-
What Birds Need in Winter: Creating a Year-Round Habitat Garden
When attracting birds to the garden, we often think of setting out some bird feeders and maybe a bird bath. But like us, wild birds need a variety of things to thrive, and especially in inclement weather. As we lose many of our natural lands to development, supporting local and migrating birds through all of…
-
Landscape Designer’s Tools of the Trade: Best Measuring Tools
We’re coming up on that time of the year when most of us are doing more armchair gardening and garden planning than actual outside, in-the-dirt gardening, and one of the biggest challenges people encounter when they start measuring or plotting out their garden to create an overall plan is that their tools are woefully inadequate…
-
Low-Maintenance Water Features: Downsizing Ponds and Fountains
When you envision a water feature, it may evoke the gentle sound of a soothing waterfall, or perhaps your thoughts go to the splashing of a brook over rocks. Maybe a lovely pond with koi and water lilies will give you a sense of peace. What you don’t picture, though, is the hard work it…
-
Association of Professional Landscape Designers 2014 Design Awards
Every year, I look forward to reading about the Association of Professional Landscape Designers’ award-winning landscapes, because there is usually such a diverse array of winners. So I was honored to be asked by Susan Morrison, editor of APLD’s The Designer magazine, to write up descriptions of each of the award-winning landscapes for the fall…
-
Designing a Meditative or Yoga Garden
Guest post from Jan Johnsen, author of the new book Heaven is a Garden and my co-contributor over at Garden Design magazine. Yoga and gardens are a natural fit! Both are very personal endeavors – Yoga practice elevates our sense of wellbeing and makes us more aware of the present moment while gardens encourage us…
-
Edible Landscaping for Industrial Settings: Tips and Best Plants
Last week, I talked about some of the benefits and drawbacks of edible landscaping in “public” spheres such as commercial/ business landscaping or in a multifamily residence such as an apartment complex. This week, I want to talk more about how to actually succeed with this. Though there are a number of settings in which…
-
Edible Landscaping for Industrial Settings: Benefits and Drawbacks
Does edible landscaping belong in the public sphere, which is to say in the landscapes owned by cities, businesses, and in multifamily housing like apartment buildings? It sounds like a great idea, and if asked, I think most people would give an unqualified and enthusiastic “yes”! However, there are a lot of considerations with edible…
-
Low-Maintenance Planting Design: More Than Just Plant Selection
There are a lot of misunderstandings about low-maintenance planting design. A lot of people think that in order to have a low-maintenance landscape, you just need to choose low-maintenance plants. But the way you design your planting beds is as important as the plants you select – maybe even more so. Here are a few…
-
Providing Water for Wildlife: How Not to Screw It up
There’s little that irritates me more than going to the garden center and seeing an array of gorgeous, well-made bird baths that are all completely and utterly useless. It seems that the manufacturers of such things have never really researched or even given the most cursory amount of thought to what qualities a bird might…
-
Wildlife Garden Design Tip: Use Less Lawn!
When talking with another designer recently, she said something that stuck in my head: “Lawn? We call that “green concrete”. Sure, sometimes you need a bit of it here or there, but it brings so little to the table that we try to avoid it!” And it’s true! I love sunning myself and playing with…
-
Wildlife Garden Design Tip: Using Native Plants Effectively
For most of us, our first thought when designing a landscape is how to make an aesthetic difference. As landscape designers, we want to inspire people and give everyone who spends time in our landscape an opportunity to reflect, feel uplifted, and just enjoy the sheer beauty of the plants that share our world. This…