Designing Landscapes with an Eye for Beauty & Sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY IS A CORE VALUE WHEN WE DESIGN YOUR BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES! When you hear the name Greenwise, you probably know our lawn care program is 100% safe and organic, but how much do you know about our landscape design? Did you know our design team features several landscape designers? And our mission is to create beautiful and sustainable landscape designs? Our landscape design team works on designs varying in budget and complexity. We’ve designed simple parkway plantings to complex multi-acre designs incorporating every element you can think of from patios and decks to outdoor kitchens. The one element all our designs have in common (besides being beautiful) is sustainability.

What Does Creating Sustainable Designs Mean for You?

For you, sustainable designs mean you can feel good knowing that any design we create for your home will spark joy for years to come, and every element of the design will be done with the health of our environment in mind, from what plant and hardscape materials we choose to how we source them. Our goal is to make sustainability the core of each design we create. In fact, you’ll find that goal in our company’s mission statement: Our vision is to transform the landscape industry and safeguard our environment through sustainable practices, creating beauty that lasts – one landscape at a time.

GORGEOUS SUSTAINABLE DESIGNS TO BRING YOU JOY FOR YEARS By incorporating sustainability into each design project, we can lighten our footprint and yours. We start with nine core elements that encompass sustainability and we work to ensure that each design highlights at least one on this list:

1. Native Plants—Including native plants in your garden is ideal for creating a space that ultimately requires less maintenance and more durability, and of course creates a friendly habitat for our birds, pollinators, and beneficial insects.
2. Pollinator-Friendly Plants—Not all pollinator-friendly plants are natives and not all pollinators are native, so when we don’t plant natives, we like to ensure the plant attracts pollinators.
3. Rain Gardens­—Sometimes you have a spot in your yard that simply puddles whenever it rains, and maybe that spot would be a great place for a garden. That’s where rain gardens come in—a perfect opportunity to blend beauty with functionality while creating a natural habitat.
4. Reducing Turf Area—Plant a garden instead of growing grass. If you don’t need a lawn or a swath of lawn, why not turn it into a beautiful garden? The environmental benefits are huge!
5. Improved Permeability Ratio—Do you have an extensive driveway that you really don’t use? A carport? You can remove those to expand your lawn or garden. Green is always better than concrete.
6. Permeable Pavers—A smart, environmentally solid solution for driveways, sidewalks, and patios as a way to efficiently manage water on your property.
7. Recycled/Reclaimed Materials—Using recycled materials is a no-brainer way to positively impact the environment whenever possible. We have designed beautiful patios and driveways by re-using materials from different jobs.
8. On-Site Water Management—As flooding gets more frequent and more extreme, it’s important to look at your property and see how much water is used and how to best manage it. We have many options at our fingertips for managing water on your property from flo-wells, aqua blocks, and french drains underground to rain gardens and rain barrels above ground.
9. Shade Trees—Or what our design consultant likes to call Heritage Trees since they benefit the next generation and beyond. Often overlooked, shade trees can create real benefits in terms of heating and cooling your home and yard, reducing erosion, and cleaning the air we breathe.

Creating Thoughtful Landscape Designs

As you can see, a lot of thought goes behind our designs. For hardscapes, we take into consideration if the material is natural, locally sourced, or renewable. When thinking about what plants to include in our design, we look at many factors, including durability, how much maintenance they require, are they drought or water tolerant, native to our area, do they require extra fertilization, and can larger plants be included to provide heating and cooling benefits. Creating beauty and sustainability is a mindful practice and one that we dive into eagerly and passionately. Each of our designers offers their own unique perspective to design, and always keep your vision, budget, and needs in mind. Ready to create sustainable beauty in your yard? Now’s the perfect time to get started on your design, giving you a yard to enjoy this season and many, many seasons to come. Give us a call today at 847-866-1930 to bring new, sustainable life to your outdoors!