When you dream of your ideal landscape, does it include edibles? Vegetables, herbs, fruiting trees and shrubs – there are many options when designing and edible landscape and it doesn’t have to be separate from the rest of your landscape! If this is music to your ears, you might be interested in a permaculture landscape design! This case study in …

Storms and rainfall accumulation have gotten more extreme in our region; in fact, this is the fourth wettest year on record (so far). The Northeast is now approaching temperate rainforest levels of annual precipitation. That means our landscapes need to be designed to manage an increased quantity and frequency of extreme stormwater events. Green Infrastructure is our pejorative toolbox for …

A Hillside garden can be one of the most challenging landscape designs to execute, especially if it is a steep slope, like this Holmes, NY backyard. Why? Steep slopes are more prone to erosion — washing away of precious topsoil — especially during storm events. Furthermore, if the soil structure is high in sand and gravel, stormwater can drain too …

A familiar, common reoccurring problem in pond and lake management is nutrient loading causing duckweed or algae blooms. The best solution or remedy for these problems usually lays in the overall land management practices. If fertilizer and pesticides are running directly into a water body we identify this as point source pollution, a primary cause of the duckweed or algae. …

Topography, flow paths and sheet flow, surface, subsurface, French drains, perimeter drains, berms, bioswales, perk and infiltration rates are all important physical considerations to developing any substantial landscape architecture or garden design plan. In consulting we often see the negative effects of lack of design planning and storm water engineering, like the ponding in the above photo. This occurred at …