Satellite of Love

As a solo landscaper I work on a pretty small scale. However, zooming out on my tiny project sites with the help of satellite imagery can give me a sobering perspective of how my choices might spread beyond the property lines, for good and bad. These images show me the parts of the story that I’m missing on the ground, which is essential when you’re trying to “read the landscape.” This full picture helps to guide my decisions that will hopefully connect the ecological dots on my little site project with the wider landscape communities to keep the frayed tapestry from unraveling.

As landscapers it’s our responsibility to understand the land that we’re tasked with “‘scaping.” But unfortunately, we see that this is rarely the case. Time and time again the “mow ‘n blow” crews, “Mosquito Joe’s” and “toss some lawn seed in der, plop in a few Bradford Pears” contractors collect the checks and move on to the next job without a thought about consequences.

The previous landscape company hired (and then fired) to sculpt this recently developed 37 acre property was of that mold. They wanted to plant Asian Dogwoods, ornamental Maples, Bradford Pears (WTF?!?!) and of course, lawn lawn lawn!!! Those of you who are well aware of the insidious spread of invasive horticulture can imagine how those choices would affect that beautiful adjacent oak/hickory forest community that we see in that first pic. It really is quite shocking that so many of our ecological problems are the results of flippant decisions made by the few. Think of the introduction origin stories of species that went awry like Starlings, Kudzu, Burmese Pythons, Asian Carp, Gypsy Moths, feral pigs, and (ahem) Bradford Pears, to name a few of the hundreds of horror stories.

Thankfully the homeowner values keeping green corridors intact, so now it’s up to me (and Chad from Hidden Savanna Native Plant Nursery ) to come up with a better landscape plan, one that considers ecology over eazy peazy paycheck jobs. These sketches are a glimpse into what we have in mind over the next few years. It involves a multifaceted approach with restoration, large-scale seeding and designed formal gardens.

I'm really excited about the plan for this formal native garden for the front yard, near the house. I propose transforming the existing lawn into a more intimate outdoor living space, one that references the wildness of the surrounding oak savanna landscape but organized into formal beds with various themes.

The Bur Oak will be the home base, a place for the family to stretch out under its shade and be surrounded by beautiful wildflowers. Throughout this garden I'm contrasting stylized formality with a more wild natural screen on the periphery. The goal is to close in this space a bit without cutting off the seams to the wider landscape. The bed to the right of the lounge area will have a pale theme, most of the blooms will be white. Wild Indigo and Rattlesnake Master will be the structural plants in the center of the bed surrounded with seasonal successional blooms from a repeating massing of Colic Root (a super cool, super rare species)/Slender Mint/Flowering Spurge combo and a drift of Penstemon digitalis/Culver's Root/Wild Quinine/Heath Aster. Another rhythmic combo element will be White Prairie Clover and Penstemon hirsutus. The matrix base layer in this bed will be low-growing forbs with multi-seasonal interest: Prairie Alumroot, Robin's Plantain, Nodding Onion and Whorled Milkweed. And sprinkled randomly will be Pale Coneflower. The two intersected beds to the left will have a diversity of very short species while the three separate beds will be a super simple composition of a cool-season grass (Porcupine Grass), a warm season grass (Little Bluestem) and sprinkled with Pale Coneflowers. The house foundation bed will continue the side hedge of Red Osier Dogwoods with a simple base of Prairie Dropseed and Rudbeckia fulgida. The hedge in front will be a little more wild with mostly taller plants, grasses, shrubs and understory trees that will serve the dual purpose of creating a living wall and provide rich bird habitat.