Rain Gardens in Niskayuna, NY In beautiful Niskayuna, NY near the Mohawk River, there are a lot of families who have called our company in recent years to create new rain gardens on their wetland adjacent properties. We love this work. Rain gardens are the future of stormwater management. Imagine a system that harnesses nature …
Rewilding is a wonderful and relaxed form of land management that anyone with plant literacy and land can practice. Essentially it boils down to removing any invasive plants and letting the natural seed bank express itself. Rewilding is not like formal garden development. A new garden bed is not created, and soil amending isn’t …
In Saratoga Springs, NY there is a network tapestry of beautiful native plant gardens. Our company has worked with hundreds of unique design/build projects over the past 15 years in the Albany, Saratoga Springs + Niskayuna/Altamont region. The Saratoga Racetrack Gardens are some of the most beautiful, functional and eco-productive that we have ever …
Native Landscaping on Saratoga Lake This June we completed new native landscaping on Saratoga Lake. The new garden build consisted of a home’s foundation landscape design near the shore of the lake. The house is located close to the lake. Therefore, it was built with a high foundation to prevent flooding issues. We used New …
Municipal Gardens Project. In July 2013 a local paper, The Post Star wrote an article about our municipal gardens native landscaping project. Doing an eco-landscape renovation at such a busy site was quite an experience. Such an open, public space was a refreshing change. Cars honked their horns all day long, people came out of …
You have your gorgeous native plant landscaping system all designed, built and on its way to mature establishment. What happens now? Garden art projects. Now the exciting times really begin! “Garden art” is a vast category of creations, with a likely-to-be endless scope. Many of the plants and weeds in your garden are possibly edible. …
Recently we published an article about the link between using Japanese Barberry shrubs in landscaping and an increase in human Lyme disease infection rates in the surrounding neighborhoods. People in Saratoga Springs, Albany and Schenectady, NY are learning about this. We humans are collaborating against ourselves in a public health crisis through lazy and shortsighted …
We’ve begun an exploration series discovering a deeper connection and enjoyment of organic garden systems. Our company has worked with hundreds of local families through the years to do rewilding work, integrating native plants into the tapestry of their land. Creating a functional and biodiverse microclimate right at home. Folks have begun investing in …
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 …
Naturalistic Planting. The internationally renowned landscape designer and plantsman Piet Oudolf has popularized a new design style known as naturalistic planting. And so, in the NYC Highline Garden and all the worldwide Botanical Gardens Mr. Oudolf has designed, you can see this theme of beautiful, organized chaos. Natural beauty is celebrated in all its wildness …
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 …
Native Species Awakening. Gardeners often have an unexpected learning curve when they begin to add native plants to their gardens. In springtime, when native species wildflowers wake up from winter dormancy it can seem underwhelming for a while. The immediate gratification of vegetable gardening and big box store plant shopping are obstacles to true real …
Native Plants: What Are They? What are native plants? How can you differentiate a native species versus an introduced species? What designates a plant as invasive? Can a native plant be invasive? We consider a plant native to a region if it existed there already before the explorers (like Henry Hudson and Christopher Columbus) …
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 …
Black Cohosh (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 a …
Native Fruit Trees in Saratoga Springs, NY Planting native trees is one of the best parts of this work. Shown in the photo is a line of Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) trees we planted this spring for a Wilton homeowner, perhaps a half mile from the Wilton Wildlife Preserve. The Red Chokeberry has a …
Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) is a beautiful and versatile plant that is native to North America. It is a tall, slender plant with spikes of deep blue flowers that bloom from June to September. The plant can grow up to 4-6 feet in height and has a wide range of uses in traditional medicine, horticulture, …
In spring 2017 we were delighted to be contacted for a dream project. The volunteers from a nature preserve in Schenectady, NY 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 Pine Grove is …
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. We planted many shade tolerant New …
Woodland Gardens in Saratoga Springs, NY [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] 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 …