Design Wild NY

OUR COALITION | If you’re feeling despair for our current would right now just know our coalition includes EVERYONE who wants a future on EARTH 🌎🌱 👊🏽 quote from Naomi Klein 💜

BIODIVERSITY IN PUBLIC | A New York City Co-op embraces ecological design and finds a deeper sense of place. At this large nearly 200 unit co-op, sitting along the western edge of Central Park, a new updated form of horticulture is blooming. In the past, like most of the neighborhood, the building had the typical plantings of boxwood, liriope and begonias. A mostly static, generic horticulture that can be found anywhere. No habitat, no movement, no seasonality, it created a harsh exit from the sanctuary of Central Park and a return to anonymous, urban life.

Our Design Intent: The goal of our design was to bring the vibrant ecosystem of our natural world right up to the doorstep of the building, defining the sense of place and creating an oasis for tenants, wildlife, and the thousands of people who pass by this busy intersection each day. 📷by Lesley Unruh Read more on our substack. Link in bio 🌱

REVOLUTION IN A PUBLIC PLANTER | We are pretty obsessed with revolutionizing how civic neighborhoods utilize their public planters. This may seem small to your but stick with me for a minute... Most often these are planted with 100% annuals and topicals. Plants from a very different part of the world. This material is brought in every season, has no relationship to this place and often gets changed out 3-5 times a year (spring, summer, fall, and sometimes winter). Although you may still find this pretty, they often have no movement, no habitat and no ecological value while also carrying a relatively heavy environmental footprint. We are so jazzed to play a critical role in changing the aesthetic and the functionality of these often overlooked civic horticultural moments. For a while now we have been working with several neighborhood organizations and BIDs, designing containers with 90% perennial trees, shrubs and flowers with a deep dedication to year-round interest, good urban design and local ecology. Over the past decade, with the help of some very talented horticulture staff, we’ve honed in on a list of plants— most often US natives —that perform and look amazing in the MOST extreme of urban environments (we’re looking at you Broadway at 41st Street, 10th Ave and 38th Street, iykyk). We have also found HOW we care for these spaces needs to shift becoming stewards rather then overseers. We have found this approach wildly successful. Pollinators, monarch butterflies and songbirds all agree. These plantings move in the breeze and with traffic, change over the seasons and attract life. You see, our work has always been about creating moments of natural, wild beauty. We feel so strongly that these moments bring life back to us, reminding our human spirit that we are HOME, that we belong here on THIS planet. This conviction has never been more urgent. Who knew that being on the side of LIFE would be a revolutionary act these days. I for one am all in on this PLACE, on this EARTH and am ready, by all means necessary, to protect our perfect and exquisite HOME.🌸🌱

URBAN MEADOW ish | We love challenging urban spaces, pairing native and ecologically rich plantings with structure and four season interest for dynamic tough year round public plantings. Balancing ecology and public space is our jam! 🌱

Some BEFORE & AFTERS from our project at Hudson Valley, NY | Tannery Place in Rhinebeck. This project has a terrific design, ex*****on AND care team. It’s when all three work together that the real magic happens. Featured projects include: 1. The production garden went from turf and a formal rose garden to a lush ecologically rich landscape with medicinal herbs and cut flowers mixed in with the production greenhouse and vegetable garden all loving cared for by the incredible Leyla and Nicole Lopane (of course with the tiny Folcore as puppy overlord). Heavy lifting, structural changes, hardscape and general support by the miracle worker at Dominick Lopane and company. 2. The back hillside, the main view from the home’s patio was transformed from 90% spirea to a wildflower native meadow garden. In its very first season it’s still growing in with dozens of native flower species, 4+ native grasses, native shrubs and a few small flowering trees for structure and winter drama. We can’t wait to see this garden progress over the next few seasons adding bulbs and drifts for blooms and interest in all four seasons. 3. The stable and workshop got a new stone patio, working kiln, and flower beds to soften the architecture and create a strong sense of place and functionality. 4. Back stone patio got a full container make over with stone pots filled with long lasting and blooming shrubs and perennials, including flowering Hydrangeas, fruiting Aronias and cascading tiarella. Just a few of the highlights developing. This property is being transformed from a turf monoculture to a breathing, habitat rich landscape full of pollinators, song birds and beauty. We couldn’t be more proud of the property owners vision and dedication to stewarding this historic land 💜🌸🌱

If you haven’t been by to see all the new signage and blooms get over to SoBro Conservancy of Saratoga for the stunning mid summer native, public ecological garden in all its glory!

HILLSIDE PLANTING | New hillside garden in its first season BEFORE & AFTER. From a majority spirea and evergreens to loving the lightness, the Foxtail Lily and the Echinacea ‘Hula Dancer’. So much more to flower, develop and grow in here with seasonal blooms from early spring minor bulbs & flowering trees through to late autumn asters and autumn foliage. We can’t wait to see it all develop!

UNRULY | Practice non compliance a little everyday. Train your mind, your heart and your courage just a little everyday. Be a touch unruly and if you need help or encouragement look to the plant world 🌱. They’re being unruly all around you 💜

PLANT CRUSH | It’s Penstemon season!!! We just LOVE Penstemon especially ‘Husker Red’ is an absolutely dreamy native flower stealing the show with masses of white flowers in June. Commonly known as Breardtongue they attract all kinds of pollinators including humming birds and butterflies and is wonderfully adaptable to many kinds of habitats. We especially love this selection for the dark purple foliage great in design! 🌸💜

DIVERSITY & GRANDEUR | Working on bringing diversity, full season interest and a touch of gravitas to this beautiful home entry. Reveling in texture and color, rolling seasonal interest, evergreen structure with native plants and garden standards sprinkled in we are loving this development.