When I first read Crow Planet by Lyanda Lynn Haupt I remember being absolutely transported to another place as I tried to picture a day in the life of a wildlife rehabilitator, like Ms. Haupt herself. When I learned that a new friend was also a wildlife rehabilitator, I knew I had to connect with [...]
Corporate Habitat Garden Project In Clifton Park, NY (southern Saratoga county) on Route 9, a savvy financial advisor has been watching trends in landscaping. Deborah Christopher, whose Edward Jones office is located in a strip mall on State Route 9, heard about prominent entomologist Douglas Tallamys research and ecological trend-setting for redefining curb appeal to [...]
This week saw the much anticipated butterfly garden installation at the Woodlawn Nature Preserve in Schenectady, NY. The Friends of the Woodlawn Preserve contacted me to design a butterfly garden that the volunteers could plant. The nature preserve is located at the edge of a Schenectady district elementary school, and the butterfly garden site is [...]
Bog Habitat Gardening Inspiration In one of my college ecology classes, I remember doing some field work in a bog habitat in the southern Adirondack region of New York state. Bogs: though similar to swamps or marshes, are a distinctive kind of wetland where peat forms from dead plant matter, the BBC nature website explains. [...]
Sky View of New Construction Gardens This year we had the honor of being asked to do the design and installation landscaping for a new home built by the construction company Halfmoon Construction. The new home will be net zero for meeting and exceeding the highest energy efficiency standards. Creating a habitat garden [...]
On August 9th there will be a Habitat Benefit Garden Tour in Saratoga Springs from 4pm-7pm. The tour is self guided, consisting of ecosystem friendly, sustainable gardens designed by Jessecology. Tickets are $10 and will support the Saratoga Code Blue Shelter. They are available at 2 locations: the help desk of the Healthy Living [...]
This summer, being the landscape designer for the gardens at the Saratoga Springs Healthy Living Market has been full of lots of colorful and joyful surprises. Developing Saratoga Spring's first urban shopping mall parking lot Monarch Butterfly Waystation was a delightful adventure to be a part of, and more lovely experiences continue to unfold as [...]
This week, to coincide with the first snowfall I had the delightful privilege of planting a butterfly garden with a homeschool group. The children in this homeschool group happen to be the progeny of my best friend from childhood, so this butterfly garden planting adventure was extra special for me. A few weeks before we [...]
Imagine my delight to see a Monarch caterpillar at the Saratoga Springs Healthy Living Market's certified Monarch Waystation during a visit this week! When I initially wrote about the Monarch waystation project, I mentioned I didn't expect to even see butterflies this year; I definitely didn't think we'd see Monarch breeding success in the waystation [...]
This spring I was delighted to be asked to be a part of one of the loveliest projects I could imagine. There's a health food store in Saratoga Springs, NY called Healthy Living, which occupies the former JC Penny retail location in the Wilton Mall. Healthy Living sells organic and artisan foods, much of it [...]
About this time last year I was contacted for one of the largest landscape design projects I've had the pleasure of working on to date. The formal wildflower garden project on Saratoga Lake is in its second year of development, and it's really starting to take shape into what it will look like. The homeowners [...]
At the Healthy Living Market in the Wilton Mall, just off exit 15 in Saratoga Springs, NY, I've been asked to plant a garden that's a mix of edible annuals (vegetables and flowers) and perennials, herbs and flowering native species. For Saratoga native plant lovers and natural gardening enthusiasts, this is a dream project. It's [...]
Momma's habitat garden Over the past several years, my mother (a pragmatic vegetable gardener for most of her life) has been learning about native plants and habitat garden development via Jessecology blogposts. Her initial curiousity bloomed into a real interest, and she's been asking me for some time to help renovate the south side of [...]
This time of year, people wear themselves and each other out with raking, leaf blowers and cutting every green, soft tissued stem they can find down to the ground. It really needs to stop. This incessant fixation on neatness and sterility is counter productive for our wildlife. Many species of birds overwinter in our cold [...]
Rain gardens and an apple orchard near Saratoga Springs, NY This week I was the landscape designer for a fun and useful beautification project near Saratoga Springs, NY that included a simple storm catch basin rain garden and a miniature apple orchard. The rain garden sits at the drainage spout for the neighborhood's storm water [...]
A wildlife corridor in Saratoga Springs, NY This week I completed a landscape renovation that was of special interest to me: an urban habitat garden that is part of an unofficially connected patchwork quilt shaped wildlife corridor in downtown Saratoga Springs, NY. Migrating birds and butterflies will find this region more and more appealing as [...]
This July I was delighted to be asked to take on a garden renovation and new design project for the town of Queensbury, NY at a municipal garden site. The gardens are located at the busiest corner in town, across from the Lowe's. The community knows this space affectionately as the, "$50,000 corner" due to [...]
Sometimes a strategy ecologically savvy landscape designers use to decide what to plant where on a property is to observe what plants are already growing and use them as ecological indicator species. The new butterfly garden in Malta, NY, installed over the past week was subject to this ecological landscape design technique. This Asclepias tuberosa [...]
Being an ecological garden designer in Saratoga County involves a constant reawakening it seems. Every day the world seems new. The habitat here is so rich, so vibrant that most days I feel like Alice in Wonderland. Everywhere you turn in Clifton Park, Burnt Hills, Ballston Spa, Saratoga Springs and all other regions encompassed by [...]
Recently I wrote about building a nature preserve garden in Ballston Spa, NY. The project occupies a space of approximately a half an acre in Saratoga County, and it's difficult to capture the beauty and all the different perspectives of such a space. So. Here are a handful of photographs that were not included the [...]