2022-07-23 20:23
By Jim
The monarch butterfly, the North American icon, now faces the threat of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a top wildlife monitoring group wh… Read More
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How to create a four season interest garden in your yard. Garden design, building, and aesthetic pruning tips for creating your garden sanctuary.
2021-05-16 16:50
By Jim
“In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.”— DOUG… Read More
2020-09-23 02:08
By Jim
Plants can show us how to have resolve in the face of challenges. Whether it was our record May rain falls or the Summer long drought we experienced after it, my garden is still alive… Read More
2020-06-21 16:16
By Ken Williams
Today’s post is a Guest Post from Ken Williams and covers an important topic for all gardeners looking to create ecological gardens as well as those just feed up with b… Read More
2020-05-23 14:37
By Jim
Several years ago I went to a social mixer being held at a brewery by the no defunct group the Midwest Ecological Landscape Alliance (MELA). I was then in the process of changing my v… Read More
2020-01-03 20:12
By Jim
If you are on my email list, I can only imagine your response to getting this post. I thought he quit and when back to working in Insurance. I thought he was forced to flee the countr… Read More
2019-05-27 22:23
By Jim
It has been a while since I have written anything, so I thought I would share some rambling thoughts at the end of a busy May. I don’t usually do stream of consciousness writing… Read More
2019-04-03 01:58
By Jim
#1 – Invasive pests are less likely to kill your Non-Native shade tree Exotic disease and insect pests are big problems because exotic pests evolve with plants that are rel… Read More
2019-02-26 18:37
By Jim
In the past, I have recommended two purple leaf beech trees for residential gardens. I have already covered the purple fountain beech. Now, I will cover the Tri-color beec… Read More
2019-02-22 03:49
By Jim
It is conference season in the "green" industry and I have been busy at both as an attendee and a vendor. Before I go to another one and get even more ideas, I wanted to share one. Th… Read More
2019-02-22 03:49
By Jim
It is conference season in the "green" industry and I have been busy at both the I-Landscape show in Schaumburg as well as the Natural Landscaping Seminar at McHenry County College, w… Read More
2019-01-23 16:19
By Jim
Unless you are in the field of ecological restoration you are probably unfamiliar with the term, live stakes. But perhaps you are like me, and appreciate a good deal. Whether it is a… Read More
2019-01-09 03:25
By Jim
Fall blooming plants such as goldenrods and asters are great additions to almost any garden. Most of them like to grow in full sun. There are, however, exceptions. Let’s lo… Read More
2019-01-03 19:44
By Jim
Let us wrap up the landscape design that was begun in Trees for Carbon Sequestration and Wildlife Support and continued in Wildlife Friendly Garden Design by planting t… Read More
2018-12-03 14:09
By Jim
I would like to talk about selecting trees for wet areas, as I recently received the following question from Aubrey from the Denver Colorado area: We have an area of our yard at the b… Read More
2018-11-28 02:26
By Jim
Last post, I showed the start of a wildlife friendly garden design and selected a Swamp White Oak tree to anchor it. That tree was chosen due to the high value it provides to wildlife… Read More
2018-11-08 13:55
By Jim
Picking the right trees for carbon sequestration is a good step to take in creating a Landscape that does more than look pretty. In this post, we will begin a mixed landscape bed desi… Read More
2018-10-24 01:23
By Jim
Landscaping for your grandchildren should include the common homeowner goals of having a beautiful and low maintenance landscape. Those, however, are no longer enough….not… Read More
2018-10-24 01:23
By Jim
Having a beautiful and low maintenance landscape are the two most common goals of homeowners for their yards. That is no longer enough….not if you are under 70 or give a r… Read More
2018-10-22 15:38
By Jim
Today, I am, going to recommend you consider an odd specimen tree, the Purple fountain beech. Yeah even though it’s not a native tree and I have bad mouthed Purple leaf Ja… Read More
2018-09-29 00:01
By Jim
Today lets look at a pollinator garden plan I put together. This is decent sized garden approximately 12′ wide by 8′ deep in the form of an oval. It is for an area w… Read More
2018-08-14 22:17
By Jim
Turning a side yard into a simple prairie planting using plants grown from seed this year is today’s blog topic. I have made gardens before with prairie plants in 1 ga… Read More
2018-08-01 21:47
By Jim
I was asked to show what the plantings around the Pondless Waterfall were and what looked like now (a year after they were planted), so I thought I would add a quick video to show any… Read More
2018-06-19 18:06
By Jim
It’s June and its raining (again). Perhaps you have water in your basement, a washed out hillside, or just some soggy areas where your grass keeps getting killed. In any case, e… Read More
2018-06-10 17:19
By Jim
When we think about fall color, we usually think first of trees or shrubs that have foliage that change colors, like red maples or burning bush. Perhaps flowering perennials like Gold… Read More
2018-06-03 16:16
By Jim
It’s a new month and time for a new adventure. This month I officially start Anderson Natural Landscapes to offer Naturalistic Landscape design, plant installation and landscape… Read More
2018-04-22 15:54
By Jim
