Gardens Designed for the Good of the Earth

Amidst a fast-paced world and a changing climate, the role of the home landscape has shifted and taken on new significance. Increasingly, gardens have become a sanctuary from the outside world, places that support diverse species of plant and animal life, and sustain the natural processes of a thriving ecosystem.

At Sweetgum Horticulture, we honor an ecology of resilience and connectedness and are committed to the well-being of the Earth.

As our understanding of the home landscape shifts—from that of an individual property to one that is encompassed within a larger network of connected yards and natural areas—we recognize the significance each property plays in the resilience of the whole.

With the increasing loss of wild habitats, it becomes essential for gardens to perform the varied ecological functions of natural ecosystems, such as:

• Create habitat for pollinators and songbirds
• Serve as native plant sanctuaries
• Provide areas for stormwater to infiltrate in order to reduce the flooding of basements, surrounding properties and roadways
• Absorb excess nutrients and pollutants before they contaminate our waterways
• Increase the tree canopy to help mitigate heavy rainfall while cooling urban and suburban heat islands
• Sequester carbon in healthy soils and vegetation

Empowered by this vision, we design landscapes rooted in the principles of self-sustaining and resilient ecosystems that are able to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

In our work we often ask...

“What can our gardens do for the good of the Earth?”

Nurturing Harmonious and Resilient Plant Communities

Aligned with this ecological viewpoint, we turn our sights on designed plant communities. When we study plants in the wild, we notice that they exist in diverse, self-propagating and naturally-occurring communities. We also notice the dense matrix they form, the lack of exposed soil, and the myriad ways that plants have found to adapt to their natural surroundings. As we select species for a new garden, we look for a diverse set of plants with strong genetics that will yield a harmonious, optimally functional and resilient community.

A well-designed plant community is:

Diverse, resilient, adaptable, self-propagating and sustainable over time.

The rich assortment of plants we choose includes genetically diverse and seed-grown native species, select “nativars” that can attract and serve as a food source for pollinators, and occasional non-native species with important traits like rabbit-resistance. The effect of this careful selection ensures overall functionality, self-sustainability and adaptability of the whole community. Such a garden in turn will have a dense ground covering and will allow plans to grow, change and adapt naturally over time with a minimal amount of care.

Creating Places for our Creative Spirit to Soar

While this community-based approach of planting is good for the Earth, it is also good for us.

In our current times, gardens are a refuge from the pressures of the outside world. They are the perfect antidote to the screen-saturated environments of work and school, a place where we can refresh our spirit and recharge our energy. Gardens give us space to connect with our curious, creative spirit. When designed around a diverse community of native plants, gardens attract pollinators and songbirds that encourage us to connect to a greater sense of life beyond our own.

Spending time in our gardens is a therapeutic exercise in mindfulness, as they are an invitation to nourish all our senses with a rich tapestry of sights, sounds, scents, textures and colors. Amidst birdsong, flashes of tiny wings and vibrant bursts of color, our gardens offer unexpected moments of joy in every season.

Honoring Our Connection to Nature

At Sweetgum Horticulture, we recognize the physiological and psychological importance of being in nature, or ecotherapy, and what Japanese culture recognizes as shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing.”

The unique and varied natural spaces we design allow our clients to fully bask in the surrounding atmosphere and rediscover their connection to nature.