Green Jay Landscape Design

Green Jay Landscape Design

(914) 560-6570

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If you have a water garden or an ornamental pond, stream and/or waterfall it greatly helps you to be aware of the maintenance and service requirements to keep your water feature healthy and beautiful.
An Earth pond contains a natural ecosystem which is far different than an ornamental water garden. If you have an Earth pond, you should be asking the following questions… Do you have an inflow and outflow? What is the water source, and where does the water originate from? Is it spring fed, or does it depend on rain and stormwater?
Without a filtration system, aeration and a regular flow and innput, it may be difficult to prevent algae from dominating your Earth pond. A complete water garden with plants, fish, rubber liners, filters and pumps/aerators requires a regular service schedule which may include cleaning and changing filters as well as adding bacteria etc..
Some excellent resources and more info can be found at: International Professional Pond Companies Association, Fish Channel, and Pond Sources.

Call or email us for more info.

 

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

Nothing we do in landscape design and planting can compare to the cheerful beauty of spring flowering bulbs on display! Long before perennial and annual plants are available at our local nurseries the first flowering bulbs appear to cheer up our cold and overcast gray days of early spring. From New Rochelle to Rye, we plan for and implement this wonderfully bright and colorful effect in our landscape design compositions.

 

There are so many fantastic varieties of plants available to the landscape trade it would be a shame not to include them in our compositions. The wide variety of colors, heights and bloom times extend our enjoyment of the season which passes way to quickly.

This is a great example of the advantage of hiring a professional landscape designer. Integrating early floral displays of spring flowering bulbs requires knowledge of color, height bloom time as well as placing and spacing properly in the garden or landscape.
When executed well, a seamless progression of flowers can make the landscape vibrant, beautiful and interesting. From bulbs to spring flowering trees like dogwoods and cherries to shrubs such as azaleas, amelanchiers and forsythia to the first perennials, wave after wave give us pleasure and enjoyment. See Tulip World or Colorblends for more info on bulb ordering.
In our climate, many perennials come out late and we usually don’t plant annuals until late may for fear of frost. Ornamental as well as native warm season grasses also don’t fill out until very late spring.
Design with all four seasons in mind!
Our gardens and landscapes should inspire us with joy and happiness!
Let’s remember, the more we surround ourselves with beauty, the more beautiful and complete our lives and hearts will be!
Plan a ‘Landscape for Better Living’ today and enjoy the fruits of your labor tomorrow!
If you don’t know were to start, call or email us today. We would love to help Colorize your landscape!

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

Is there anything as serene and soothing after a stressful day than relaxing beside your water garden?

The sound of rushing water, the fresh, clean smell of water and plants plus the excitement of the fish and frogs playing is always stimulating and refreshing. Water gardens are wonderful to look at, to play in, to listen to, to touch and to feel nature. They can also serve many ecological functions. They capture and purify stormwater while attracting wildlife and creating biodiversity in habitat. They can join many diverse ecosystems from terrestrial to aquatic. They are works of art to be enjoyed by young and old alike.

Like all landscape features (especially exceptional ones) water gardens require good design, planning and staging. Technology, products and materials have come a long way since landscape designers began incorporating ponds, streams and waterfalls into landscape compositions. Like everything in life, including the human body, they require a certain amount of maintenance. Depending on how they were designed this could be a little or a lot depending on whether you have fish, a rubber liner or filtration system.

A significant part of our business is involved in repair, redesigning or reconstructing existing water features.
Stay tuned for more examples of one of a kind landscape design and development projects featuring water.

