More and more I am getting requests from our customers to provide landscape options that take advantage of all 4 seasons. In order to implement an exceptional all season garden, I recommend working with a design professional to help you imagine and implement a landscape plan that will bring beauty to your door year-round.
The first important step in creating a seasonally interesting garden is to consider the context of the property by analyzing the type of light, soil, and moisture that is available. With this information I can properly understand the habitat on your property and create a landscape that provides color and interest with evenly distributed signature plantings. A landscape plan also allows for proper placement of larger trees and shrubs, allowing them to naturally mature into the beautiful specimens they are intended to be with little assistance from you or your gardener.
If you would like to add seasonal interest within your landscape contact me.
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Project of the Month
GridSTAR Center at the Navy Yard
This fall Cedar Run Landscapes had the exciting opportunity to collaborate in the sustainable landscape design and installation of Penn State University's GridSTAR Center, located at the Philadelphia Navy Yard between 12th and 13th streets on Intrepid Avenue. Using stormwater best management practices our team created a green stormwater infrastructure around the Center's House model.
The scope of work includes the installation of 1,500 sq. ft. of E.P. Henry's permeable pavers, 300 sq. ft. of Porous Pave, a rain barrel, a downspout planter box and a 320 gallon rain water reuse harvesting system with an adjacent rain garden. This mixture of sustainable stormwater solutions will demonstrate to GridSTAR visitors how to attractively minimize stormwater runoff around a residential home.
Partially funded by the Department of Energy, the GridSTAR center is a smart grid education and research center. The Architectural Engineering Department at Penn State University was awarded a $5 Million grant with the requirement to match the funds. The program intends to help modernize our countries electrical grid system and to implement smart grid technologies.
During construction phase, the base and edging is installed
A water feature helps aerate captured rain water from roof.
Looking out onto the drive from under the carport after grading
Our work is open to the public Monday through Friday until 5 P.M. The GridSTAR Center will also be a part of this year's Green Building Tour at the GREENBUILD International Conference and Expo that will be hosted in Philadelphia November 20-22.
Fall Clean Up is in Motion
Integrated Pest Management for a Better Spring
The homeowner's desire for a safe and toxic free living environment has increased the demand to minimize chemical pest control within the landscape. With this trend of thinking the use of Integrated Pest Management has become increasingly important. The
goal of Integrated Pest Management is not to eliminate all pests but to prevent or avoid future infestations from occurring. Cleaning up the garden this fall will not only help aid your landscape in the management of pests, but it also gives you a jump start for next spring.
When tidying up your landscape this fall, it is important to remove any diseased plant material from your landscape. You may think tossing this material into the compost is not a problem, however it is unadvised. Insects and other plant diseases can over winter, infecting your compost and spreading disease to healthy new plant growth next season. Removing dead plant material and leaf debris that accumulate in garden beds over the season helps minimize the places for insects to live during the winter months. Not all plant material must go. Leaving healthy evergreen and semi-evergreen perennials can provide structure, form and color during the winter months.
This September the Sustainable Business Network (SBN) announced a new initiative, the Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Partners. A member of the SBN since 2008, Cedar Run Landscapes has taken an active role in this initiative. Head over to our blog to learn more.
We hope you enjoyed this month's newsletter. E-mailus with any suggestions for our future newsletters.
