Green Jay Landscape Design

Green Jay Landscape Design

(914) 560-6570

greenjayadmin

Rounding out spot number two in our countdown of the Best Landscape Designs of 2021 is this stunning woodland, lakeside estate in Cold Spring, NY. GJL was tasked with designing a Landscape Master Plan to accommodate several buildings on site: main house, guest house and boat house. Phase one was to construct new natural stone masonry staircases and two new patios by the boathouse.

Completed new natural stone walkways, staircase, boulder-terrace and planting! (Just need mulch!)

Catch up on the details on our previous blog: Defining Spaces Through Circulation, Custom Natural Stone Masonry and Native Gardens.

Master mason Aztlan chisels at the natural stone to create the perfect fit. Aztlan’s artistry is bar none!

Front Entrance Natural Stone Masonry Install [VIDEO]

Watch the construction on the front entrance natural stone walkways and see the new landscape come to life in sixty seconds! Garden path stone and natural stone steppers sourced from Prospero Nursery.

Closer look at this epic, oversized natural stone staircase. Creeping junipers and boulder accents complete the aesthetic.
A 3D rendering of the project completed by GJL’s Nature Design Team.
Low-maintenance palette of flowering shrubs, evergreen shrubs, ornamental grasses and evergreen ground cover.
This staircase connects the front door to the lower lawn and integrates seamlessly with the woodland aesthetic.
Secondary natural stone walkway connects the garage with the front door. Because of the heavy shade in this area, we opte for gravel and river rock accents. We love the combination of stone textures!
The Landscape Design Master Plan for this project. Not shown: boat house and accompanying staircase, walkways & patios.
Boat house natural stone staircase connects the boathouse to lake access.
New patio landing and steps around the boathouse match the existing stone veneer facade. Previously it was crumbling just railroad ties and pavers.

Catch up on our other favorite projects of 2021!

#3 Contemporary Pool Landscaping & Front Entrance | Darien, CT

#4 Terraced, Erosion Proof Woodland Landscape | Lake Peekskill, NY

#5 New American Parterre Garden | South Salem, NY

#6 Edible Front Yard Permaculture Garden | Darien, CT

#7 Bright & Easy Low-Maintenance Landscape | Hartsdale, NY

Contact us to schedule your ecological landscape design consultation! 914-560-6570

This beautiful Darien, Connecticut home was in desperate need of a more colorful landscape and had enormous potential to become an ecologically productive habitat. The existing features were strong — a beautiful modern pool and a backyard meadow, yet the pool lacked cohesive landscaping and the meadow struggled with minimal biodiversity from mismanagement. The front entrance was dark and lacking color. Green Jay Landscape Design was hired to produce a Landscape Design Master Plan, install and construct the design, and renovate the meadow. Read more about the project and see additional photos on our previous blog — Modern Meets Natural: Contemporary Landscape Design.

This is part of our countdown series of the Best Landscape Design & Build Projects of 2021. Catch up on the other projects in the round up:

#4 Terraced, Erosion Proof Woodland Landscape | Lake Peekskill, NY

#5 New American Parterre Garden | South Salem, NY

#6 Edible Front Yard Permaculture Garden | Darien, CT

#7 Bright & Easy Low-Maintenance Landscape | Hartsdale, NY

 

Landscape Design Master Plan for this estate in Darien, CT.

Sustainable Front Entrance Landscape Renovation

New front entry emphasized texture contrast, pollinator-attraction, and ease of maintenance.
We also needed the new foundation plantings to compliment the existing green roof planting.
This central garden bed was existing, but originally contained river birches. We transplanted them to open up the viewpoints to the house and used the bed to plant more colorful perennials and ornamental grasses.
Light and airy perennial bed with gravel pathway through it.
Boulders add structure, especially in winter.
Asclepias seed pods are attractive in their own right!
Clean lines and contemporary textures or this modern new front entrance.

Custom Natural Stone Masonry

Gravel walkway with cor-ten steel edging is clean and modern.
Natural stone staircase with creeping ground cover for a naturalistic landscape.
Side yard landscaping featuring new stone staircase.
Natural stone staircase connects front entrance pathways to rear yard.

Contemporary Pool Landscaping

Goals for the poolscape included making it a summer showstopper with colorful perennials, textured grasses, and long-blooming hydrangea. Once again, the new pool landscape needed to be cohesive with the existing green roof. Ornamental grasses are one of our favorite ways to landscape a pool because they look fabulous for months on end, provide unmatched texture and movement, and benefit birds and pollinators. The result is contemporary pool landscaping that compliments the modern architecture of the home and looks good all summer long.

