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This pond was thick with debris from the surrounding woodland and had lost its original luster as a swimming pond in the 1940s! GJL suction-harvested the debris, with help from Cooper Ponds. Some of the organic matter and stone found on-site were used to create a planting bed adjacent to the pond, easing the transition from land the water. Stepping stones through a native bog garden creates access to the newly swimmable pond, and the aquatic plants will also continue to filter and purify the water over time.

Take a video tour of our first install of 2019! After a grand back deck addition, this client needed a landscape that could match her home’s party-hosting potential. After an ititial inventory of the necessary site development — large tree pruning, dry wells burried too deep — we created a digital master plan for the back yard. The front yard was designed by Jay over ten years ago, and has been organic ever since! Join us on a tour through both!

Our design created a series of intimate seating areas for various social activites. Right off the house is the Health & Healing Herb Garden, surrounding a circular patio with flowering vines, fragrant herbs, perennials and ground cover. New Garden Path Stone connects the front yard to the backyard, and the house/deck to the new garden rooms.

The Cornucopia of Hope is the most social of the gardens, offering a focal point of 3 basalt bubblers. The wooden screens will be planted with climbing honeysuckle vines, creating a backdrop to enhance the charming sound of bubbling water on river rock. The next phase of this garden will be resurfacing the gravel with Garden Path Stone and installing a fire pit and stone benches!

On the far side of the backyard, the client’s lovely giant watering can sculpture was installed on a stone base with gravel surround. Gravel within the sculpture prevents it from being blown over in storm events. All in all this charming and unexpected addition balaces out the Cornucopia of Hope garden, and creates another intimate area for reflection and contemplation.

The next phase of the project, once construction is completely finished, is to plant a Switchgrass and Amsonia hedge along the deck. Theses beautiful native grasses and perennials will provide beautiful movement and color while dually screening the area beneath the deck.

To get started on your own ecological landscape design project, give us a call! 914-560-6570!

What’s the best way to wake up your landscape after winter and gear it up for spring and summer? Not all Spring Clean Up programs are alike, but we put together some general guidelines for maximizing ecosystem services and getting your yard back to its vibrant, thriving self.

1. DITCH THE GAS-POWERED LEAF BLOWER

Gas-powered leaf blowers hit the trifecta of environmentally polluting, determinantal to human health (raising blood pressure, leading to respiratory problems and hearing damage) and a grand-ol’ annoyance to everyone in earshot. They are also extreme and ineffective in the landscape, blowing away precious top soil and disrupting soil microbiology. Instead, rake by hand or use an electric blower. Rake the lawn very lightly if at all in early spring, as lawn root systems are extremely fragile during this time of the year.

2. CUT DOWN PERENNIALS, GRASSES IN THE SPRING & SAVE HOLLOW STEMMED PERENNIALS

Traditional maintenance programs would have you cutting down perennials in the fall, as soon as blooms are spent. We now know that past-blooming perennials provide habitat for many important over-wintering insects, who create galls in stems or spend the winter in debris / leaf litter. Leave perennials up through fall and winter – you’d be surprised how architectural and beautiful perennials and grasses can look – and clean up your garden in the spring instead. Create a pile of hollow stemmed perennials and any you see with galls, and move it to an out-of-sight part of your property so the insects can finish their over-wintering cycle and populate your backyard ecosystem.

3. RESEED YOUR LAWN

Early spring, before trees leaf out, is a critical time for jumpstarting your organic lawn, as the sun is unobstructed. Take a soil chemistry test (we use Rutgers Soil Labs) if you haven’t done so already in the past two years, and amend your soil accordingly. Depending on the site and existing conditions, we amend with organic compost with biochar, worm casings, lime or sulfur (to raise or lower pH, respectively), and gypsum (for compaction alleviation). Core aeration and scarification before seeding will further improve soil structure and seed germination. Cover with hay and/or seed accelerant, and make sure to keep your seed moist until germination!

4. FEED YOUR TREES & SHRUBS, ORGANICALLY!

Jumpstart your tree and shrub growth and strengthen your plants immune system with a regular, scheduled, organic plant health care program. The type of fertilizer you use will depend on the soil conditions preferred by the plant and your existing conditions (bed rock material).

5. PREVENT ALGAL GROWTH IN YOUR POND

For our pond clients, spring service is essential. We clear debris from each pond and treat with organic products to prevent algal growth. Check your UV sterilizer bulb, filters and pump, and re-start the system once you are past the frost-free date.

6. EDGE BEDS AT 45 DEGREE ANGLE

Edge your beds at a 45-degree angle to create a fresh and pleasing border that functionally holds in mulch during storm water events. 90-degree edged beds will cause erosion.

7. WINTER AND/OR DEER BROWSE PRUNING

Invigorate new growth in your trees and shrubs with focused pruning on areas affected by winter burn and deer browsing. Pruning is best done in early spring, when plants have plenty of time and energy to recover. Avoid pruning anything while it is in flower as this will be more detrimental than beneficial.

8. MULCH BEDS

Triple ground, natural bark or root mulch is best for you beds. Mulch helps retain moisture in beds, and helps limit weeds and erosion. Avoid Sweet Peat and Sweat Peat imitators, as they are excessively high in manure content, which will make your beds too rich. Likewise avoid compost mulches. If enriching the soil with organic matter is desired, Coast of Maine enriching mulch is beneficial. Rain gardens, which feature scalloped depressions and regularly conduct storm water and flow paths, should not be mulched, as the mulch is likely to wash away and is unnecessary for ecosystem service function.

