Philosophy
garden-making for us all
What's in a name?
I take inspiration from conservationist Doug Tallamy’s Carolina chickadee research. Put simply: in areas with less than 70% native plants, parent chickadees can’t find enough invertebrates to feed their young. This means some babies die in each nest. The remaining chicks are not enough to sustain the population, causing a slow but steady decline.
However, there is good news! When an area has 70% or more native biomass, chickadees find enough food to feed their young. The majority of chicks survive nesting, & the population thrives.
As goes the chickadees, so goes many other animals and birds.
70|30 Design Studio uses this ratio of native to non-native plants as a guide for our landscape designs. Adding native plants has real-life benefits — & you can still have cherished plants that may not come from this region.
Most people spend only 10 — 20% of their time in their yard per week.
It is an act of generosity to create a landscape that adds value to the local environment even when we’re not there.
Plus – adding landscaping increases a home’s value an average of 10-12%.
It is possible to create low-maintenance gardens with native plants that are beautiful & can be “read” as intentional & cared for.
You can have a garden style you love — formal, naturalistic, English cottage, Mediterranean, etc. — & refresh that look by using a majority of regionally native plants. Everybody wins.
