Easy potato garden DIY: About 2 months ago we bought some attractive Fingerling Potatoes from the Saratoga Farmer’s Market. We forgot we had them. Subsequently they grew long, spindly eye buds and the potato bodies turned soft and flaccid. Finally, today we got around to picking the eyes off the potatoes to plant them. […]
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People’s reasons for organic gardening are varied. Some folks love animals and want to protect our wildlife by not using harmful chemicals. Others may have health problems they’re trying to ameliorate by living a chemical free lifestyle. Organic gardening may be seen as an outdoors extension of their clean life. Organic edible gardens gain
Reduce Tick Exposure Naturally: 8 Steps. There is nothing quite like time spent enjoying the outdoors. Exhilarating. But many of us in the northeast have one nagging fear about time in nature and that is, “how do we reduce our tick exposure? Preferably to zero?” After almost 2 decades of organic landscaping, this is something
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Hügelkultur Gardens Hügelkultur garden beds are a German restorative agriculture technique that any homeowner with some extra tree branches and a bit of space can construct. There are many benefits to using this permaculture style of land management. Sinking carbon that may otherwise be considered a waste product is one environmental win. Creating a rich,
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DIY Planting Native Plants. Every year our company receives more and more, and more requests for design plans for DIY planting native plants gardens. The excitement for the growing environmental movement is thrilling. We love all the energy and effort towards healing our ecosystem and eco-renewal! And we’d love to respond to all the new
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Early Blooming Natives. Most of the flowering native plants that grow in eastern US butterfly gardens and pollinator gardens trend towards late season blooming. The timing aligns locally perfectly with the Saratoga annual racetrack season. The horses race from July through September. And that’s exactly when area native gardens in sunny spaces are blowing up
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Albany Deer Gardens. Albany Deer Gardens. In the summer of 2017, we got a call to renovate the gardens surrounding a townhouse in Albany, NY. The townhouse was located within the Albany Pinebush ecosystem, right near the park. The gentleman of the house was known to his friends as, “Miami Joe.” He was the first
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Butterfly Garden DIY: How To Jesse taught a workshop at a regional garden expo. “Butterfly Garden DIY: How To” was the topic. Subsequently we’ve heard from folks who wanted to attend and couldn’t. This post will summarize the butterfly habitat gardening presentation. A wildlife biologist friend writes frequently about butterfly gardening and the lifecycles of
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Black Cohosh plant (Cimicifuga racemosa) Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa, aka Actaea racemosa) is one of the finest native woodland plants. It’s also beloved as a woman’s herb. It graces the shade garden and part sun gardens and woodlands around the US. Black Cohosh has many nicknames, i.e., Bugbane or Black Snakeroot. There is also
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Monarch Butterfly Garden. Monarch Butterfly Garden development is easy, fun and visually beautiful. It’s good for the local ecosystem and the larger environment. And it’s good for us as people. Recently the Monarch butterfly was officially registered as an endangered species. In the ecology world though, we’ve been watching the species carefully for a very
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A nature preserve in Schenectady needed a butterfly garden designed and supplied with native plants. The volunteers from Woodlawn contacted our company to design a butterfly garden for the preserve. The Woodlawn Nature Preserve is a part of the connected Pine Grove ecosystem, aka the Albany Pine Bush. The Friends of the Woodlawn Preserve group
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Shade Gardens in NY Recently we designed and built new shade gardens in Saratoga Springs, NY. There was a small, disorganized collection of existing shrubs and perennials in one established bed by the patio. This garden was adjacent to a woodland area that we rewilded into relaxed shade gardens. For that reason, many shade tolerant
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Woodland Gardens in Saratoga Springs, NY Before this summer we designed and installed new woodland gardens in Saratoga Springs, NY, in the neighborhood near Saratoga Lake. Shade gardens are one of the easiest places in the property to landscape sustainably, because of the rich and diverse body of available native plants that thrive in shade
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Woodland Garden Design Recently we were invited to design and build a new woodland garden in upstate NY. The picture above shows Yellow Trillium (Trillium luteum) and Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata.) One reason landscape design for shade gardens is enjoyable is the malleability of structure compared to full sunspaces. And the plants! Certainly, native woodland
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Urban Gardens A recent year we were contracted to do the design and install for the landscape renovation of an urban garden. The client’s urban location crystalized a wildlife corridor in Saratoga Springs, NY through the positioning of several dozen individual local properties with eco-savvy landscape design. This habitat renewal space is located in front
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New Construction Landscaping New construction landscaping is the best opportunity for habitat restoration. People need homes. The land is disturbed during construction. As soon as the construction phase is over, adding native species trees, shrubs, perennials and native grasses is the way to bring balance to the equation. A good ecological future is possible when
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Shade Garden in Clifton Park, NY In Clifton Park, NY a legacy shade garden shines. Homeowners and property managers are often puzzled by the shady parts of their property. They may want a garden but think non-native Hosta and Astilbe are the only options for a shaded space. Undeniably, the world’s forests, loaded with beautiful
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Container Vegetable Garden DIY: How To. Container vegetable garden DIY is easy and fun. Our team created an edible garden in containers. It is teeming with life force, vitality and fecundity. We planted everything in mid to late May. We’ve been disciplined about watering when there’s no rain. The highest quality organic soil available was
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