Rain gardens are a great introduction to eco-landscaping, and Fern Ridge customers, along with conservation authorities, are requesting they be part of the design.
to biodiversity, reliance and communities, “They are all over that, and they absorb it.” The challenge is, students can be at very different levels; some are just out of high school, some have three years of gardening experience, others have been gardening for 20 years. “Our students are definitely asking for more ecological and native plants, all the buzzwords that you are hearing. But do they know how to work with it? That’s what they are here for.”
PROGRESSIVE DESIGN, PAYING CUSTOMERS AT FERN RIDGE Sean James, owner of Fern Ridge Landscape Consulting and EcoSolutions of Milton, Ont., started landscaping when he was 14, and has always been self-employed. He graduated from Niagara Parks School of Horticulture in 1991. As James walked me through his property, slivers of sunlight cut through the rainclouds highlighting patches of colour and pretty lines in a consummate collector’s garden. James introduced me to notable trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and edibles as we nibbled on cherry tomatoes and raspberries collected on-site. Ever ready with his trusty pruning shears, he nipped wayward branches. The space is his office, studio and trial garden, with three dogs and a house filled with memorabilia; he’s a man comfortable in his own skin. After the tour, we sat down to discuss today’s garden trends over coffee. “Thomas Rainer is in the right place, ethically,” he began. “It’s all over the media.” The public may not have read Rainer, Tallamy or Darke, but James says they understand the gist. A copy of The Living Landscape by Darke and Tallamy sat on his desk, waiting to be read. “I think of gardening as refereeing.” The site of a large Nova Scotia project he completed had 120 different species of plants, but most people couldn’t see the beauty, said James. “If I showed people how cool it was, then they got it.” A house was going in and the owners wanted some green (read lawn) so James had to compromise, but he managed to repurpose the Sean James, Fern Ridge Landscape plants. “I rescued plants like low bush blueberries and kalmia and then grouped them elsewhere. We need to see some order to actually recognize the beauty. “Mowed paths give people a chance to see intimate details. From a distance it may look like a mix-mash, but up close you can see an aster, goldenrod, milkweed or some of the funkier stuff like grey dogwood and so on. But they need some sort of sign, either massing or a defined edge, to see it’s not just budget cuts, it’s a new way of thinking.” “We used to bury eco initiatives. If you asked people ‘What do you think of eco-gardening?’ they would fold their arms and step back.” But James found if a rain garden was incorporated into a plan, it would pique a client’s interest and they’d often ask for it to be included in their quote. “We’ve always been interested in eco-landscaping and now people are coming to us. People are reading about the stress pollinators and monarchs are under. Organizations like Conservation Halton 10 | JANUARY 2017 | LANDSCAPE TRADES
are mandating that New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus) has to be in every landscape they do, so the mottled dusky winged butterfly can have food. We are using the prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum) to feed giant swallowtails. “Landscapers are not selling well, we bemoan the fact our business share is dropping, but we are not staying current with what the public wants. For example, young people want edibles. They want to know their food is healthy, they want to do their own composting. They want to know that their food is nutritional, they are keen on this. “Just about every client will say, ‘I’m looking for low maintenance.’ If you can figure out how to design a garden that doesn’t need forever tweaking, and make it fit with the general population’s aesthetic, then I think you can be more commercially successful. I think people don’t really understand how much work they actually do; they mow their lawn every week on auto pilot. If you didn’t have to do that, you could just occasionally prune or weed a little bit.” I wondered if Fern Ridge is seeing a trend, if people are hiring them for environmental projects. “Yes. Schools are calling us for butterfly and conservation gardens. The conservation authority is hiring us for the same thing, plus rain gardens, a lot of our residential customers are also asking for the same things.”
REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE I believe there is a common thread — a thread that touches each of us and is woven in that green tapestry we call nature. We are all becoming more aware of the need to recognize and understand how creating and maintaining gardens can reestablish our ancient connections with nature. Adopting an approach that includes beauty, biodiversity and resilient plants, chosen for suitability to their sites, over imposing our will on a given space, can be both beautiful and cost effective. Public gardens, schools of horticulture and prominent authors are leading the way by encouraging us to ask questions. How LT will we respond to the answers? Theresa M. Forte is a garden columnist, photographer and speaker based in the Niagara peninsula. You can reach her by calling 905-374-1505 or by e-mail theresa_forte@sympatico.ca.