Today is the 48th Earthday, so how will you celebrate? You might think about taking a walk in a nature preserve or maybe taking a kayak ride. While those are great things to do (I hop… Read More
2018-04-15 14:48
By Jim
Whenever I hear the phrase the “Green Industry” when people are referring to Nurseries and Landscapers, I cringe. Here are just a few of the reasons. 1) Using nylon n… Read More
2018-02-25 16:14
By Jim
Last post, I started a backyard landscape design with a Prairie and a Pond. Today, we finish it by adding shrubs, perennials and accessories. Here is how it looked when we left off la… Read More
2018-02-03 17:22
By Jim
Today, we start a backyard Ecological Landscape Design with a theme, a prairie and pond. This should be fun, as we are going to put together a design with a strong form and a lot of p… Read More
2018-01-20 01:05
By Jim
It has been a while since I wrote about a plant, the last one was the North Star Sour Cherry. That was a plant I had at my previous house and was quite familiar with. It is also a pre… Read More
2018-01-06 13:50
By Jim
When I purchased my house in McHenry, IL a couple of years ago, it came with a pondless waterfall in the front yard. Most people, especially passers by walking their dogs, seeme… Read More
2017-07-24 11:17
By Jim
Why would I want to make a post about Keeping Deer Ticks out of your Landscape? Besides the near epidemic of Lyme disease in parts of the country spread exclusively by deer ticks, the… Read More
2017-06-30 02:27
By Jim
Last year, I posted about a new perennial plug planting I did in June of 2016. In that post, Planting Plugs is a Cheap and Easy Way to Plant a Landscape, I showed how… Read More
2017-03-26 17:52
By Jim
Today, I am going to write about one of my favorite flowering trees. This plant has bright white Spring flowers, stays a nice compact size that fits almost any landscape. It also has… Read More
2017-02-19 15:45
By Jim
Like it or not non native groundcovers are a staple in traditional landscaping. They are the area rug of the landscape designer. That thing you throw on the ground that ties everythin… Read More
2017-01-08 13:52
By Jim
Happy New Year. Let’s all have a great 2017 and say good riddance to 2016! But before I can do that, I am going to explain the trees I selected for the Ecological Backyard Desig… Read More
2016-12-04 19:22
By Jim
I am going to take a break from explaining the design that we started looking at last time and do a review of a new book I just finished. This is a book I was eagerly anticipatin… Read More
2016-11-13 18:13
By Jim
In today’s post, we will look at a backyard landscape designed to do two things. First and foremost, it will look great in each of the four seasons. Secondly, it wil… Read More
2016-09-25 14:56
By Jim
Let’s use some of the big ideas I have talked about in other posts to make a Naturalistic Front Yard landscape design. I have done front yard designs before, including one… Read More
2016-08-14 17:49
By Jim
Why is planting plugs instead of larger plants in a landscape often a better idea? Let’s start planting the landscape design for my backyard and I’ll show you. S… Read More
2016-08-06 15:35
By Jim
Nothing brings life to a garden like well, life. You know the birds and the bees and the like. Let’s get some of that life in your yard by planting some of the very best perenni… Read More
2016-07-17 20:25
By Jim
Today, lets talk about a shrub I doubt you have found in the garden center, nurseries or other stores you usually buy your plants in, the American Hazelnut. That does not mean you sho… Read More
2016-06-19 13:20
By Jim
Lets get back to that backyard landscape design we have been working on and lets finish it up. In my last post on this design process, we defined the turf area and we added plants to… Read More
2016-06-05 17:33
By Jim
Here is a book review for Amazon I wrote for a fabulous new book I recently read, Garden Revolution. This is another in a line of several garden books that have been being published r… Read More
2016-06-05 17:33
By Jim
Here is a book review for Amazon I wrote for a fabulous new book I recently read, Garden Revolution. This is another in a line of several garden books that have been being published r… Read More
2016-05-15 17:09
By Jim
The last time we looked at our landscape design, we had completed the functional diagram. To refresh our memory, it looked like this: The next step is to define the edges of thes… Read More
2016-04-17 17:20
By Jim
Now that we have completed our base plan (see post), it’s time to go back to our list of goals for our landscape and start putting them on top of our base plan by creating a lan… Read More
2016-04-02 16:09
By Jim
The Appalachian Spring dogwood (Cornus florida ‘Appalachian Spring’) is an outstanding flowering tree that blooms in the Spring on leafless branches. Fans of Japanese… Read More
2016-03-20 17:28
By Jim
I know what you are thinking, how hard can it be to figure out where you have shade in your yard? Do I really need to read a blog post on this? I mean, the sun rises in the East and s… Read More
2016-02-28 19:02
By Jim
Do you have an area in your landscape where you would like to add color and texture? Perhaps a simple plant combo can be a low maintenance solution for you. Do you want to keep the ar… Read More
2016-02-14 17:40
By Jim
A couple of posts ago, we left off with our landscape design by creating a base plan. Lets continue the design process by starting our site assessment looking at our landscape soils… Read More
2016-01-31 19:41
By Jim
The Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) is a great shade tree with four season interest. It’s also a tree I WON’T let my wife talk me into planting at our new house (m… Read More
2016-01-17 19:09
By Jim
Last post, we began the process of redesigning a yard by clarifying what are the goals we want to achieve. Today, let’s begin our look at one of the next steps in the lands… Read More
2016-01-03 15:36
By Jim
It’s the start of the New Year, so it’s a great time to start a new landscape design. Creating a landscape wish list is a great first step in this process. Over the next s… Read More
2015-12-13 17:10
By Jim
Whether you are adding a bit of a landscaping or starting a whole new garden, it’s often a good idea to take a step back and look at shape of your garden’s layout. By this… Read More
2015-11-29 16:51
By Jim
Given the Christmas shopping season has officially began, lets look at some gardener gift ideas. A few years ago I gave four gift ideas for the hard to buy for gardener in your l… Read More
2015-11-15 16:08
By Jim
As the gardener and designer of your landscape, you are trying to create something. If successful, that something could be considered art just as a painting or a drawing is. The diffe… Read More
2015-11-01 04:11
By Jim
A while back I wrote about trees for wet soil. Today, let’s take a look at two closely related native shrubs that do well in wet (and also well drained) spots, the chokebe… Read More
2015-10-18 02:00
By Jim
Today, we are going to talk about something a bit different, fascination. Specifically, why fascination should be a quality to design into our landscapes. Fascination is defined… Read More
2015-10-11 02:24
By Jim
In the last post, we left off adding a native grass to the front of the beds. (You can click on the images for bigger versions just hit the back button on your browser to come back he… Read More
2015-10-04 04:16
By Jim
Last post, we left off defining our landscape bed lines and adding a light post. Today, we will continue this front yard landscape design by adding a shrub like tree, all the shrubs a… Read More
2015-09-26 16:00
By Jim
Over the last few months, I have written about landscapers favorite plants. These have included posts about Trees, Shrubs, Hydrangeas, and some well known and some not so well kn… Read More
2015-09-13 04:56
By Jim
Lets take a look at some of the favorite perennials of landscapers that are not quite as well known as the ones from Part One. Since, I have not grown most of these myself, I can… Read More
2015-08-15 19:24
By Jim
Yeah, I am actually getting around to talking about landscapers favorite perennials. I mean it was after all only May when I started talking about landscapers favorite trees and it&rs&hell…Read More
2015-07-19 15:48
By Jim
You may have noticed, I have been a little sporadic in publishing new posts lately. Sure, I did say I was going to reduce my new articles to once every couple of weeks or so, after st… Read More
2015-06-28 16:30
By Jim
I’ve written about eliminating the lawn before (Tyranny of the turf), but maybe you just want to make it a little less of a burden. We can do this by altering it’s shape a… Read More
2015-06-14 18:22
By Jim
Today, I wanted to get back to writing about perennials. I was about to write about landscapers favorite perennials. Instead lets talk about the one perennial landscapers SHOULD be us… Read More
2015-05-31 17:29
By Jim
Landscapers favorite shrubs should be plants that earn their keep in the garden. They should be low-maintenance and reliably contribute year-round interest. If a plant looks good for… Read More
2015-05-24 14:28
By Jim
Last post, I wrote about trees that landscapers love to use. Today, I wanted to start talking about shrubs. If I had one word to sum up what I have learned about shrubs since working… Read More
2015-05-17 16:26
By Jim
Since switching from a public garden to a commercial landscaping industry, I’ve had a chance to pay more attention to what plants are being used by landscapers in my area. Most… Read More
2015-04-26 23:04
By Jim
“How close should I plant a tree to my house?” is a question I have been getting a lot lately. It makes sense as it is Spring tree planting season. Today I will try to ans… Read More
2015-04-12 19:01
By Jim
Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods. Grass has greened up. Early bulbs have begun blooming, Daffodils and Bluebells are about to bloom. Plants have begun to arrive at Garden Cen… Read More
2015-03-29 19:14
By Jim
Fall is the time for the annual ritual of raking up fallen leaves. If you are especially prudent, you may even cut down your perennials then. This “debris” may then be put… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
By Jim
Lets get back to the Japanese garden landscape design I have been working on in posts one, two and three. Our design looked like this when we left it last time: It is starting t… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
By Jim
When you have a large area you want to fill with drifts of perennials you can soon realize your vision exceeds your pocketbook. Lets look at the ways of buying perennials and saving a… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
By Jim
In the last couple of posts (part 1 and part 2) we started a Japanese garden design for a very narrow backyard. In those posts we have created enclosure, defined the ground plane, and… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
By Jim
Today, we will continue with our design for the small residential Japanese garden that we started in the last post. In that post we completed the design for the ground plane. So now w… Read More
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