Tag:Landscape
A Sustainable Landscape for The Paddocks
One of the things that IHCDA wanted to see in our RHTC application for The Paddocks Apartments was a Sustainable Landscape Plan. We chose to meet NGBS Silver status for this project.
To help us with this, we contacted Chris Kline, Sustainability Manager, at Cardno. I have personally worked with Chris and Cardno in the past on various projects through my association with the Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Fund. Chris brought in Christine Dittmar as the project manager. We had several conversations regarding our goals and preferences including a couple of site visits and several plan reiterations. The current version is what you see below.
The key is a bit hard to read at this scale, so briefly: Green is standard lawn turf. Dark green is a low-mow fescue similar to what you would find in the rough of a golf course. The orange area is a prairie buffer between The Paddocks and the adjacent property. The pink is a detention pond planted as a pollinator garden with native wild flower plants that will have rotating blooms. The dark purple at the top is another detention pond which will have a variety of native plantings that can tolerate the fluctuation of water associated with the pond.
The goal was to have the best of both worlds here. Because this complex is geared towards families, we wanted adequate areas of turf where children would have the opportunity to play. These areas of turf are also used to border the native, naturalized areas, thus giving them definition. In some of the transition areas, we have included fruit trees for interest. Signage will be included to explain to residents and passersby what they are seeing.
Along with the turf recreation areas, Cardno has included a natural playground area, a fire pit and a community garden. An area for a second community garden has been set aside if a second is warranted; otherwise it will remain another area of turf.
We asked Chris to include a presentation to the Culver Town Council which was made at the May 12th meeting via Microsoft Teams. Since this was an online presentation, We also requested that it be recorded to be shared. The presentation to the Council was abbreviated in order to be cognizant of their time, but the long version was recorded here:
It will be interesting to see this come to fruition. We expect the majority of this landscape to be in place yet this year as the site work wraps up. The first units should be available for rent sometime late this summer.
A Sense of Place
Becky often gives me grief about not turning things off when we’re out somewhere. When I walk through a parking lot I am looking at the lane layout, the slopes, the drainage structures and drainage patterns. When we’re sitting in a restaurant or someone’s home, I’m looking at the details of how the trim was completed, the lights that were used and the lighting patterns that were created. I can usually tell whether someone else was thinking of these things or whether they where haphazardly done. A lot of these things I file away for future reference and they will appear in some incarnation in a future project if it’s something I liked. I’ve always believed the adage that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…
Water Conservation
Water conservation is not a huge issue in our area, but we’re hearing about it more and more on a national level. California Governer Scharzeneggar declared a goal of a 20 percent reduction in water use state-wide by 2012. California currently purchases water from Arizona, but with the continual development expansion in Arizona, particularly in arid areas such as Pheonix, the need for fresh water is a growing issue in the Southwest. How does that affect us in Northern Indiana?
Congratulations to Price Nurseries
Congratulations to Tom McGee and Jody Overmyer at Price Nurseries for their Green Excellence Award from the Indiana Nursery and Landscape Association! They received this award for their design and implementation of the landscaping for the Tri-Way Mini-Golf Course in Plymouth. <Pilot News Article> (Note: The Pilot article has an incorrect address for Indiana Nursery and Landscape and the Price Nursery award has not been posted yet. You can see past award winners here.)
Easterday Construction Co., Inc. and Price Nurseries have enjoyed a excellent working relationship for many years with Price Nurseries acting as a subcontractor for us on many projects and the reverse, ECC doing subcontract work for Price Nurseries on occasion. These projects include Lake Maxinkuckee residences as well as commercial projects such as Fairfield Garden Court in Plymouth.
We are proud of our association with Price Nurseries and look forward to a long and rewarding relationship with them into the future. It is wonderful that their excellent work has been recognized by their peers. Great job guys!!!
Our Customers Say…
Ronald W Liechty - President, Garden Court, Inc.
Vancouver Complete Streets
April 7, 2025
Kevin Berger
Commentary, Tips
Community, Complete Streets, Detention, Green, Landscape, Trends
I accompanied Becky on a business trip to Vancouver, Washington, a few weeks back. Since I was on my own while she was in her conference, I spent a little time walking around. Several of the streets I walked on were fairly major thoroughfares. I don’t know if they were defined as “Complete Streets” there, but they met my definition, having bike lanes and spacious sidewalks. Honestly, I thought there was an excessive amount of paving, considering they had continuous paved center turn lanes between intersections, despite prohibiting driveways, and including wide sidewalks along with bike lanes which seemed redundant. It was overall a nice look though.
One of the interesting features were areas carved out into the adjacent developments for stormwater detention. These were obviously for the streets and not the adjacent developments. While I’ve seen this done on a small scale creating curbside rain gardens (Like the one by the LaPorte Library completed in partnership with Purdue.), these were full blown detention ponds, 2′-3′ deep and capable of holding upwards of 4,000 cubic feet of water. They were landscaped as mini parks and maintained with turf and trees rather than going the route of a wetlands or marsh type look. I thought this was an interesting idea.
These were large city blocks. It struck me that there was a missed opportunity to turn those small oases into actual mini parks. I know there is always the public safety concern about someone being caught in a storm, if someone was in them when they fulfill their design of holding water. (I was pleased that this concern wasn’t taken to the extreme where they were fenced.) Without doing anything in the basins themselves, their could have been seating around the perimeter taking advantage of the shade trees planted there. Another idea would be to create a pier type structure out into the basin with seating or even a gazebo.
The same thought could be applied locally. When detention ponds are installed in our area, they are either designed to be mowed or designed to be naturalized. In most cases, they are not considered a feature, but are designed to be functional and to fulfill a permit requirement. But could we do better?
The gazebo on a pier idea could work nearly everywhere and change a functional stormwater control requirement into a respite. Along these same lines, ponds are generally designed to maximize volume while taking up minimum space. What if they included a peninsula into the pond that could be walked on or landscaped to break-up the functional and be more naturalized? One pond that comes to mind for this is the new municipal detention pond in Plymouth across from the Neighborhood Center. What a great opportunity for the City to set an example?
If there are any civil engineers reading this, I’m sure they are cringing. They like to keep things simple and anything that affects the flow of water, creates additional calculations for them to do. That said, anything that slows the flow is a net positive. Some of these things could be incorporated around the control structure and actually make maintenance easier.
This isn’t something that could always be done. We have had projects where we have struggled to meet the detention requirements due to capacity needs vs site size. We have also had deep and steep ponds due to various factors that are not conducive to bringing the public to them. But there’s no reason that other options shouldn’t be considered when possible. Detention ponds don’t have to be purely function and aesthetic eyesores…
0 comments