This project, like most of the designs we do, was in collaboration with the homeowner. She is an herbalist and a naturephile so she wanted her passions to be reflected in her landscape. All plants were to have a permaculture component to them. Permaculture is the art and science of growing plants in a way where they have multiple benefits beyond just aesthetics and where the system is self sustaining. Since the install of the herb, flower gardens and the meadow the wildlife in her landscape has grown exponentially much to the satisfaction of the homeowner. The below photos were all taken in early October, normally the time when gardens have long past their glory on. All photos were taken 2 years after installation.
A great place for a morning cup of coffee. Watching the sunrise over the distant hills, the bedded down deer get up and stretch their legs from a slumber in the meadow, dew soaked honey bees lazily move from flower to flower. Hop vines frame in the view on the posts and make a medicinal morning tea.
Coneflowers, asters, winterberry hollies all giving the birds and insects a place to play and the homeowner much pleasure.
The depth of the bed is key to its beauty and wildlife value. The deeper a bed is the more plant diversity that can exist in it, hence the more it becomes an ecosystem onto itself.
Bleached out native tall grasses waver in the wind giving an element of motion to the garden that might not otherwise exist.
This is the clients herb bed that she interplants annually with culinary and medicinal herbs. Pictured below are yarrow, onion, lavender, sage, thyme & other useful herbs.
The long blooming sedum & coneflower are great as color companions and for providing winter interest & food for the migrating birds.
Asters, coneflower, sedum, hops & joe-pye all coalescing into a harmonious mix.
