Friday, July 8, 2011

Greenest College in the Nation

Green Mountain College was named the greenest college in the nation by Sierra Magazine this year. The President of Green Mountain College, Paul, and his wife Marsha, are wonderful models and supporters of using and promoting sustainability in every aspect of their lives as well as the incorporating that into the college through education and leadership.


When I arrived on campus in April for an alumni event, Paul approached me and asked if I could design an educational and functional landscape for the entertaining area at the President's House on Main Street in Poultney. I drew up a design and with a little creative licence we came up with a formal, functional, and beautiful native landscape incorporating a lot of edibles as well. Our finished product is below.



We would like to encourage everyone looking into higher education to visit Green Mountain College as a national leader in sustainability. We were honored to design and install this design at the President's home, here in Poultney, and would love to incorporate more designs like this with clients that are looking for a more sustainable way to landscape.



Thank you to the Nurseries that supplied the plants for this project:

The Green Reaper in South Ryegate, Vermont
Fiddlehead Creek Nursery, Hartford, NY
E.C. Brown's Nursery, East Thetford, VT
Elmore Roots Fruit Nursery, Elmore, VT

We used all organic fertilizers and soil amendments in our native edible designs from:
North Country Organics in Bradford, VT

An excellent movie to watch for more information about edible landscaping and permaculture is Rebecca Hosking's Farm for the Future.

Thanks for visiting our blog!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

So here you can see our creativity in full bloom. Here is our process. We sort of tore things apart here before making them beautiful again. Things are coming along quite well and you can look forward to finished pictures tomorrow!






This ginger is so beautiful!

I found a newly hatched cicada and showed it to Hana who put it on the serviceberry with the mamaspider.









Than Hana gave it back to me!
Pictures of soaker hoses...




Wednesday, July 6, 2011

At the President's House

We are here in Poultney, Vermont at the President's house at Green Mountain College installing a design we created several months ago. All of the plants in this design are edible and/or native except for one. It has brought a piece of Vermont and New Hampshire woodlands to their outdoor entertainment area and added an edible component as well! We have incorporated several layers of plants with a Serviceberry being the tallest 'canopy' layer and currant bushes as the shrub layer and then an herbaceous layer worked in with trillium, ginger, and anemones. I will post pictures of this installation for all to view. I enjoy working with the specific plants that we purchased for this plan because it shows we can create a formal landscape using natives and edibles while still having it be functional. Tune in soon for finished pictures.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Franconia, Sugar Hill, Landaff, and Lisbon this Spring & Summer

We have been having a full spring and summer season! Fran, Hana, Hattie, Gabe, Cynthia, and Erika have all been working this spring (some part and some full time) to accomplish maintenance, design, and installations this spring and summer!

We have recently been working with Green Mountain College's wonderful President and his wife, Marsha, to design an edible natives garden for the President's House in Poultney, Vermont. We are planning to install this right after the 4th of July! We will have pictures posted upon completion! In the mean time, please enjoy the following pictures of some of our designs and maintenance this summer.

Landaff






Sugar Hill




Lisbon
Blueberry bushes:




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