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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Butterfly Gardens in Glenville, NY A year in recent history, our company was invited to design and install new butterfly gardens in Glenville, NY. The new gardens were comprised exclusively of NY native plants. The Swallowtail butterfly photo was taken by the homeowner, Mark. The following photo is from summer 2014. It was taken in
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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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Sustainable Landscaping/Gardening: 5 Principles. Part II. Read Part I Here. The 5 Principles of Sustainable Landscaping/Gardening are: 1. Stop using all chemicals. (see previous post) 2. Remove all invasive plants. The US Forest Service defines an invasive species as being: “Non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration; and, Whose introduction causes or is likely to cause
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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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Giant Ironweed (Vernonia gigantea) is a gorgeous New York state native species plant that’s listed as endangered and rare in NYS. It is notably difficult to find for sale, even at specialty native plant nurseries. NY Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis) is another native Ironweed species that’s easier to locate for purchase at nurseries. Both Giant Ironweed
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In the northeast, winter’s dreary cold can almost make us forget the glorious spectacle and fun of summer. A close connection to the land and growing things starts to feel like a distant memory, but many gardeners and nature lovers overcome this by engaging in winter seed sowing projects. There are several styles of winter
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Schenectady, NY Butterfly Garden in a nature preserve. A dream came true spring 2017 when we designed and managed the installation of a butterfly garden in a Schenectady, NY nature preserve. This week saw the much anticipated butterfly garden installation at the Woodlawn Nature Preserve in Schenectady, NY. The Friends of the Woodlawn Preserve contacted
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Sustainable landscaping for new construction. Certainly, we were delighted in 2014 when a longtime landscaping dream finally came to fruition for the first time. Because we were hired that year for our first of many new construction landscape design/build projects. At this time, the construction site was in beautiful southern Saratoga County. The homes are
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Please stop with Lyme tick nurseries. In the region of upstate New York where we live, Lyme disease- an infection of the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria that’s spread primarily by deer ticks- has become an epidemic. All the odd controversies aside, there are physical realities about this situation that are not being acknowledged. Primarily the reality
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This summer we had the privilege of doing ecological garden renovations at a farm in Saratoga. The farm is located in quintessential farm country, heading east on the way to Schuylerville, surrounded by miles on all sides of wild beauty. It’s a dream location for this exact kind of project: planting dozens of native plants
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Ballston Spa Nature Preserve Over the past month, we’ve had the honor of being a part of a lovely project. A couple in Ballston Spa, NY (just outside of Saratoga Springs) contacted us around Mother’s Day with an opportunity to build a nature preserve, with native plant gardens on a half an acre of their
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Scenes from the librarian’s wildlife garden There is a handful of people who were influential back when I was still in school and trying to configure my passion for habitat gardening into a career. One of them was the lovely head research librarian at the community college I then attended; her resourcefulness coupled with a
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Monarch butterfly habitat at the farm. A week in recent memory there was a disheartening NY Times article that illuminated this year’s decline in Monarch butterfly species population. Building Monarch butterfly habitat at the farm seemed like a nice idea. Our local organic farmer friend agreed to collaborate on building some Monarch butterfly habitat at
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Native Plant Garden Projects: This year brought many new native plant garden projects, and many return customers who wanted more projects where mature natural gardening projects exist already. Natural landscaping can be addicting like that, once a person experiences how easy and beautiful native plant garden landscaping is, and how many wonderful creatures show up overnight,
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A Native Plants Walk in Saratoga Springs, NY In Saratoga Springs, NY there’s a public access trail right in town where people can walk, run, take their dogs and view some native plants in the wild at the same time. Having access to nature trails in an urban area like this exponentially increases the
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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 Market in
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