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24 04, 2023

Is It Okay to Feed the Birds?

2025-02-22T15:45:12-08:00Categories: Garden Design, Garden Where You Are|Tags: , , , , |

Birds are what bring a garden to life and gardeners have always known this. We plant fruit-bearing shrubs and trees as much for the birds as for our own enjoyment. Bird houses and bird baths are ubiquitous features of home gardens. Many if not most of us also set out food for birds at backyard feeders. Bird bath in habitat garden that provides nectar, seeds, and insects for birds Bird populations have been in sharp decline for decades, a result primarily of habitat loss and pesticides. Yet we often hear that feeding wild birds can make things

11 06, 2021

Embracing Wildness and Change

2025-02-22T15:51:47-08:00Categories: Garden Design, Garden Where You Are|Tags: , , |

It is possible that the most life-negating aspect of modern landscapes is the whole idea of landscape maintenance. Landscape maintenance implies -- no, insists -- that landscapes must be maintained as originally designed, whatever the costs and losses. A lightly maintained meadow garden in California In the service of what is called maintenance, most residential front yards and almost all commercial landscapes are forced into compliance, preserving the outlines of their original design but with virtually no sign of life. Shrubs considered too large or wrongly shaped are brutally distorted. Weeds and “bugs” are sprayed with pesticides.

29 09, 2014

A Summer-Dry Aesthetic

2025-02-22T16:06:26-08:00Categories: Garden Design|Tags: |

We want to change the aesthetic of what we expect to see in a garden photo in summer-dry climates.  Beautiful photos of beautiful gardens inspire gardeners to mimic what they see. Many photos in garden books and magazines are from East Coast and English style gardens, that, while are certainly lovely in those settings, are wrong in more arid and summer-dry climates.  Water is especially precious in summer-dry climates, lush images from other climates mislead gardeners to try inappropriate and unsustainable gardens. We want to inspire gardeners to choose plants that are water wise and garden styles that fit into the habitats and

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