Wildscaping: landscape design that restores habitat for wildlife, integrating humans and the design of our homes, workplaces, and public spaces into the community of the land.

Here's a proposal for a project I'm working on now that aims to integrate landscaping design into the mission and values of a "green builder" of neighborhoods that honor the landscape. A front-porch, walking trail, people-first kind of developer interested in plants and design that not only appeal to buyers, but give a neighborhood lasting character.

I'm partnering with Audubon Colorado for this project and landscaper Erica Holtzinger of Steppe Solutions


 

Rooting ______ Neighborhoods in the Land:
A Proposed Wildscape Discipline

For more than 39 years, _____ has created neighborhoods of enduring value that connect people to each other and to the natural environment on Colorado's Front Range.
--_____ Neighborhoods web site

PURPOSE: To strengthen _____'s mission through neighborhood landscaping friendly to people and wildlife. _____'s mission and values shine in the planning and architecture of each neighborhood and in the way the developments reflect the heritage and natural character of each site. Landscaping should reflect that mission and message.

Plants are a key part of connecting people to the natural environment, and also to each other. Because plants are literally rooted in place, they connect intimately to the landscape. Their look and fragrance and even the sounds they create at different seasons evoke place in the aesthetic sense. In the ecological sense, plants quite literally create the communities that distinguish one place from another. As soon as a plant goes into the ground, it begins making community, establishing the relationships with other species it needs to survive. Plants interact with other plants, and with animals, birds, insects, fungi, bacteria, and humans. As the primary producers of food, making sugars from carbon dioxide and minerals in a process driven by sunlight, plants feed a myriad of other species large and small. They also provide the fundamental materials - structure, fiber, and cover - for natural and human communities.

We begin with the land itself. We spend hours walking it, becoming familiar with its contours and points of interest. Our goals are to celebrate its special features, maximize open space and preserve view corridors. We consider who will live there and what they’ll want to see when they look out their windows. By letting the land dictate the character of the neighborhood, we allow each neighborhood to develop its own unique identity.
--_____ Neighborhoods web site

VISION: To root _____ in what Aldo Leopold called "the community of the land" by choosing a signature palette of native, heritage, and regionally adapted plants that identify the unique characteristics of _____ Neighborhoods. To integrate landscaping into _____'s "brand."

Conjure a landscape in your mind's eye. What colors it, shapes it, and contributes to its characteristic "look," whether forest, open woodland, prairie, shrubland, farm field, or meadow? Plants. Plants are an integral part of the unique identity of any patch of land. The plant species and varieties that _____ chooses for each site articulate _____'s mission and values. They should say "_____ Neighborhoods: We're on a mission here."

Native species are easy to establish and maintain: they already have the relationships they need to thrive and form healthy communities - and they naturally attract "desirable" wildlife like hummingbirds and butterflies. They characterize particular wild communities and environments. Heritage plants are those treasured types carried and cultivated by the various human cultures that have settled in the area. They are the historic signatures of a site. Regionally adapted plants have evolved for similar environments; they could be heritage types for future generations.

Landscaping is not a static - it should change as needs dictate, whether those needs come from the human community, the natural community, or the environment. Developing a palette of easy-care, locally adapted signature plants friendly to both people and wildlife, along with a plan for gardens and landscapes that root _____ homeowners in their neighborhoods brings _____'s mission home to each community.

 

RECENT WILDSCAPE/ XERISCAPE DESIGN PROJECTS

* Cherokee Generation Station, Denver: restore habitat for birds and butterflies on a many-acre bluff at a power plant site. Featured in "Peace amid power plant," Rocky Mountain News, June 1, 2007

* Wildflower meadow at private art studio yard, Salida - "Best Garden," Chaffee County, 2005.

* Memorial Garden, Boulder Unitarian Church.

* Tierra Del Alma five-plex, Salida.

 

Cherokee habitat restoration in progress, Denver, Colorado

Cottage garden using native and regionally adapted plants

Residential wildscape: native plant community restoration

Residential wildscape pocket garden on street side of house

Residential pocket garden using heritage plants

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