What’s missing from the landscape design industry?
Here at Living Earth Design, we feel that the landscape design industry is missing the mark. The industry has the potential to create beautiful spaces where people and nature thrive. Despite this potential, we see many landscapes falling short of addressing essential environmental and human needs. Let’s explore what’s missing and how we at Living Earth are looking to fill those gaps and bring joy and life back to gardens!
Biodiversity
Problem: Ever seen a garden with perfect straight rows of hedges and all the same plants? Or a single statement tree in the middle of a lifeless lawn? As visually striking as it can be, take a moment to think about its impact on the life around it. Plants need other plants and wildlife – birds, bees, other insects, frogs and lizards all provide great benefits to plants. From pollination to fertilisation, their entire lifecycle helps the fertility of the soil and health of the plants. Take that away and you are forced to provide all the nutrient needs and pest protection yourself. Pouring on chemical fertilisers and spraying for pests makes for a very high maintenance garden that sucks time and money while hurting land and waterways.
Solution: At Living Earth Design we design our gardens to be biodiverse, naturalistic collections of plants that will feed insects, decrease pest pressure, decrease maintenance and look beautiful doing it. We carefully construct gardens that will improve your life and the life of everything living in it. Including the soil.
Tip: Aphids anyone? Ladybugs farm aphids but only if your garden is hospitable to life
Soil and Ground Coverage
Problem: Bare soil is dead soil. That grass/weeds you trudge out to mow each Saturday is doing your soil very few favours, usually high maintenance and high inputs are needed to keep it looking pristine. The clippings you take away and put in your green bin mean the grass can’t even recycle its own nutrients, inevitably meaning more fertilizing or poor quality lawn. Have a look at your garden beds, how full are they? Those azaleas your planted 10 years ago looking a bit sparce? Weeds creeping through? Bare soil leads to erosion, poor water retention and decreased soil health creating inhospitable conditions for plant growth.
Solution: We design gardens that will improve the health and fertility of your soil. At the base of it “Healthy soil = Healthy Plants”. To achieve this we design gardens that cover the soil, dense naturalistic plantings, mulches and living ground covers. Designs that bring life back to your soil, soil that then feeds your plants, retains nutrients and water. Soil that supports beneficial microbial life, creating a thriving environment for plants and building resilience directly into your garden.
Tip: Have a tough shaded area that nothing grows in, native violets (Viola hederacea) are a fantastic ground cover that grows in deep shade, their flowers are also edible and add a pretty pop of colour to your salads and drinks.
Water Management
Problem: Many landscape designers only design for aesthetics, not prioritising the health of your land. This causes excessive water runoff from your property instead of nurturing your plants. Lets stop the water wasting into storm water systems.
Solution: At Living Earth we care about the health of your property, we design so that your soil becoming a living sponge, protecting your plants from weather stressors. Designing to allow water to sink deep into your soil, nurturing your land and plants, giving them resilience for that next hot spell. Over and over, we choose permeable options for hardscape areas, protecting your soil and garden from the whims of mother nature.
Tip: Is your soil hydrophobic? Water just running off the top and not penetrating? Add in some organic matter like compost or manure, working into the top of the soil! Your soil will be drinking water in no time.
Veggies and Chickens
Problem: For many years now, it has been considered kitsch to have a veggie garden or chickens in the back yard. Most of us have memories of our parents and grandparents summer veggie gardens. Nostalgic memories of sun kissed tomatoes and juicy corn, but the knowledge has been lost! It’s time to take it back! Even more enticing with the current price of fresh produce and unavailability of eggs.
Solution: What better time to learn, to teach ourselves and our kids the importance of fresh produce and where it comes from. With over 17 years of experience with fruit and vegetable growing as well as chicken micro farming, I am well placed to help you reenter the world of nutrient dense, flavourful home produce. From fresh herbs to fruit trees and beyond, whatever your dream, Living Earth can help you succeed. From backyards to small farms, we have the expertise and solutions to have gardens thriving and producing.
Tip: Chickens looking half plucked? It might be moulting season. Every year (usually as the weather starts to cool) your chickens will moult, losing feathers as they replace them with fresh ones. Don’t worry if they also stop laying in this time, they’re putting all their protein and calcium into replacing their feathers. Giving them some extra protein and calcium during this time can help speed up the process.
Spaces for reflection
Problem: So many landscape designs treat a garden space as a living room extender, what if it can be more than that? A retreat from busy life instead of an extension of it.
Solution: A Living Earth designed space encourages joy and peace in the outdoors. The feeling of being in the middle of a forest, breathing crisp clean air, hearing birds and trees. Living Earth spaces create all this, a reprieve from life’s hectic schedules and tasks, encouraging you to take time for yourself to just listen and relax. With friends and family, enjoying together as you reconnect with the natural world.
Tip: Having a stressful day? Take 5 minutes where you just sit and breathe in your garden. What sounds can you hear? What can you smell? What can you see?