Contemporary, clean lines for this new pool landscaping.
We continued using the same ornamental grasses as in the front yard for a cohesive landscape theme.
New landscape beds frame the pool and entertaining area.
Natural stone contrasts with ornamental grasses and evergreen screening trees.

Organic Meadow Renovation

The backyard meadow was existing, but had been mowed at the wrong time and therefore many species were inhibited from going to seed and reproducing. GJL disturbed and reseeded the meadow to add more biodiversity, color and multi-season interest. Read more about the organic meadow renovation on our previous blog: Native Wildflower Meadow Maintenance.

Goldenrod is a late summer stunner in the meadow! And a huge attractor of bees and pollinators.
The meadow in fall — goldenrod takes on a wonderfully fluffy texture!
Mowed path through the meadow allows our clients to enjoy an immersive experience of the landscape.

Contact us about your landscape design project!

—

Green Jay Landscape Design

Where Design Meets Ecology

Coming in at number four is a project very near and dear to our hearts, because of just how much time, sweat and manpower went into making it a reality. We won’t lie, this project was complicated to execute! A steep slope along Lake Peekskill, NY with one entry point made for a by-hand only installation.  Extensive erosion control devices were critical to the success of the new natural stone garden terraces. Together, they allowed us to greatly expand the planting area. The new biomass of the planting has a ripple effect, ecologically speaking. The landscape is now a more layered and biodiverse habitat for pollinators, and as a whole the landscape can absorb more stormwater, thereby reducing erosion and conserving soil.

We blogged about the details of the project a while back, catch up here — Landscape Design in a Wetland Zone: Erosion Control & Bioengineering

Catch up on the rest of the compilation of our Best Landscape Design & Build Projects of 2021:

#7 Bright & Easy Low-Maintenance Landscape Hartsdale, NY

#6 Edible Front Yard Permaculture Garden  Darien, CT

#5 New American Parterre Garden South Salem, NY

—

Green Jay Landscape Design

Where Design Meets Ecology

Schedule a consultation

We love the challenge to take on a traditional garden style but execute it in a way that rings true to Green Jay: by improving the landscapes ecological functionality, from biodiversity to ecosystem services. In this case in South Salem, New York, our clients love the traditional French and Italian parterre gardens. A parterre garden refers to a series of contained gardens on a level surface, with gravel pathways in between. There are often evergreen hedges surrounding each garden bed, and the series of beds make up a pattern that is best viewed from above. Symmetry, patterns, and order are hallmarks of the parterre garden theory. We decided to keep the basic framework – four rectilinear garden beds with pathways in between – but had a bit of fun bending the planting rules.

Site Preparation & Development

The framework for the gardens were four beds cor-ten steel borders,this effectively replaces the boxwood hedge of traditional parterre gardens by keeping each rectilinear bed neat and defined. GJL crews prepared the beds with our custom blend of soil and amendments based on the planting palette for each bed – some required more bacteria-dominant soil and some required more fungal-dominant. Each bed was equipped with organic compost and biochar to help stimulate and cultivate essential soil microbial communities.

Picking Parterre Garden Plants: Formally Wild

The guiding philosophy for this design was to provide some mystery and evolution to a garden template that is typically very planned and predictable. Thus, we did not design four identical and symmetrical garden beds. Rather, we gave each bed the same “bones” – same dimensions, and all equipped with a pyramid trellis – but the planting composition and layouts are different across all four. We blended our favorite long-blooming, well-behaved, native perennials with some classic heirloom European perennials and flowering vines (all of which are still heavily visited by pollinators).

The idea was to elevate this garden art into something that invites the viewer’s continued interest and welcomes them to stroll around the gardens and examine them closer, rather than just from above. “Wild in a box,” we affectionately called the project. While nothing in the garden beds was symmetrical, there was a degree of repetition within the plant palette to create thematic resonance.  As Jay says, this living expression of art should convey our Je ne sais quoi and J’oie de vivre! That is, the indescribable exuberance for ever-changing life, all around us; experiencing the garden as it evolves alongside us, throughout the seasons of our lives.

Terrace Design: Connecting the Property

Of course, this concept works so well because of the existing grade changes that provide such optimal viewing platform from the terraces above. The existing retaining walls created a perfect frame for more formal, yet ecological plantings. We chose a mix of hydrangeas with mostly native perennials and ground covers to harmonize with the parterre below, still making it the focal point.

It was a pleasure working with clients that have so much enthusiasm for the natural world. We love being challenged to pursue our mission in a new style, and we love how this New American Parterre Garden turned out!

Contact us about your own ecological landscape design project.  Schedule an on-site consultation for a free 15-minute discovery call!

—

Green Jay Landscape Design

Where Design Meets Ecology

Not everyone requests a permaculture garden for their front yard landscape…but when they do, we know we are destined to work together! This all-star client is passionate about living off the land – she already had several chickens! – and wanted to maximize the productivity of her residential yard.

