JoAnne Skelly: Ecological landscape design

Urban landscape design can be repetitious to extravagant, lush to ridiculously sterile. Landscape design is a contrived artistic system of imposed order. It can complement and encourage the ecology of an area or fight against it. Often designs are not integrated with the natural environment. An ecological approach to landscaping allows for the interaction of multiple organisms. Plants need insects for pollination; birds and animals for seed dissemination. Certain animals disturb the soil for see