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Landscape Architecture

Flooded road

Stormwater woes, and how rain gardens can help

A local problem with widespread implications What is a watershed? No matter where you live, you are in a watershed. All of Illinois, minus that sliver of land bordering Lake Michigan, is in the Mississippi River Watershed. But we can break down this massive watershed into more local streams and...
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Japanese gravel garden with mounded plant forms

A plant’s growth habit provides function and beauty

From a horticultural perspective, the term “habit” is not what you think. Though there are certainly some bad habits in gardening like not cleaning soil off tools or buying plants with no feasible location to plant them. When you hear a horticulturist say the term “habit” what we are referring to...
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A puddle

Landscape Drainage for Homeowners

Are you stricken with pools of water in your yard and you don’t own a pool? Instead of water moving away from your house, does it run into the basement?  Are you constantly battling eroded hillsides? If you fight these common water maladies, then very likely there is a stormwater drainage problem...
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New Year New Yard

New Year, New Yard: Making plans for your landscape in 2020

It is now the year 2020. It seems like everyone agrees, saying year “twenty-twenty”, feels so strange. As if we have arrived in a future we’ve only seen in movies and the Jetsons. As we were preparing for a New Year’s party, my six-year-old asked “Why is New Year’s such a big deal?” I explained,...
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