A Successful First Season Landscape in Ridgefield, CT

This is an update, from a previous blog post, of a landscape design and installation project Designing Eden installed in the fall of 2010, in Ridgefield, CT.  Watching and maintaining this garden’s growth through its first full growing season has been a real joy.  Despite the wettest year in Connecticut history, I would consider this season a success.  Partly due to its small in town location, the historic house and creative latitude I’m given.  This landscape continues to be one of my all time favorite landscape projects.  Originally, when meeting the homeowners, they had a lot of pictures of gardens they admired.  Most of those gardens where heavily planted with annuals.  After talking to them about the positives and negatives of an all annual garden and the approximate costs associated with them, we decided on a mix of approximately 80% perennial/woody plants leaving 20% of the gardens open for annuals that would be swapped out multiple times a year.  That mix would give the garden the best of both worlds, a lot of seasonal color yet minimizing long term maintenance.  Despite all the successes, there were some small challenges throughout the season, especially with over watering.  Over watering is a common problem with landscapes that have new irrigation systems.  Understandably, homeowners want to use what they purchase but water can be often overused in a new landscape.  Infrequent, deeper watering cycles typically produce healthier, stronger turf and landscapes.  Below are some of the 2011 landscapes scenes.

Had to throw that one in so you can see why I love this transformation so much.

If you are interested in landscapes for historic house, I encourage you to visit Designing Eden’s website at www.DesigningEden.com.

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Richard Schipul

For the last 30 years, I have owned the landscape company Designing Eden LLC based in New Milford, CT. We offer landscape designs, landscape installations and garden maintenance services in Fairfield and Litchfield County Connecticut. I am currently the only Nationally Certified Landscape Designer in Litchfield County and sit on the board of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers and Mad Gardeners.

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