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 would not be an overstatement to say that many Rhode Island front yard landscapes are largely composed of the same twelve to fifteen plants, dominated by the use of foundation plantings tightly crammed together against the house. Why are foundation plantings typically used, for what purpose? Must we use foundation plants? From decades of working with clients one central truism has emerged; home dwellers all want attractive, ornamental landscapes, but do our landscapes all have to look the same?
We will consider how to design gardens that evoke a natural landscape employing a matrix-style planting design using natives alone, and a mixture of native and non-invasive exotic plants (perennials and woody plants), that change through succession and growth throughout the year and over time.
Don’t let the winter blues get you down. Plan, then plant, for new life come spring! This presentation is part of the Yards Alive 2025 Living Landscapes Learning Series, hosted by Prickly Ed’s Cactus Patch
