Last week I was commissioned to design and install some new bird gardens for a Saratoga Springs, NY property using native plants. Podophyllum peltatum, Mayapple and Sambucus canadensis, Elderberry were added to the bed in the above photo to create an understory with edible fruits that birds love to eat seasonally. This property sits adjacent [...]
Something has always troubled me about the practice of mass cuttings of conifer trees for Christmas trees this time of year. In my adult life I have never once been able to stomach the tradition in my home, and this year a new inspiration hit. The herb, Rosemary, grown organically in container gardening or as [...]
This week a challenge was posed to imagine turning this sandy pine forest edge into a native plant habitat oasis. Many ecological factors need to be taken into consideration: the complete abscense of any nutrients in the sandy soil, the slope of the hill that lends to erosion, and lack of water retention in quickly [...]
This past May I collaborated with some local contractors on a large rain garden project in Lake George, NY. This week we returned to take some photos of the rain gardens progress. Shown above is the rain garden that we manipulated to behave as a wetland habitat; this piece of the property has standing water [...]
This past week found me planting a series of Rain Gardens in Lake George, composed entirely of native plants. Pictured here is the shade garden. Species include Wild Columbine, Heart Leafed Aster, Wild Ginger, Great Blue Lobelia, Cardinal Flower, Foamflower, Alumroot, Culver's Root and Trillium. These gardens are engineered to prevent erosion from storm runoff. [...]