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We live in a forest culture on the east coast. When many of our ancestors came to the new world as immigrants the forest were being cleared for the first or second time. If you stop mowing your lawn in Westchester, in time you probably would not be looking at a meadow but a young forest.

That’s fine with me as for most days lately I’m sun blocking with spf110 three times a day because of my fair skin (and good sun block is expensive, trust me I’m an expert on sunburn). Many of our landscapes have dark, damp poorly drained areas with lack of air circulation where lawn does not do well. Watch out for mosquito breeding! Public Health take note!

These conditions are common everywhere! I have designed and installed shade gardens from Hastings, Dobbs Ferry and Irvington to Katonah, Bedford and Brewster and everywhere in between! My own predominantly shady native plant garden in Rye is used as an outdoor classroom for environmental education.

These underutilized, neglected areas of our landscapes are excellent garden design and landscaping opportunities to improve your health and the appearance of your property while increasing beneficial wildlife habitat. An additional benefit is reducing the need for maintenance. Better resource management (gas, fertilizer, time = $ )!

Look to see if you have overgrown vegetation or visible mold on the house/siding, indicating poor air circulation. Not good for respiratory health! Standing or slowly draining water drowning lawn, soil, plants… yuck!

Clean it up…clear it out…plant native ferns, moss, shade loving perennials and ground covers…put in a garden path, maybe river rock or boulders…have some fun! Much more attractive…sustainable…and in the end…a very smart investment in your home and landscape!

Be part of the growing movement to eliminate toxic pesticides, improve the health, well being, appearance and ecological as well as economic value of our landscapes, homes and communities… Go Green!

Whether you are along the Hudson River from Hastings to Peekskill or along the sound from New Rochelle NY to Greenwich Connecticut your are affected by storm water and wetlands. How we manage rainfall and our fresh water resources is critical to the physical, ecological and economic well being of our communities.

Nothing cleans water better than native wetland plants ! Although we are challenged by climate shift, invasive species, overdevelopment, removal of habitat etc. there is much we can do to improve the health of the landscape environment.

Starting at home we can reduce runoff by more and better landscape planting. Using site appropriate plants according to their water requirements is the key to successful resource management.

Example of better landscape planting are no mow zones, rain gardens stream bank planting, tree groves, fern glades and many more naturalistic, highly productive and attractive landscapes.

Determine where your storm water goes first ! Look at the patterns in the rain. Track the ‘ flow paths’. Does rainwater go into a pipe or a stream. Ask yourself how can I improve the water quality by redirecting or using plants to absorb and or infiltrate to the ground water, Recharge ! Stop contamination and runoff ! Be creative with the possibilities for creating new more attractive and functioning landscapes.

I feel like no contemporary landscape design is complete without a spring flowering bulb display. These wonderful plants add so much cheerfulness to the early spring. They start the season off early and extend our enjoyment of our gardens and landscape for up to six weeks. The varieties of bulbs available to the trade are astounding in their diversity, color and bloom time. In addition to the traditional Dutch tulips, daffodils are a mainstay in many of our landscapes. They are deer proof as well, which means they can be planted anywhere. I also favor the many colors of fragrant hyacinths. Grape hyacinths, silica, dwarf iris and crocus all add a richness of color and texture to the garden. An added benefit to massing bulbs in the perennial border is the reduction in early weed growth.

Covering the ground with plants is the key to sustainable plant based design. Another wonderful aspect of bulb planting is the ability to create a dramatic floral display which will continuously be succeeded by the next group of flowering perennials or grasses in sequence. Including bulbs in the original design developed in the spring and summer focuses us on the progression of seasons and the power and the glory of the composition.

It is very important to use bone meal or bulb fertilizer when you plant. We also mix in Mole Med at the recommended rate to repel rodents. This is a castor bean product (natural, organic).

Most of all, bulbs are fun and make us feel good and optimistic about things to come.

Jay Archer, President (and Bulb Enthusiast)

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

We have removed four layers of asphalt on this Rye, NY property to enable us to install a washed gravel base to construct a porous asphalt driveway which will allow rainfall/stormwater to infiltrate the ground without runoff. This satisfies the Sustainable Site Initiative for Green Infrastructure. After carting and removal of all base material to Queen City Recycling in New Rochelle, we prepped for installation one day and installed the next.

