Morrison. Published by Timber Press, Portland, OR. Used by the permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. by Susan Morrison Most small to average-sized gardens are rectangular. The most common backyards I see, both in recent suburban developments and older neighborhoods dominated by ranch […]