Shake off the Winter Blues! Start Planning Now to Reclaim Your Front Yard landscape!

February 12, 2025 Leave a comment
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Join Michael Veracka at the Barrington Public Library on Thursday February 27th at 6:30 pm to discover first hand how your home front yard landscape can be transformed from a staid, conventional, dead zone into a vibrant, teeming-with-life space that satisfies your family and the environment too!

In the presentation “Reclaiming the Front Yard: Freedom from Convention” we’ll explore the use of planting options that can be utilized within the front yard for year-round curb appeal, habitat enhancement and restoration. We will look at the aesthetics of plants, yet beyond, by developing criteria for effective plant selection. When properly considered, plants become design elements that serve as integral devices to create meaning, form and space.

It …

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Brighten Your Holidays With a Locally Made Mixed Green Wreath

November 20, 2024 Leave a comment

As the days shorten, and the darkness arrives earlier and earlier, colder weather sets in (usually, but so far not this year), and, like it or not, we all have more time to reflect, become introspective and ponder our lives and the world around us. For some, especially gardeners, landscapers and outdoor enthusiasts, the receding daylight is not always welcome. There can be chores to catch up on. But as with the changing of all seasons, there is an opportunity now to appreciate the ever spinning wheel of life, and the special qualities of late fall, and the upcoming winter season.

Since times eternal, wreaths with their circular shapes have symbolized the eternal rhythms and cycles of the four seasons. …

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My Forty Year Love Affair with Providence is Over

September 30, 2023 Leave a comment

For some time, I’ve been asking myself the same question over and over: why must I, a Providence tax- paying property owner, squat on private land abutting my residence, erect fencing and install curb appeal plantings (at my own expense) to solve chronic illegal dumping?  The answer: because a corporate property owner refuses to monitor and care for their property. And city regulatory departments pay lip service to neighborhood resident concerns, dole out inconsistent zoning and code enforcement and avoid real solutions to such pressing issues.

Occupied Abutting Property: Squatting to Solve Illegal Dumping

In normal times — pre-covid/pre-climate change — long time Providence residents such as myself knew the deal and overlooked such neighborhood inequities. After all, we love …

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Custom Winter Containers

October 20, 2022 Leave a comment

Though autumn is in full swing, and the colder winter weather approaches, you don’t have to give up on enjoying your garden and landscape.

Here’s a custom winter container suitable for the colder fall and winter temperatures, with plenty of “curb appeal.” This recycled container – utilizing repurposed wood once part of a bed frame – nicely accentuates this outdoor room patio setting.

We can custom build a container with materials and cold-hardy plantings to meld with your specific environ. Have a favorite container you want to use? We’ll work with that as well.

Contact us if you’re interested in purchasing and learning about the different options!

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Custom Outdoor Chairs for Your Home

October 19, 2022 Leave a comment

Looking for a comfortable, unique outdoor chair?

Originally designed in 1918 by acclaimed Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld and found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, adaptations for outdoor use are found in many renown arboretums and botanic gardens.

I’ve steadily been working on refining designs, including side tables and footrest accessories utilizing different woods and finishes.

Contact us if you’re interested in purchasing and learning about the different options!

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Horticulture professor goes back to school

June 25, 2020 Leave a comment

Students at FSC—and, particularly in the Urban Horticulture and Design Department—have always dedicated themselves to community service. Now it’s clear that their commitment is, well, growing.

A contingent of 17 students from the department gathered together to work on a literally get-your-hands-dirty project—helping to create a wildlife habitat at Howitt Middle School in the Village of Farmingdale. The concept was developed by associate professor Michael Veracka, who wanted his students to benefit from a robust applied learning experience. Professor Veracka had a vision. He wanted to create a project that would benefit his students with a robust applied learning experience.

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At Farmingdale, applied learning—real-world, hands-on experience that takes place outside the classroom—has become an essential element of the education

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Summer Musings from the Gardener

July 11, 2019 Leave a comment

Every June I take a few days off to visit public gardens of all sorts in the northeastern US to observe firsthand what horticultural trends are new, what design ideas are being expressed, in short what can I glean for inspiration, and incorporate into my own gardens and design practice? This is relaxing, great fun and especially important when considering tactics for crafting educational content geared toward suburban Long Island, NY college students studying horticulture and landscape design who overwhelmingly favor formal gardens abundant with clipped foundation plantings, turf, heat loving tropicals and trendy annuals, supercharged with seemingly never ending inputs of chemicals and water. 

My preference? Informally designed gardens, with sweeping curves, utilizing the practice of designing systems modeled …

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FSC Students Design Sensory Herb Garden at Clark Botanic Garden

January 15, 2019 Leave a comment

“Please tour – even eat – the plants” may not be the advice you’d expect at ta public garden, but in a sensory herb garden visitors are encouraged to explore the prickly and tickly feel of plants, smell the fragrances and even eat some of what is growing there.

It’s the Town of North Hempstead’s Clark Botanic Garden, in Albertson, that will live by such a freewheeling policy, and it is FSC students Michelle Callahan and Dona Damaltis, with guidance and encouragement by Associate Professor Michael Veracka – all from the Department of Urban Horticulture and Design – who will make the sensory garden a reality.

“We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to use the skills and education …

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Reclaim Your Turf, April 14

March 26, 2018 Leave a comment

 

Reclaim Your Turf: Designing Sustainable Landscapes
A Benefit for the Sustainable Garden, Department of Urban Horticulture & Design
Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, NY Saturday April 14, 2018

Talk # 1: Keynote
Finding Your Niche: Establishing an Ecological Focus in Brentwood, NY
Presenter: Karen Burke, CSJ, EdD
Talk description: Demand for ecologically beneficial landscapes is increasing, but there are few built examples on Long Island one can use as models for inspiration and replication. Offering an ecological and spiritual approach, the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood, NY practice good stewardship of the environment by employing knowledge and skills rarely taught in horticulture and design programs. This presentation guides landscape architects, designers, contractors, and others through what is needed to establish

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