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Throwback to this extremely fun front entry garden! We completely removed the front lawn and replaced it with a permaculture pollinator garden, planted biodynamically with the waning moon. There was also a significant amount of custom, natural stone masonry. We created a new flagstone front walk, a secondary gravel garden path, and a dual stone staircase to reach the lower side lawn.

In the words of the client:

“I cannot speak highly enough about Jay. Professional, passionate, and deeply committed to environmentally beneficial design. He cares just as much about sustainability as aesthetics, and he did a good job of balancing our vision with his own. His crew clearly respects him as well, which is always a good sign. Already planning to work with him again in the future!”

Check out the video series below of the design & construction of this lovely Putnam Valley property!

There was no shortage of weeds at this property. The front yard was dominated by them! Sloping down to the road in the front of the house, the site was extremely visible and required a complete renovation and new design for modern curb appeal.

The first challenge was to remove the invasives while leaving in-tact the existing heirloom perennials. GJL’s design incorporated the heirlooms and added an array of drought resistant, rugged native plants, particularly adapted to poor soil conditions and low fertility.

The resulting plant palette is a combination of grasses, perennials and flowering shrubs – all designed for permaculture stacked functions, the ability to support beneficial life and to provide season-long interest and color. A true example of natural landscaping that creates habitat and supports biodiversity.

As always stone placement was critical. We worked with the existing retaining wall, first by exposing it and then by adding natural stone for landscape effect and to stabilize the slope.

Once the planting was completed and mulched, we found that water infiltrated throughout the porous subsoil at a rapid rate. This is good for stabilization of the slope and the initial phase of planting but proved challenging in providing critical moisture to the plants during the establishment period.

The scope of the work also involved a zen-inspired streamside garden with a Japanese style wooden bridge, and a forest walk leading to a lemon squeezer stone staircase.

In the back yard, twenty years of accumulated leaf litter actually produced an excess of leaf mold in an area of poor air circulation, which is not ideal for human respiratory health. We selectively removed second story trees and pruned the existing canopy and upper story, including removal of several invasive Norway Maples, to improve air circulation and air quality in the immediate vicinity of the house.

Before settling into winter, there are a number of landscape checklist items. At GJL, we shred leaves, add them to garden beds, apply anti-dessicant to evergreens, and winterize irrigation systems…none of these tasks are nearly as fun as planting spring flowering bulbs! And now is your window of opportunity!

Bulbs are a fantastic addition to any landscape for a number of reasons:

They emerge beginning in late winter (depending on the species) and produce a joyful explosion of color in a mostly barren February landscape.

They plant diversity, color varieties and bloom sequencing within spring flowering bulbs is extraordinary and creates endless design possibilities.

They are perennial, when planted and maintained properly.

They come in unique shapes and heights and compliment your spring perennials delightfully.

Some species, daffodils and hyacinths for example, are deer, rabbit and rodent resistant. These bulbs are especially great options for rural or woodland settings where deer pressure is high.

Daffodils and hyacinths are actually poisonous to many animals, for they contain the alkaloid lycorine in the outer layer of the bulb. Keep your pets away from your daffodil beds!

The time to plant spring flowering bulbs is now! They require a long period of cold temperatures (winter) to activate biochemical processes that allow them to grow and bloom. Check out our previous posts on designing with bulbs, and tips on how to plant and what not to do.

This project was truly a highlight of the 2019 season. After buying their dream home – a gorgeous Tudor in Rye, NY – this client wanted a total renovation of the backyard to reflect the interests of their large family and their appreciation for nature, gardening and food production. The design had to be playful, wild, and elegant – appealing to a range of ages and social settings.

This project, dubbed ‘The New Garden of Egalitarian Gentility’ is part of our 2019 Green Jay Landscape Design Design Highlights series (#2!). Check back for a discussion of the rest of our favorite projects of 2019! Read about projects 3, 4 and 5.

[Above: BEFORE photo]

The existing landscaping was dominated by a mature evergreen tree and shrub border. GJL took advantage of the good bones of the property – mature trees have tremendous ecological and ornamental value! – and designed a meandering woodland walking path around the North and East perimeter of the property, culminating on either end in a secluded forest-like seating area, underplanted with a mix of native and exotic woodland perennial species. The path was designed for both children (the client even added their own fairy houses!) and adults; suitable for a playful dash or a reflective stroll.

At the center of the Eastern border, directly across from the patio area, we created a “Avian Bird Haven” berm garden. Elevating that section to a berm provided another element of seclusion and intimacy from the woodland path, and from the yard created a strong focal point. We planted it with sun/shade perennials, selecting as always for species that provide the most ecological value for pollinators and birds. We firmly believe that nature is the best teacher and creating natural landscapes provides endless teaching opportunities for our children.

This home had a fabulous pool, patio and outdoor kitchen area. The landscaping around it was quite predictable. GJL expanded beds along the outer wall, planting with a tapestry of summer-dominant perennials (Agastache, daisy, coneflower, lavender, blackeyed susan, to name a few) that counterbalance the adjacent Avian berm.

