Hudson Highlands Garden Design
Barbara Hobens Feldt
Custom garden designs that interpret client desires and needs.
Make the most of your property with an evaluation for present and future gardening and landscaping opportunities. Enjoy your entire property with pathways, uncover nature's features, and discover views with Barbara's forestscaping techniques.
Learn gardening skills and the basic know-hows of growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers with targeted lessons and garden coaching. Know what to look for, what to buy, and enjoy discounts on personalized nursery shopping trips.
Barbara Feldt is a garden designer that specializes in site selection, vegetable and perennial garden design, lawn reduction, forestscaping, harvesting rainwater,
gardening with deer, attracting beneficial wildlife, feng shui gardening, organic methods, designing stone labyrinths, community gardening and beautification projects, historical garden research and reconstructions, and project management.
Barbara is an author (see www.gardenyourcity.com), public speaker, oil painter, and designer of B. F. Historical Driveways.
Growing organically since 1990, Barbara will be opening TARN FARM LLC in 2009. Inspected for a New York State plant growing license, she will be taking herb and vegetable orders from local restaurants, shops, stores, and for clients' use. Specific requests and inquiries can be emailed to hhgardendesign@optonline.net.
Make the most of your property with an evaluation for present and future gardening and landscaping opportunities. Enjoy your entire property with pathways, uncover nature's features, and discover views with Barbara's forestscaping techniques.
Learn gardening skills and the basic know-hows of growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers with targeted lessons and garden coaching. Know what to look for, what to buy, and enjoy discounts on personalized nursery shopping trips.
Barbara Feldt is a garden designer that specializes in site selection, vegetable and perennial garden design, lawn reduction, forestscaping, harvesting rainwater,
gardening with deer, attracting beneficial wildlife, feng shui gardening, organic methods, designing stone labyrinths, community gardening and beautification projects, historical garden research and reconstructions, and project management.
Barbara is an author (see www.gardenyourcity.com), public speaker, oil painter, and designer of B. F. Historical Driveways.
Growing organically since 1990, Barbara will be opening TARN FARM LLC in 2009. Inspected for a New York State plant growing license, she will be taking herb and vegetable orders from local restaurants, shops, stores, and for clients' use. Specific requests and inquiries can be emailed to hhgardendesign@optonline.net.
Although a request to “create a perennial border here” can certainly be accomplished, that is not the best use of Barbara Feldt’s design talent. Her sense of plant siting, practical and low-maintenance designs, placement of rocks, furniture, accessories and garden layout leads not only to an immediate appreciation, but satifaction in knowing that it will last and grow.
She shapes forest and wetland paths with a purpose - you observe as you walk, stop in newly-appreciated places that offer beauty, interest, and/or solace. Barbara can design plans for this gardening season and assist in developing years-long strategies.
Her garden and forestscape design service takes a comprehensive approach. Whether a kitchen garden, formal ornamental, or annual cutting garden or koi pond is desired, Barbara includes a unique component – you.
Your initial on-site meeting or discussion via email or phone will be an in-depth interview. Barbara gathers facts, pinpoints desires (functions, themes, views, colors, sounds, and fragrance to start), and will offer suggestions and ideas geared to the optimal enjoyment of your gardens and land. Want to harvest organic vegetables, pick aromatic herbs for the grill or salad, and be able to gaze out at beauty from every window? You can.
Barbara works with you. Gardening is not difficult. But, choices are and so can the optimum places to plant them. Barbara knows through experience (and research skills) to ensure that the right tomato, bulb, shrub, and tree is selected, placed, and correctly planted to thrive.
The Unique Highlands
Incorporating some well-chosen, no-fuss, and beautiful native plants to your land and sharing raspberries (wine berries) with wild turkeys in early summer can be a forest-edge treat. Barbara will help you choose what you want to grow and what to remove. Some natives have invasive habits that choke out plants and wetlands: Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria L. Liatris), barberry, and Multiflora rose for example.
The history that has shaped this land, both the geological and human impact, continues to guide her plant choices. Barbara's respect and sensitivity to the wildlife and forest go back to childhood days spent in the woods adjoining her home in northeast New Jersey.
Organic methods always - for all plants, soil, and lawn. Do you want tomatoes that are flavorful and sweet or taste like cardboard? One only needs to observe the ceasless drive of Eastern Bluebirds bringing worms, grubs, and and crickets to the waiting mouths of their young to realize how vital it is not to use any chemical or so-called "Miracle" product.
Practical methods
Designing with practical ideas and organic methods results in reduced maintenance, the peace of mind that you are not harming anyone's health or the environment, and maximizing your enjoyment of your land. Placing nesting boxes and providing cover for birds (and bats) is wise since they are the most incredible insect eaters!
Professional Services
Garden Consultation and Design; Project Management
Speaker - PowerPoint lectures geared to your topic
On-Site Gardening Lessons, Consult on nursery buying trips
Expertise includes container and raised-bed gardening, perennials and annuals, creating theme gardens, composting, historical reconstructions, native plant selections, welcoming deer up to the garden gate, and utilizing both wetlands and forests wisely and gently.
Project management
Handle bid process and site management/installation, conduct interviews, obtain estimates of only fully-insured professionals such as landscape architects, pond builders, arborists, physical labor, and legal removal of debris. Purchase plants/material, arrange deliveries.
Group Trip (limit of 6) to public gardens and garden centers
Experience
Two decades of gardening roofs and urban gardens, street tree bed projects, celebrity terraces, penthouses, community gardens, and koi ponds. Researched, designed, and installed an 1850’s historical reconstruction of Garrit Striker's mansion in DeWitt Clinton Park (viewed from West 52nd Street, between 11th Avenue and the West Side Highway. Expert in developing private, public, educational and volunteer gardening projects. Garden designer of private, not-for-profit, and public spaces in Manhattan and Garrison, New York. Founder and Director of Manhattan Botanical Garden (1995-2006) that promoted volunteerism, beautification, and adding native plants to over 40 satellite gardens. Designed and installed the Concept Garden at Pier 84, The Hudson River Park, at West 44th Street. The ribbon cutting of the community-tended wildlife garden in October 2006. The Concept Garden design and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's letter - www.gardenyourcity.com.
Mission Statement
To provide environmentally practical designs to clients, to grow seeds and plants organically, and to teach, lecture, and write of respect and care of all wildlife and of our natural environment.
Email: hhgardendesign@optonline.net