For more information on our ecological landscaping services, give us a call! (914)-560-6570

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Jay Archer

Landscape Ecologist, President

Green Jay Landscape Design

There has been incredible support lately for Pollinator Pathways (see our previous post on the efforts in Westchester and Fairfield counties). Simultaneously, the ecological landscaping and native plant movements have taken off in laudable efforts to improve our landscapes aesthetically and ecologically. What is often not discussed, however, is the pinnacle importance of organics.

Selecting native plants for a Pollinator Pathway gardens is a huge step in the right direction, but without an organic maintenance program, the garden is virtually useless. For our beloved pollinators, traditional chemical gardening is like a Grimm fairy tale: Hansel and Gretel invited into candy paradise, only to realize nothing is edible.

Powerful Reach of Pesticides, Herbicides & Fungicides

The effects of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides on delicate pollinators, from bees to butterflies to humming birds to ants and syrphid flies, have been well documented. A 2014 Study by the Harvard School of Public Health confirmed the findings of a 2012 study that linked two common neonicotinoids contributes to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in honeybees and native bees. CCD is phenomenon of bees losing their ability to return to their hive, eventually leading to their death. Major neonicintoids including imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and dinotefuran are now restricted to those with pesticide application licensees – make sure your landscaper isn’t using them!

Glyphosate is currently the most widely used active-ingredient in herbicides globally (you know it from brands like RoundUp, RangerPro, Monerey Remuda and more). Glyphosate targets an enzyme in weeds to kill them, but scientists recently found that bees contain the same enzyme in their gut. When bees are exposed to glyphosate, it weakens their immune system, making them more susceptible to death by pathogens.

Glyphosate has also contributed to Monarch decline–populations fell 90 percent in the last twenty years–through its over use in agricultural applications. Farmers spray RoundUp to kill weeds around their crops, and as a result, vegetative areas where Milkweed (the only Monarch caterpillar host plant) and other essential native plants are lost, consequently depleting our local Monarch and other beneficial insect populations.

Chlorothalonil, the most commonly used fungicide to control fungus on trees and other vegetation, was strongly linked by Cornell University to the development of the fatal nosema parasite in bees. The fungicide is thought to kill bees beneficial gut bacteria, making them more susceptible to the parasite.

Chemical Tick & Mosquito Control is a Myth

Permethrin is often sprayed for tick and mosquito control. Recent studies looking at the combined toxicity of fungicides and permethrin have found they increase mortality in bees and reduce their ability to regulate body temperature. Permethrin combined with neonicintoids is also found to increase bees vulnerability to nosema. Permetherin is also highly toxic to fish and cats.

Take Aways

To really have an impact rebuilding our beneficial insect populations and broader ecology, our land stewardship must be organic. Synthetic pesticides, fungicides and herbicides affect organisms broadly, especially when combined with other chemicals, since the cumulative effects are vastly under researched. If you need help designing and maintaining your organic pollinator garden, or any other landscape project, give us a call! (914-560-6570) We are NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals and follow the Healthy Yard Program on all of our properties.

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Kathryn Saphire

VP of Landscape Development and Marketing

Green Jay Landscape Design

Earth Day was Monday (April 22nd), but we’re celebrating all week long, especially this weekend! You can catch us at several events throughout the weekend:

Saturday April 27: Green Ossining

10 AM – 5 PM

Louis Engel Waterfront Park

Ossining, NY

The largest Earth Day festival of it’s kind in Westchester! Enjoy live music, on-site food, and a the county’s local sustainable vendors. It’s sure to be a goo time. Look for the Green Jay tent I the vendor area! More info here.

Sunday April 28

Bedford 2020 Healthy Yards Earth Day

12 PM – 4 PM

Bedford Hills Train Station

All the Healthy Yards info you could need, in one place! Family-friendly activities include: building a bee hotel, a treasure hunt, live animals, and iNaturalist information. Plus you can talk to us about your dream ecological landscape!

Greenburgh Nature Center Earth Week Celebration

12 – 4 PM

Greenburgh Nature Center

99 Dromore Drive

Scarsdale, NY

Turn your Earth love productive at Greenburgh Nature Center’s Volunteer Earth Day event. Volunteer activities include prepping garden beds, trail maintenance, sustainability workshops including bee keeping and more! More Info here.

We hope to see you this weekend!

Green Jay Landscape Design Team

It is widely understood and accepted by informed environmental educators that children who spend time in nature, particularly in outdoor classroom settings benefit greatly in terms of social adaptability, emotional, mental and physical health and wellbeing. My experience with Sheldrake Environmental Center, Greenburgh Nature Center, Rye Nature Center as well as many other outdoor education programs have confirmed that affirmation for myself. I grew up without the benefit of any such programs or direct exposure to nature. I was born and grew up in what was literally referred to as ‘the concrete jungle’.

I am living proof that deprived of the experience of nature, my childhood development was negatively impacted and greatly affected my life.

In the time I served as a volunteer for Connecticut Audubon’s Eagle Watch at the Shepaug Dam in Southbury , Connecticut that truth was confirmed as I saw a mirror image of myself in the young city kids we bused from Bridgeport for their first truly wild nature experience observing the eagles from a blind above the river.

We need the wild! Young and old, zoos are not enough! To reconnect to our own authentic nature we need environmental literacy programs and interpretive nature programs available to our children in their most precious formative years. Sheldrake and Rye Nature Center get it! Please help support them and be ‘A Voice for Nature’.

Jay Archer, President
914-560-6570
greenjaylandscapedesign.com