Designing for Habitat

Our final blog in the Beyond Beautiful series touches on what we can do to build habitat for beneficial insects and other garden allies.

Rick TaylorNovember 29, 2018

Can Our Landscapes Help Sequester Carbon from the Atmosphere?

Plants are Innately Magnificent…we know that plants are naturally designed to pull carbon from the atmosphere and use it for creating and repairing tissue. But in addition to this, they also pump carbon into the soil through root and other various exudations! While this fortifying cycle protects the plants from disease, it can also help our climate issues by sequestering that much-needed carbon to help with global warming.

Rick TaylorOctober 8, 2018

Rainwater - Quantity or Quality

The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts. For every 100 square feet of space on your property 600 gallons of water falls during a 1” rain storm. For reference, let’s focus on just the roof of a 2,000 square foot two-story home with a roof surface of 1,000 square feet. In an area with an average rainfall of 32” per year, that roof alone will shed 19,200 gallons of water per year! Now, what can we do with that water?

Rick TaylorAugust 3, 2018

Beyond Low Water Use - What Services is Your Landscaping Providing?

beyond low water use, what services is your landscape providing? “Less Bad” ≠ Good… Instead of just being “less bad”, can we imagine creating our landscapes to provide positive services to the greater environment while still serving all our needs?

Rick TaylorJuly 27, 2018

Rick Taylor has spent the last 20 years in Sonoma County studying, practicing, and teaching sustainability in the landscape. From professional trainings, to university students, garden clubs to elementary children, his deep understanding of the industry and ecology allows him to adapt talks for almost any audience. Rick merged a background in both horticulture and agriculture with his passion for the built environment and founded Elder Creek Landscapes, a design/build/maintain firm with a professional and ecological focus. Elder Creek has since transitioned into a Landscape Architecture Construction Project Management firm. In addition to almost two decades in the industry, Rick has also served on the Sebastopol Design Review Board, where he had major design input on the municipal drainage plan for the NEASP project. He also served as a core member to Sonoma State's Sustainable Landscape Professional Certificate program, where he developed the curriculum and taught classes on sustainable and profitable landscape maintenance techniques. Rick has given numerous talks for master gardeners clubs and community organizing groups, and leads hands-on volunteer events for Daily Acts, a non-profit focused on sustainability transformation.

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