The interior poolscape also received a new bed, dividing the kitchen area from the pool, with a new walkway to a sodded poolside area. The planting bed became a living fence of textured dwarf ornamental grasses and perennials for a modern, California poolscape feel.

All planting areas were amended with organic compost, biochar, and biostimulants and the lawn was aerated and treated with our organic Magic Wand program.

Another favorite element of this Playscape was the trampoline. A toy perhaps equally entertaining and unsightly… we designed a solution by installing it in-ground and planting native shrubs – clethra, viburnum, aronia and dogwood – around it to effectively blend into the landscape and the surrounding woodland garden.

On either side of the trampoline are Rain Gardens, planted with facultative plants that can withstand flooding and drought, making them incredibly valuable during storm events for they can absorb sheet flow and allow it to percolate into the aquifer. Rain gardens are beautiful and effective storm water management solutions; we create one on nearly every property we design!

Circulation and seating areas are incredibly important in a design. They allow the landscape to be accessed, views to be framed, and time to be spent in curated areas of the environment. For this property, we installed a Colonial Garden Path walkway from the front to rear yard, connecting to the pool and lawn area. We also installed large siting boulders under the mature Oaks at the center of the yard – the perfect 360 viewing area of the surrounding perennial gardens.

This was truly a special project for all involved. In the words of the client:

“Thank you, Jay because you brought a real passion to this project, to enable me and my family to live my dream in this house and this garden and to be surrounded by nature.” – Dan, Rye, NY

Catch our full video interview with the client in our previous blog post!

We love clients like Dan — those who care enough to know about mycorrhizal networks, microbiomes, and species fragmentation. From day one during the consultation, just by his vocabulary, we we knew Dan would be a super star client that deserved an ecological landscape masterpiece. This was one of our largest and most special transformations of the 2019 season! Dan and Jay reflect on making ecological design choices and why Dan chose to go ecological in his new landscape renovation.

Check out our other A Voice for Nature interviews.

It’s officially Fall, and in the traditional landscaping world, that means prime time for lawn renovations. Most grass species used in American lawns – Kentucky Blue Grass, Perennial Rye Grass, Fine Fescues and Tall Fescues – are cool season grasses. Cool season grasses grow and look best in the temperature range of 60 – 75 degrees F. During our hot and humid northeast summers, when temperatures get into the 80s and 90s, lawns usually suffer. This is when you see brown, burnt lawns or lawns dominated by weeds. Excessive heat, drought, compaction and improper fertilization practices stress cool season grasses in summer, reducing their growth rate and allowing opportunistic weeds to take over. August and much of September are simply too hot and dry to renovate your lawn if it has begun to suffer – the grass won’t grow! Aeration, top-dressing and re-seeding must wait for cooler fall temperatures.

Year after year we see the same seasonal patterns and pour more money and resources into reviving heat-stressed, cool-season lawns. Is it really worth it? Sure, lawn can serve a purpose for play, pets and gathering, but it has become far too ubiquitous in our landscapes. One of GJL’s main tenants in ecological landscaping is to reduce your lawn area! When we stop obsessing over a flawless carpet of green, and really examine how much water (the most irrigated crop in the US!), chemicals (2.4 million metric tons of fertilizer!) and gasoline (600 million gallons for mowing/trimming alone!)go into maintaining our “perfect” American lawns, we can poke holes in convention and design something better.

Many of our clients come to us to do just that. They are tired of the endless cycle of lawn maintenance and want to contribute more positively to their environment. We’ve ripped out entire front lawns for pollinator-supporting perennial gardens. The final design varies, necessarily, based on site conditions and character, but we always hear the same feedback. Our clients are thrilled to have ditched their one-dimensional, static lawn for something that evolves throughout the year, that brings color to their landscape, and creates a dynamic habitat for bees, butterflies, birds and more – and a great outdoor classroom for children.

These kinds of landscapes are incredibly productive. We choose our plant palette with the permaculture term “stacked functions” in mind – how many benefits can we derive from one plant or plant community? What will sequester the most carbon, provide nectar, pollen or berries, and supply shelter to the multitude of organisms we share our slice of the planet with? The planting possibilities are endless, but our native trees, shrubs, perennials and vines all contribute more than imported Eurasian turf grasses.

Maybe you’ve been struggling to get one area of your property to grow lawn that never seems to work. We’ve designed many woodland rain gardens in areas such as these, where grass always seemed bare, damp and scraggly. We take advantage of the hydrology and use it as an opportunity to collect, treat and let percolate storm water that would otherwise become runoff.

So, this fall, instead of scheduling your standard lawn renovation services, consider your landscape. Is it highly functional, productive, beautiful and evolving? Does it better the environment or negatively impact it? Take a step in the right direction and consider reducing your lawn area with an ecological landscape design this fall.

Call us to discuss your ecological landscape design project: 914-560-6570.

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Kathryn Saphire

VP of Landscape Development & Marketing

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