by Carol Spitzer What makes designing for small urban properties equally challenging and fun? Sometimes the challenges seem endless: very small spaces to work in, shade in all forms, tree…
Biophilic Design Is Coming to a Building Near You
by Rebecca Lindenmeyr The realization that nature can heal us is hardly new, but recent research has shown just how much we benefit from its close proximity. A 2016 review…
Eco-Answers from the Pros: Urban Pollinators
I work on a golf course in the middle of a city, (Newark, NJ). I am always looking to put in natural areas and promote pollinator plants. My question is…
Eco-Answers from the Pros: Bee Tubes in Spring
The mason bees filled most of the tubes in the house this spring and the ends were sealed with the mud. Now in August, the mud seal is gone and…
The Soil We Grow In
by Bruce Fulford For most of my first two decades, I grew in rich farm soils in southeastern Pennsylvania. The gently sloping hills and flood plains were potassium rich-soils of…
Feed the Soil; Feed the Plants
by Mike Murray We all have to eat. In a forest, leaves fall and enrich the undisturbed soil. Bacteria and fungi decompose the litter and provide nutrients to the trees….
Start with the Soil
by Steve Phillips As members and supporters of the Ecological Landscape Alliance, we likely have an awareness of the importance of ecology. But do we truly have an understanding of…
From Swimming Hole to Artful Landscape
by Shawn Mayers Franklin, MA, hired groundSwell Designs in 2013 to develop a schematic master plan for a small town parcel that had been neglected for almost 50 years. The…
ShadowWorks – Art and Infrastructure at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
by Beka Sturges How do you approach a project? How do you conceive it? How do you represent it? What is at stake? Over the past 15 or so years…
Walk on the Wild Side
by Noel Kingsbury Reprinted with permission of the author from New Small Garden, Quarto Publishing, September 2016. Plants make a garden. There are gardens constructed without plants, but the absence…
Phytoremediation: Overview and Opportunities
by Steven Rock The following Foreword to Phyto: Principles and Resources for Site Remediation and Landscape Design, Routledge, June 2015, is reprinted with permission of the author. People have deliberately grown…
Takeaways from Landscape Heroes
by Meghan O’Connell On January 31st, NOFA and the ELA teamed up to bring farmers and landscapers together to learn about three key components for creating healthy soil—and in turn,…