You can have a beautiful garden and an ecologically vibrant landscape that supports diversity, offers climate change resiliency, restores natural systems and offers many health benefits to your community.
Important elements in creating a regenerative landscape
Multi-layer plantings: from ground cover to understory tree canopy, Capturing, slowing and reuse of rainwater can be an incredible resource. Multi-layered Design can slow rainfall and capture and hold more moisture deeper in our soils.
Increase permeable surfaces: Rainwater needs to reach our soils. a regenerative garden utilizes materials that allow rainwater to infiltrate our soils and build our groundwater aquifers. Moisture that remains available in our soils keeps our beneficial organisms alive, allows nutrients to be UTILIZED by plants.
Soil Building: Building soil with on-site leaves as mulch in your garden can offer many benefits. Reducing labour, increasing nutrient and water holding capacity of your soils to ensure your garden stays healthy and strong.
Reusing Materials: Conserve water and improve watershed health with a garden designed to retain and naturally divert Rainwater Deeper into the soil, the deeper it goes the less water you will need to SUPPLEMENT over the summer months. Consider reusing materials found on site instead of buying new.
Feeding with compost: pouring synthetic fertilizers on our gardens DOESN’T make them stronger or healthier. plants can only uptake certain nutrient ratios from soil and the excess is leached out and ends up in our waterways disrupting aquatic life. the Good news is, top dressing your garden ANNUALLY or or biannually with a really a good compost is all you need!
IncreasE Biodiversity: Revitalize natural ecological systems that focus on balance and vitality rather than on single plants in isolation. Create More Connections!
Benefits of a regenerative landscape
Pollinator Support: provide habitat for butterflies, birds and pollinators that work to make our fruit, flowers & vegetables plentiful and healthy.
Food Nutrients and security: grow local and organic food for your family. Healthy organic soils will ensure the right balance of nutrients make it to your food.
Emotional Health: Spending time in A vibrant garden can increase levels of serotonin and reduce anxiety. people who live near green spaces display greater calm, as well as a stronger sense of connection to neighbours.
Save you time and Money: A well designed garden is a garden where the right plants are planted in the right location so they can succeed on their own, giving you more time to relax and enjoy.
Landscape Design Process
Initial Visit: What do you imagine for your dream garden?
We believe that hearing what you love is integral to the design process.
During our first consultation, we will listen to your needs in regards to elements like function, privacy, colour, texture, budget and time commitment. During this visit we will share with you our knowledge about the health and sustainability benefits to installing an Ecologically vibrant garden for your family. Knowing what resources you have can help with decisions on hardscaping materials, plant stock sizes and scope. *approx 1 hour
Deliverable: The Concept Design Package
The Concept Design is an 11”x17” visual plan of your mature landscape. It includes the digital site plan drawings showing a scaled layout of proposed tree species, structural shrubs and areas for sun and shade perennials to thrive. It also includes a hand drawn elevation section view to help make it easier to understand how the final garden will look. A photographic image study is included to to highlight blooms and foliage that will be found in your NEW garden. a preliminary plant list is also included. A pdf will be emailed to you and a meeting can be set up to discuss once you have had a chance to view. *approx 2-3 weeks
a vibrant & HEALTHY garden
Organic Land Care
“Organic Land Care is much more than simply restricting the use of synthetic chemicals, it is working with natural systems to create healthy and resilient landscapes. It is a process of planning and caring for spaces with an ecosystem approach, relying on various elements of that ecosystem to support each other so there are fewer inputs needed and less waste produced. At its core, Organic Land Care is about increasing the biodiversity and subsequent resiliency and function of landscapes”(Society for Organic Urban Land Care).
Humans inspired by Humus
Sallie Calhoun is passionate about soil and its abilities to sequester carbon to mitigate climate change.
To learn more about Sallie, check out these links:
HEALTHY, “CLIMATE-BENEFICIAL” SOIL IS THE NEXT SUPPLY CHAIN FRONTIER Article by Risa Blumle published by Conscious Company Media
Graeme Sait is an activist and soil health educator. He believes that we urgently need to return that carbon to the soil, and start replenishing the humus in order to reverse the impact.
To learn more about Graeme, check out these links:
Graeme Sait TEDx Talks Published on May 12, 2013
How humus can save the world By Lloyd Phillips June 29, 2015 12:12 pm
Isabella Tree is a British farmer writer and advocate of re-wilding Soil.
To learn more about Isabella, check out these links:
WILDING the Return of Nature to a British Farm Book written by ISABELLA TREE published by PICADOR . https://youtu.be/-FMfUrSzAjg
Isabella Tree talk 5x15
Dr. Elaine Ingham is an American microbiologist and soil biology researcher and founder of Soil Foodweb Inc.
To learn more about Dr. Elaine and her Soil Food Web School , check out these links:
She is an author of the USDA's Soil Biology Primer.
Dr. Elaine’s Soil Food Web School
https://www.soilfoodweb.com/sfw-courses-overview/