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

When we look at many of our designed and constructed residential landscapes, what do we see? Is there a variety of plants, flowers, colors, heights? Is there a variety of different trees? Are there tall, mature trees providing shade and canopy? Is your landscape dominated by lawn? What condition is the lawn in? Are there layers of perennial beds and borders or does the lawn abruptly run into the trees? Are there any natural areas or buffers? What kind of environment surrounds your property and landscape environment? Do you have water on or near your property? What is the drainage like, too much water or too little ?
These are some of the questions Green Jay Landscape Design will ask and answer when conducting a proper site analysis and evaluation of your property. We look at the complete picture and offer a wide perspective of creative and ecological landscaping solutions.
I recently attended a lovely wedding for friends in a very attractive, very popular, country club on the sound. It was a beautiful spring day. It was way too beautiful to be sitting inside! I took a stroll around the well tended grounds to investigate the landscape. As a naturalist in the Spring, I find myself first looking for birds. Although this landscape was attractive to the eye, there was a complete and total absence of birds with the exception of the most common species (morning doves, starlings, sparrows, crows, blackbirds etc..). Why is this? Well, as scavengers they are adapted to our ecologically poor landscapes. Although there were many flowering plants in bloom (daffodils, Japanese cherries, bradford pears, forsythia etc.), there really weren’t any bee’s or other insects. Like most of our older commercial or residential landscapes the property was dominated by lawn, specimen exotic trees and evergreens.
In the past, landscape designers, architects and even homeowners and gardeners did not ask the question…What ecological value and services does the landscape provide?…Does it provide shelter, habitat and food for beneficial organisms in the form of birds, wildlife, bee’s, insects, butterflies etc?
As a result of these inconsiderations, many residential landscapes have become void of the very life producing elements necessary for any ecosystem and landscape to function in all but the most basic, sterile way. This means that you can have a visually attractive and stimulating landscape which not only doesn’t produce sustainable and beneficial life, but additionally, it requires a huge amount of negative human input to maintain in the form of mowing, weeding, pruning (most often in the shape of meatballs), fertilizing and pesticide use and abuse.
Luckily for all of us, this is how we related to our landscapes in the recent past and not how live in our landscapes now!
Culturally, we are now learning to value and embrace nature and all the precious resources available to us here in the northeast.
We live in one of the most economically, culturally and ecologically richest areas of this country and possibly the world!
We rarely have floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes or other natural disasters.
We have an abundance of clean air, water and moderate weather.
We have come so far in the areas of landscape design and development! We now use our artistic creativity as well as our knowledge and enthusiasm for natural science and conservation to create beautiful, highly functional ecological “Landscapes for Better Living” to be enjoyed by ourselves, our families and all the wonderful creatures we share this beautiful world with..now and forever!

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

I can’t imagine why as a community of intelligent, educated people we practice denial of unhealthy landscape practices ! In addition to overuse of leaf blowers in landscape maintenance, which has been found to elevate blood pressure and disrupt the nervous system of the elderly in certain retirement communities, we are obsessed with what has been described as the ‘Green Desert’ by Kim Eierman (www.Ecobeneficial.com). That would be the great American lawn!
Although I have made a living in lawn care, grounds maintenance and landscape design for over 30 years, I consider the lawn to be the highest, most demanding landscape feature in terms of resources in any landscape. I do love my almost perfect, green lawn, my pesticide free, life producing ,completely natural, organic lawn! Yet the lawn, any lawn requires weekly pruning (mowing), regular watering, feeding, weeding, seeding etc…
Many homeowners are unaware of the pesticides applied to their property. This is because there is a culture of empowerment. It’s a guy thing! Women are smarter as a rule and care more.
As a homeowner, a client, we (I am a client too, of course of Green Jay Landscape Design) should absolutely know what is being applied to our property. First, that’s the law! Second we should care! I think all product information organic or not should be available to us as customers, clients and homeowners. What is more precious than our own health? The answer is our children’s health!
If we took the time to read the label or Material Safety Data Sheet for each pesticide applied to our landscapes and lawns (the law requires you be given this info before applications are applied), we might think twice about exposing ourselves, our children and our pets to these toxic chemical agents.
It is our own fault the we have created a society that does not value human health and the health of the environment above all things.
Help us change! Let us work together for a better, healthier world today and tomorrow!
Live the Life You Live
For more info contact us today!

Design Concept/Scope of Work

We intend to reorganize your existing landscape to create a stronger thematic composition in your lovely, bucolic setting. We will repurpose and transplant your landscape material where we mutually consider best placement. The scope of work includes the pool area adding stone from your Woodland property to the front gravel walkway for a Zen effect and creating a berm/terraform around the large tree stump to allow for optimum planting conditions and desired aesthetic effect.

The desired effect and object of this landscape project is to give you a beautiful morning garden with year round color. This will be achieved by utilizing a simple color palette featuring evergreens of blue, green and gold, which will also highlight the low growing rock garden cool color perennials. Primary plants include Blue Pacific Juniper (Conferta), Dwarf Montgomery Blue Spruce, Gold Lace Juniper, Japanese Garden Juniper (Procumbens Nana), Blue Star Juniper, Gold Mop Cypress, etc. Assorted Perennials include Nepeta, Rock Cress, Ajuga, Moss Phlox, Plumbago, etc.