We created a design of “stacked functions,” a permaculture concept that basically means everything in the design serves a purpose, if not multiple.  For example, the native shrubs chosen provide nectar for pollinators, edible berries for humans and birds, and simultaneously help absorb and clean stormwater.

We began the site development and initial planning of this project back in the fall of 2020.  Catch up on the beginnings of the project on our previous blog post. A major design component was the new fence to enclose the client’s chickens in the front yard.  We partnered with Salem Fence, whom we can’t recommend enough. We’ve collaborated with Salem Fence on many projects, and they always deliver timely, quality work that keeps our installation crews on schedule.

After delineating the new planting beds, removing the turf grass and amending the soil, the initial phase of the permaculture garden was planted in the fall. Herbs, some perennials, and the fruiting trees and shrubs were not available from nurseries in the fall and were thus postponed until spring.

This landscape is a wonderful example of mixing edible plants in with ornamentals, rather than designated each to their specific garden spaces. The mixed planting works here because of the enclosure from the fence, which keeps wildlife out of the squash, for example, and lets the client observe and enjoy everything from within the garden.

Adirondack chairs surrounding the front yard fire pit invite you to sit and take in the vibrancy of the garden, instead of relegating the front yard as untouchable curb appeal.

Custom masonry tied the new landscape together, connecting the new front gate with natural stone steps and a walkway to the front door.

A simple, circular cut stone base lined with small rocks makes for a naturalistic platform for the front yard fire pit. Decorative river rock along the staircase border helps retain the slope during storm events.

This landscape will only continue to develop and blossom as the new plants become established in the front yard ecosystem. Stay tuned for more photos!

Contact us about your landscape design or permaculture project! Schedule a professional consultation or a free 15-minute discovery call.

—

Green Jay Landscape Design

Where Design Meets Ecology

Sometimes the most impactful designs are simple in nature. With proper planning, timing and execution this project stayed uncomplicated, yet delivered beautiful results – just in time to enjoy in the spring warmth!

The key was to begin the process in early winter, when Green Jay’s Design Team had ample time to analyze the site and complete the residential design. The scope of work was a full property Landscape Design Master Plan, featuring bermed border plantings, improved foundation plantings, a reconstructed terrace bed in the front yard, and much-needed masonry. It all came together in a cohesive, low-maintenance landscape design.

Master Plan for landscape renovation in Hartsdale, NY.

Timeline for Landscape Design & Build

With the project designed, presented, and sold by mid-winter, we were able to begin site development in late winter.  The site work included removing unwanted vegetation, including some turf grass, and creating the berm. The berm snakes around the border of the property and was tasked with providing screening from the neighbors and ecologically beneficial habitat for local wildlife. In late winter we were able to bring in the additional soil, amend it organically, and grade the berm to the desired height.

Front yard landscape design with boulder terraces featuring flowering shrubs and perennials for pollinators.

Another aspect of the winter site work was completing the masonry. Our master mason Aztlan repointed the existing front steps to refresh the front entrance.  We also installed a garden path to connect the front yard to the backyard and rear door.  As always, we used natural stone and a dry-laid technique that avoids cement and concrete. We added an organic border of decorative gravel to contrast and accentuate the rectilinear bluestone path.

New natural stone masonry featuring bluestone and decorative gravel.

Additionally, the rear door had awkwardly high steps that created a trip hazard.  We added a new natural stone landing to make the entrance more functional and match the aesthetic of the new garden path.

Side yard landscaping featuring hydrangea and native perennials.

In the front yard, there was an existing (crumbling) retaining wall planting bed. We expanded the bed by adding a second terrace constructed from boulders. Sloped properties are great for planting as the natural height variation gives the planting vertical visual structure. This existing feature, however decrepit, was an asset to the property!

Terraced planting beds were expanded from one terrace to two for a front yard landscape feature.

By early spring, GJL crews were ready to begin planting. The plant palette for this Hartsdale property was designed to be low-maintenance, yet ecologically impactful. We chose a selection of flowering shrubs that attract pollinators with their blooms and birds with their berries and nesting materials. Evergreen Arborvitae combined with native Amelanchier provided height and screening in the back berm. We transplanted and repurposed some existing evergreens and Hosta to the berm and underplanted with native ferns and shade-loving perennials.

Boulder retaining wall terrace for low-maintenance landscaping with ecological benefit.

The front yard includes more sun-loving, flowering shrubs and easy, long-blooming and low-maintenance perennials.

Looking for a low-maintenance, ecological landscape design for your property? Schedule a winter consultation today and enjoy your new oasis by Spring!

—

Green Jay Landscape Design

Where Design Meets Ecology