Meditation garden designed in 1995, inspired by Julie Moir Messervy's Inward Garden archetypes, the clients' meditation practice, and a 'cosmic tree', a nyssa sylvatica with a 78' canopy. Clients escaped their corporate rat race to live, farm and teach in Orange County Virginia, near the James and Dolley Madison home, Montpelier, now conserved and open to the public by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Somerset-Barboursville Piedmont landscape is timeless, open, rolling, with views of the Blue Ridge, and in large part conserved in perpetuity from development. Clients donated development rights to Virginia Outdoors Foundation, thus placing a conservation easement on Glendale and protecting it as a farm in perpetuity.

Updates in 2015 focused on invasive plant management and removal and replacement with native sourwood, virginia sweet spire, and switch grass. Stone foundations and dry shady areas under the roof overhang were carpeted with Moerings Sempergreen sedum carpet mix for low maintenance and year round interest. Beds were narrowed for lower maintenance and lawn expanded with native fine fescue sod from Somerset Seed and Sod. Project accomplished with local growers and talent in preparation for APLD 2015 international conference tour of Piedmont gardens.

Collaborators include Jessica Primm, RLA, on the original design in the late 90's, Brent's Native Plantings for fine gardening/maintenance, and Melanie Kearney VT LAR graduate, current design/best practices, and Robert Bradford Construction&Renovation for new stone steps and invasive plant removal and re-grading.

Renovating an existing Weekapaug home for multigeneration family living: create rooms outdoors, improve indoor outdoor connection, frame views, allow privacy, catch breezes, and allow 4 generations to dine, garden and play together. Home: Louisa T. Bradford Design. Landscape Design/Horticulturalist: Gentle Gardener Green Design. Plantsman: Louis Graeve. Site work: Keena Brothers. Hardscape: Bruce Brawley.

Scientists and conservationists who created a weekend home, and now full time farm, escape to their New Old Virginia farmhouse, located in the Piedmont between Charlottesville and Richmond, VA, designed by David Neumann, FAIA. Rooms outside take advantage of microclimates created by the home's orientation: a potager (raised bed kitchen garden) in sunny morning light off the kitchen, with roof rainwater harvested for irrigation nearby; a water feature centered on the master bedroom window for the soothing sound of falling water; deer-resistant native trees and other plants blend with traditional Virginia heirloom boxwoods and peonies to support bird habitat; and a rain garden of beautiful native plantings, fed by roof rainwater to slow down, spread out and sink in rainwater. Creating a sustainable conservation landscape on poor, compacted soils began during construction. Sustaining and improving the condition of the garden ecosystem for its first five years was our very great privilege, informing our knowledge of best practices for soils, plants, ecosystems, and clients for future projects.

Site & Landscape Design: Gentle Gardener Green Design.
Hardscape: Lithic Construction.
Plantsman: Instant Shade LLC.
Contractor: Hale & White.
VSLD Annual Summer 'Green' Tour, 2008.
For more project photos, please see nlbarchitects on Houzz.com.

Problems solved by the conservation landscape designer: Eliminate lawn from front yard (and pushing the mower up a steep hill). Complement midcentury modern renovation interior with updated landscape. Infiltrate and capture rain runoff from public street that once headed straight for the front yard. In short, how to be Thoroughly Modern in conserving soils, landscape, home value, and people. Thanks for landscape architecture assistance with infiltration details and pervious paver design to Jessica Primm RLA.

The clients loved the big white oak tree at the edge of the woods and bought the house in the Keswick Estate just east of Charlottesville, VA because of it. A pavilion was added for another outdoor room from which to view it. But, poor soils, browsing deer and a static design kept the big oak separated, within a sea of mulch, thus preventing it from being truly related to the house in a way that pulled the clients out off the terrace and into the landscape.

Meanwhile, the typical spec house foundation plantings had overgrown their space or failed due to deer browse.

Inspiration came from Julie Messervy's 'Inward Garden' approach to this 'cosmic tree', creating a 'stroll journey' throughout the space and up under the canopy, a place to pause and reflect back on the beauty of the home's architecture in this setting. The well-travelled clients' art collection from their journeys inspired spaces designed for art outdoors. JMMDS' 'Home Outside' app gave a way to play with the concept plan and provide a quick color render overlay to help the clients envision the results.

Information came from Doug Tallamy's 'Bringing Nature Home', helping point the designer to native trees that support more food for fledging birds.

More information came from the USDA NRCS soil maps in the geo-locating 'SoilWeb' app created by UCDavis. The famously poor soils in this gated community on former farmland were documented, tested, and a simple plant palette created that actually ADDED turf grass - but a low-growing native&naturalized fine fescue mix grown nearby at Somerset Seed and Sod - and step-able Sempergreen sedum carpet for a low maintenance, deer resistant way to BE in the garden, rather than look AT it from within a frame of roof. Two small 'mini-meadows' of deer resistant native plants complemented the existing native grasses found growing at the woodland edge.

Instant Shade LLC had the tree spade and skill to move overgrown nonnative foundation trees to more logical spaces and to bring in native magnolia virginiana (sweet bay), sourwood, and a big red maple. Invasive non-native grasses were removed by Instant Shade as well. TechniRain LLC adapted their irrigation installation to the new plantings. Gentle Gardener Green Design provided layout on site and project coordination.

A typically long, narrow lake lot for this weekend and summer home close to DC, renovated for a breezy, flowing, colorful look year round. Colorful native plants, right-sized native trees and blooming shrubs, in a flowing, curved arrangement of beds and lawn, enhance the view and protect the water quality of this lake in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Richmond, VA Designer House & Grounds 2012: outdoor rooms, container gardens, plants and materials inspired by the great plant hunting expeditions at the turn of the last century

Suburbanization of farmland near Charlottesville has its challenges: rural residential lots too big to maintain intensively as garden, but too small to farm, wildlife corridors compressed into deer thruways.

The flow between outdoor rooms and indoor/outdoor rooms is, as usual, more important than the rooms themselves.

7 years after building, the homeowners could still not decide what to do with the massive mulched entry island that dominated the mood of the entire house and did little to relieve the runoff and heat from the surrounding street and driveway asphalt.

First phase: create permaculture zones of use (herbs near kitchen, berry/edible plants also, forest/rain garden buffers at the edge), and use plants intensively and expensively to capture and control runoff from surrounding hardscape.

And did we mention there was a wedding party coming in 8 weeks - early autumn?

Trees spaded and transplanted by Instant Shade LLC - in high summer - never missed a beat. A bioswale was planted, sod laid, and slopes landscaped in summer and early autumn. A deck was built outside large enough for dining, and a new gateway to the landscape created for visitors, rather than the usual 'through the garage door or dodging the trashcans' tiny walk near the HVAC units, generator and foundation that the builder had installed.

Planting design team included T.S. McCord, VSLD, VCH, of From Seed Design and Melanie Kearney, 2d year VT LAR intern.

Future phases: Virginia Conservation Assistance Program to remove impervious driveway and replace with pervious pavers, roof rainwater catchment in cisterns to feed/assist the drip irrigation system that operates on zoned evapotranspiration sensors, darker/neutral downspouts and garage doors for better first impression.