Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

This naturalistic garden is a wonderful place for people and creatures to mingle

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden designerJeff Epping — not because you ’re likely to touch off on something , but because you might be dive - bombed by a pair of nesting hummingbird , or a bevy of butterflies , or any number of other pollinators that make this shady midwestern garden their home . Jeff Epping is the primary designer at Epping Design and Consulting and the former director of gardening at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison , Wisconsin . hand this background , it ’s no surprise that his home landscape is something special . He writes about this beautiful space in his articleDesign an Engaging , Naturalistic Garden in the Shade .

Twenty long time ago , this backyard was a cheery patch of turf , surrounded by border filled with floriferous perennial . Jeff made prompt work of installing an expansive Isidor Feinstein Stone patio so the family could be always absorb in the garden and then planting tree diagram to allow shade . The landscape painting has been slowly undergoing a transformation in the more recent past , moving off from a traditional shade garden to a more naturalistic one that embraces an ecology - first outlook . This phylogenesis , however , has n’t sacrificed the original intent of the dreaming garden — that it be a visually appealing infinite with plenty of activity .

Jeff has a few design tips for see to it that a garden is perfect for people , plants , and pollinators :

Jeff say , “ I examine to choose plants that help patronize insect , doll , and other creatures without the input of supplementary water , fertilizer , fuel , and other chemicals . The needy , noncontributing ‘ look at me ’ plants that I used to turn mainly to impress those that bring down my garden have fall by the roadside . Some exception are in a few pots and planter on the terrace , but even those are selected to help suffer hungry hummingbird and bees . I have heard many a gardener lament that they are ‘ constrained ’ to garden in shade , but I am not one of those ; I be intimate my little shade garden and all the plants and animals it supports . ”

In this video , Jeff walk us through this amazing infinite that is buzzing with natural process .

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Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be careful when you come in the backyard of garden couturier Jeff Epping — not because you ’re potential to jaunt on something , but because you might be dive - bombard by a couple …