Our Blog

Rainscapes is open!

If you live in (most of) Montgomery County MD and own a home, you’ve got access to a tremendous program for managing stormwater and creating native plant habitats. Rainscapes is managed by Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Program and provides expertise and financial support for the creation of rain gardens, conservation landscapes, permeable driveways and other […]

Thanksgiving thoughts from Wendell Berry

We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough? – Wendell Berry Thanksgiving moves rapidly from gratitude to gluttony – I pull the last of the pie out for one more breakfast treat, but the dogs start barking as the sun comes up and I move […]

We know the WHY. Now we learn the HOW from the Post.

(Sergio Peçanha/Illustration for The Washington Post) Recently, we learned the Why about replacing some of our lawn space with native plantings in a piece by Dan Zak of the Washington Post that featured our own Edamarie Mattei. Now we get the How. Sergio Pecanha has provided an excellent overview of simple steps you can take in your own yard to make a significant […]

Shrink your lawn. Save the planet.

  Many thanks to Dan Zak of the Washington Post for the beautifully-written article about Americans’ changing attitudes toward their lawns. Even better, it features our own Edamarie Mattei sharing her thoughts about both her family’s relationship with lawns over time and her views on turf’s changing role in American culture. From the article: “For ‘setting […]

More Native Plants please!

Thanks to Chris Woody for an excellent article in Sunday’s Washington Post that lays out the case for increasing the native plantings in our garden. Some of the highlights of the article include: The key role native plants play in increasing biodiversity and habitat in our stressed environment Thoughts from Doug Tallamy of Homegrown National Park on what we […]

Water features for birds and humans

John Kelly / The Washington Post Thanks to Washington Post columnist John Kelly for the excellent article about garden water features. We are always thrilled to see how much water features are loved by both our clients and wildlife. Contrary to conventional wisdom, you don’t need a lot of space to install a water feature regardless of […]