I decided to start documenting the names and colors of all the mums, kales and other fall annuals that are typically available for our clients gardens so they can see what is available for the fall garden vs. me showing up with what I like. Below is a list of the mums and kales that […] The post Fall Annual Availability appeared first on Designing Eden ..read more

I recently attended the Connecticut Invasive Plant Conference at Uconn. In the afternoon, there was a panel discussion about invasive plant control and a question was posed regarding the control of Japanese Stilt Grass in a large wildflower meadow type landscape. The guy felt his garden was doomed due to the invasion of Japanese Stilt […] The post Controlling Japanese Stilt Grass in the Landscape appeared first on Designing Eden ..read more

For years, we got away with just a small mini skid steer, the Swiss Army knife of landscaping and a full sized tractor loader backhoe to complete our landscape work. Although we made it work, it wasn’t optimal. We use the mini skid steer for rototilling, moving small trees across clients properties and digging holes […] The post Articulating loaders for landscaping. appeared first on Designing Eden ..read more

The open area at the base of the seating wall was originally left open for a small BBQ and thyme was chosen as a green carpet to walk on. The owners have a large, beautiful covered veranda. Most of the outdoor living and cooking takes place up there but the owners wanted a quaint seating […] The post Groundcovers:The Glue That Ties The Landscape Together appeared first on Designing Eden ..read more

Over the years, we have used a combination of trees, shrubs and perennials to create many new gardens. When we are creating gardens that has a large perennial component, we often use perennial liners to stretch our clients budget. The difference in price between the typical perennial liner and a full sized, one gallon perennial […] The post The Value of Using Perennial Liners in the Garden appeared first on Designing Eden ..read more

When designing pool gardens, it’s important that the landscape looks good from June to September…..the swim season. Although there are plenty of perennials that flower during the summer season, most perennials will only flower for a couple weeks. To create a really colorful garden that will continue to flower throughout the swim season, there isn’t a substitute for annuals. Annuals will flower non-stop from May through the first frost which usually occurs in Litchfield County in mid to late October. Take a look at this pool garden we planted a couple weeks ago. Even though it’s only a couple w ..read more

I’m posting some landscape concepts that have been developed for a project that we are currently working on. Our first meeting with the home owner developed the goals and design intent needed to start the design process. Once the first concept was developed and presented to the owners, it brought about more discussions and possibilities that the owners wanted to explore. Every concept brought more questions and more possible opportunities. I tell all of our clients that we want to work on the design just long enough that the client feels comfortable moving forward with the project. Typically ..read more

Are you tired of maintaining your lawn and paying the associated costs with maintaining a lush carpet of green? There is another option. You can shrink the lawn and transform it into a vibrant wildflower meadow? We did a meadow in Kent a while back that has become pretty famous. Pictures of the meadow we installed in Kent, CT has appeared in multiple articles, in multiple languages around the world. Because of that project, we receive a lot of calls from people who like the idea of exchanging lawn and more flowers and wildlife. With talking with over the years, I’d say that the biggest misconc ..read more

Our last step to putting a construction project back together is to repair the lawn areas damaged from all the construction equipment, material storage and foot traffic throughout the project. There are plenty of ways to repair a lawn after construction. Most companies will repair the damage by spreading some topsoil, seed and hay and call it a day. We like to take an extra step before seeding. We like to break up soil compaction as much as possible be seeding. What we use to break up surface compaction and creates a nice bed for grass seed is a Toro Dingo with an attachment called an Aeravato ..read more

We’ve been in the landscape industry for a while. Over that time, we’ve definitely created some confusion with the services we offer. It is true that we offer only three main services; landscape design services, landscape installations and garden maintenance/detailing/garden care. Where these service offerings cause some confusion is that we have never offered landscape design services without a landscape installation project and we have never maintained a garden we didn’t create. We have a lot of people call us because they are just looking for a landscape design. Although we have made some c ..read more