I thought I’d share an article I wrote for the September 2011 edition of Landscape & Hardscape Design Build magazine (yes, it’s a mouthful!) on designing play spaces for children. The article looks at the growing trend of using natural items found in the landscape as play equipment rather than the metal and wooden ‘play environments’ found in many [...]
Archive for the ‘Landscape Design’ Category
Designing Child-Friendly Natural Playspaces
Posted in Landscape Design, Sustainable Gardening, tagged designing child-friendly play areas, natural playgrounds for children on November 14, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Light Up Your Garden with American Smoketree
Posted in Gardening in Connecticut, Landscape Design, Natives, tagged American smoketree, Cotinus obovatus, native flowering tree for small garden on April 15, 2011 | 5 Comments »
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about native trees for small gardens. I’m working with a new landscape design client who has a fairly small back yard that she wants help redesigning. Like most homeowners, she wants her garden to be a quiet and private respite after a hectic day but she also [...]
Using Texture in Your Garden
Posted in Landscape Design, tagged texture in gardens, texture in landscape design, using texture in garden on March 14, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Too often, flowers are the primary consideration when choosing plants for a garden. But texture is even more important to the overall look and feel of a garden. Texture refers to the surface quality of a plant – the way we see it and feel it. When we talk about plant texture we’re referring to the [...]
Shrubs for Bird-Scaping
Posted in Gardening Inspiration, Landscape Design, Plant Possibilities, tagged American cranberry, Aronia arbutifolia, chokeberry, Cornus sericea, highbush blueberry, Lindera benzoin, redosier dogwood, shrubs for birdscaping, spicebush, vaccinium corymbosum on July 14, 2010 | 9 Comments »
This is the third post in a series about landscaping specifically to attract birds to your garden – bird-scaping. The first post, an overview of bird-scaping can be found here. The second post, about the importance of trees to a bird-friendly garden ,which includes several suggestions for trees that are especially attractive to birds can [...]
How To Perform a Site Analysis
Posted in Landscape Design, tagged how to perform a site analysis, landscape design concept plan, landscape design site analysis on February 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The first step when designing your landscape is to perform a site analysis. A site analysis is basically a plan or map of your property; drawn from the perspective of looking down from the sky (called a plan view). Think of a site analysis as an inventory of what already exists on your property. When you [...]
A Storybook Garden
Posted in Gardening Inspiration, Landscape Design, tagged Delphinium 'King Arthur', Gladiolus x hortulanus 'Arabian Night', Hemerocallis 'Alice in Wonderland', Lilium 'Black Beauty', Paeonia 'Princess Bride', Salvia greggii 'Wild Thing', storybook garden on February 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
When my boys were young, and I was just starting to grow my garden, I decided to plant a special spot just for them. One where they could dig in the dirt and help care for plants that had a special significance to them. So I planted an animal garden, a concept that is old-hat now but [...]
Planting to Save on Energy Costs
Posted in Gardening in Connecticut, Landscape Design, Zone 6 gardening, tagged how to plant a windbreak, planting a windbreak, saving money on energy costs, saving money with landscaping on December 7, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Properly selected and sited landscaping can save you money on heating costs by providing efficient wind protection, or windbreaks. And don’t forget, the benefits from a living windbreak will increase as the trees and shrubs mature. A windbreak works by lowering the wind chill near your home. Wind chill occurs when the wind speed lowers the outside air [...]
Enhancing Curb Appeal
Posted in Landscape Design on September 30, 2009 | 5 Comments »
I thought I’d share an article I wrote for a local real estate newsletter about enhancing curb appeal, both in the short-term and in the long-term. When preparing your home for sale and thinking about increasing ‘curb appeal’ don’t forget to consider your landscaping too. Exterior staging involves much more than simply fixing broken shutters or hiding [...]
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