In truth this is an extremely messy business because of the sticky and tacky properties of the binder coat used to adhere the gravel to the actual recycled Porous Pave material. It was necessary to protect the newly installed Belgium block curbing and apron with tape and plastic sheeting. We also used vegetable oil to coat all hand tools, wheelbarrows etc. to prevent sticking. The floats and screed boards were continually cleaned and lubricated throughout the process to insure best results. Heavy rubber gloves, protective suits and rubber boots are recommended. We consider good planning and staging of tools and materials essential to efficiency since the material is expensive. Everything was cleaned with biodeisel in the end.

For more information on Porous Pave Driveways, see Porous Pave Inc.

We do feel the costs are offset by the savings in conventional drainage construction (piping, plumbing, catch basins, cultecs). Aside from the real ecological advantages there is the permitting. It is hard to argue against the viability of the product and process if properly installed and maintained. This is the way of the future now!

Think of the possibilities if we can design with multiple systems including rain gardens, planting buffers, treatment wetlands, no mow zones etc.. The possibilities for reducing and in some cases eliminating expensive and invasive subsurface drainage systems are huge!

Think about the big picture…the integrated approach to sustainable landscape development.

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

The scope of this Yorktown, NY project involved recirculating water from five ponds along with constructing five waterfalls. Our work included hydro-dredging as well as installing a bottom aeration system designed to increase the dissolved oxygen level by inverting the laminar flow. This is a mouthful to describe the simple process of turning the water column over to reduce sludge deposits in the pond bottom. Part of the neat technologies we used featured outboard, high efficiency pumps in conjunction with ball valves and back-flow preventers.

We are always interested in exploring new ways to adapt technologies to our waterfall construction. This project gave us the opportunity to employ two types of irrigation diffusers to create an attractive waterfall/spillway. By reducing and channeling the flow we were able to direct and focus the splash to best effect. This required hand crafting the rock, using hydraulic cement and a variety of couplings and parts. Once again we took advantage of the good weather to make it happen. This was especially true since we spent some of our time on ladders or in the water.

All stone was sourced on site. The shelves for the waterfalls were created by shaping with a masonry saw and hand chisels/hammers. It is always a lot of fun to recreate nature in the landscape. A unique aspect of this project is the use of stormwater for on-site capture and rainwater harvesting.

We thank David Welling from Conservation Technologies (Baltimore, MD) for providing invaluable tech support. The diffusers came from Cooper Mulch (Danbury, CT). Additionally we used Muck Away, supplied by our good friends Fourth Generation Nurseries (Mendon, MA). This added value to the Micro Lift live bacteria, provided by Green Earth Agriculture (Branford,CT). This combination is extraordinarily useful in reducing and controlling algae bloom/growth by increasing and promoting the culturing of beneficial bacteria or bio-film within the waterbody and pond surfaces.

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

In residential design and build projects no two projects are exactly alike. The uniqueness of the topography, disposition of the sun, north/south orientative style of architecture, taste and culture of homeowners, all impart a particular flavor to the place. The opportunities for creative design compositions are truly wonderful. We will examine a couple of projects as models of the design and development process.

Season of Joy and Color – Part I

This project in Brewster, NY, is a landscape renovation, which involved a complete makeover. After implanting a new front entrance foundation, we moved into the backyard. This wide open backyard, which is full sun surrounded on each side by woodland, offers endless possibilities. The beautiful pool and cool decking patio was crying out for a stunningly wild and free poolscape. Ornamental grasses, native perennials and shrubs bring a rich depth of texture and color to the previously brash and harsh pool decking. The benefit of flowering native perennials is that it attracts bird, butterflies and also bees, wasps and other beneficial insects necessary to maintaining a organically, pest free environment.

Later, a pool house was added with our help. Siting the house in relation to the pool and home’s new addition was critical.

This also required adding bluestone treads, steps and a small patio. The hydrangea and ground cover planting surrounding the pool house completed the new pool house addition and gave the impression that it was part of the original design. The large one piece bluestone treads were moved and placed with care by hand to insure no scratches, cracks or imperfections were visible.

As part of this phase, a new foundation and patio/landing was installed around the new home addition.

To further enhance and complete the effect, new native flowering and fruiting shrubs were included for beauty, food (blueberries, sparkle berry, chokecherry) and wildlife interest. The final touch was to add fresh perennials to all parts of the rear landscape.

We can’t wait to see the various colors of bulbs in succession from early to late spring, which in turn will be replaced by summer bloom perennials and wild grasses.

Stay tuned for what’s next…..

Going Wild in Your Backyard – Part 2

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

greenjayadmin

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