Green Jay Landscape Design

Green Jay Landscape Design

(914) 560-6570

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Sometimes less is more! There is no substitute for living color in the landscape ! Life is short, we should enjoy, cherish and celebrate each precious moment.

Formulating a Design Composition

From the moment I am hired to consult for a new landscape project, I image I am the homeowner living, day to day, on the property I am evaluating. While we all have different interests and taste, we share a sense of wonder and happiness when we see a well ordered, flowering landscape composition. While we may see the same landscape through all four seasons, we tend to spend the most time really appreciating the visual and sensory aspect in the growing season. This is particularly true from late spring to early fall.
For entry gardens,  this give us the chance to kick up the curb appeal with color.

Curb Appeal with Impact

A simple backdrop of low growing evergreen shrubs layered with long blooming perennials, hydrangea, roses and ground covers does the trick nicely.
This is a welcoming vista that invites your guest and communicates a positive, energetic outlook towards life.
This is a landscape look and style that makes the most of the summers, hot, sunny days.

Learn more about our Ecological Landscape Design Services.

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Jay Archer

Landscape Ecologist, Designer & President

Green Jay Landscape Design

914-560-6570

Simple is Best

Even in the rain this simple backyard makeover give us much enjoyment and pleasure.

The appealing aspect indoors or out is one of verdant simplicity.  A small fenced in backyard with a decaying brick patio and sad lawn is transformed into a lovely garden room.

Goodbye Brick!

On this property, the dominant landscape feature was a raised brick terrace or patio. The common red brick gives a busy impression which makes the patio appear smaller than it actually is. The color is also…common and drab.


Resurfacing with full color bluestone in a seemingly random pattern, including large pieces, creates a dramatically more grand effect. This also increases resale value. Not every prospective buyer likes brick. Particularly if it looks old and worn, and in disrepair. Food for though when buying your new home, shopping for real estate or starting a landscape construction and home improvement project of your own.

Landscape Design for Small Spaces

Special features unique to this landscape design include: repurposing the existing brick for a bench landing/platform, natural stone garden pathways / walkways, and the resurfaced bluestone patio for entertaining. A gentle green planting of flowering vines and shrubs accents and softens the nice white pvc fencing.

You need never venture further than the interior living space to enjoy this one of a kind masterpiece. If you do, you will be rewarded with sweet fragrance from honeysuckle and clethra while the flowering sequence continues from azaleas in spring to hydrangea in summer to clematis etc. in fall. We even have berries for the birds in the hollies! Never boring…always soothing and peaceful.

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Jay Archer

Landscape Ecologist, Designer, President

Green Jay Landscape Design

914-560-6570

 

Take a Look at Your Front Yard

What does it do? Aside from the wild and magically natural beauty of the ecological composition, this front yard is a oasis for wildlife. Abundant with a diverse variety of beneficial life, from healthy soil microbes to birds, butterflies and insects, this little peace of paradise is happiness incarnate.

Productive & Beautiful Landscape Design

This kind of landscaping takes effort, resources and expertise in ecology. The overall effect is stunning! This weedy, do nothing lawn contributed very little to the culture and economy of the community. This nascent, vibrate, rich, living landscape contributes much as a model for the New Frontier in Ecological Landscaping.

Check out the full project details here!

Realizing a Site’s Potential.

Each landscape offers distinct opportunities and challenges.

Like snowflakes, not two client’s or properties are quite the same. Although similarities may present, there are always significant differences characteristic to the individual site and client. As a landscape design professional, horticulturist, naturalist and ecologist, I am interested in the  unusual or distinct aspects of a particular project potential we are involved in.

Formulating a Design Concept

In this case, to enhance the beautiful new deck addition, we  chose to create several theme gardens which are intertwined with each other, focused on health and healing through nature and serenity.
The free standing shadow box lattice panels we designed with a canted tilt act as a screen for the compost pile and utilities behind and a bright backdrop in the shady corner of the backyard. The natural stone, granite bubblers or pillars serve multiple functions. They give depth and strength to the design theme of the Earth’s basic elements of stone, water and wood, soil and plants, they also do a great job attracting birds, who enjoy bathing in the water. The electric service for the pump is concealed and controlled from a switch inside the house.

Designing with Water

The finishing details are essential to the visual artistic quality and feeling. These include carefully chosen sizes, textures, shapes and colored gravel, river rock and Mexican beach pebbles.
This was just the water feature space! Just as much thought and creativity went into the organization of the two semi-circular patio spaces, stepping stone walks, staircase and landing to deck, the subsurface rainwater harvesting and the passive irrigation systems.

Whether standing in the spacious interior space looking out the floor to ceiling windows or entertaining on the custom deck with California cable rail, your eye is drawn to this important quadrant of space.


In  addition to the wonderful ecological benefits which the predominately native plant landscaping provided in attracting a diverse variety of birds, butterflies etc., the composition is intended to produce a gestalt of peace and physical health by connecting the garden of nature with the newly renovated homes architectural success in inviting the outdoors in.

The time of our lives pass so quickly, each precious moment should be savored. This is truly a garden landscape for all seasons of life and nature.

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Jay Archer

President, Green Jay Landscape Design

914-560-6570

We often draw upon architectural elements when designing a landscape. In this case, we felt the beautiful new front entry and window work would be complimented and accentuated with a similar design element in the new front walkway.

Out With the Old

The existing walkway was made of brick.  We always prefer to use natural stone on a soft base, achieving a naturalistic look to compliment our natural landscaping perspective. We also generally prefer the grandness that large pieces of stone lend to a design composition.

Our master craftsman mason has an amazingly artistic way of placing stone together. We designed and installed a forked walkway that connects the driveway and the road to the front door. At the “fork” in the paths, we created a circular landing area, mirroring the circular design in the front window.

Follow our journey on one of our biggest landscape design and construction projects of 2019!  This project required two machines and three truck loads of top soil and two loads of boulders to achieve this three foot lift and leveling of the rear lawn.  An organic lawn installation and terraced garden for pollinators completes this ecological masterpiece.

 

For more details on the project, check out the accompanying blog post!

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Green Jay Landscape Design

Ecological Design & Construction

914-560-6570