Sustainable Landscape Development is pretty much “Old News” now! Or is it? Sister companies from Wrentham, MA.; Eastern Design & Landscape Contractors, Inc. and Grounscapes Express, Inc. Have been practicing Sustainable Landscape Development for at least fifteen years now. It has been an evolution and a steep learning curve but nonetheless the principles, and objectives have always been there. The principles are built on ecological systems and practices have developed and evolved. We would like to describe a typical example that we will present here. Our client is Norwood Cadillac This is a well - established business that has served the community for a long time. They were our client for ye
Embodied energy is the sum of all the energy in the work required to produce any goods or services, considered as if that energy was incorporated or 'embodied' in the product itself. Embodied energy is an accounting method which aims to find the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product life-cycle. Determining what constitutes this life-cycle includes assessing the relevance and extent of energy into raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, waste disposal or (disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition, as well as human and secondary resources. Different methodologies produce different understandings of the scale and scope of application and
Native plants were directly planted into the FilterMitts™ so as to mimic natural trees fallen upon the forest floor inhabited by ferns and herbaceous wildflower seedlings growing on them. John re-used natural materials that he found lying around the cemetery grounds and placed the dead trees, branches and stumps into the landscape to create water diversion devices and to stabilize the sloping soils. Then, he, combined them with EarthBlanket™ and FilterMitts™ products that are manufactured, trademarked and patented by Groundscapes Express, Inc. to create a more natural solution to sediment prevention and stormwater management. These materials are made from aerobic thermophytic composted veget
GroundscapesExpress, Inc. was hired with improving the deteriorating pathways throughout the unpaved areas of the cemetery’s landscape. Their unique evidenced – based approach, allowed more to be accomplished within the budgeted amount that was specifically allocated to repairing the walkway and paths. The experiences of the owner, designer and practitioner of Groundscapes Express Inc., John Engwer perceived that any repair of these walkways were doomed to be repeated regardless of the materials and methods that were traditionally specified for these types of projects. He recognized that the landscaped environment must initially be modified to accommodate the construction of new pathways.
StartFragment I have been noticing lately while driving to and from our many projects that rather large trees with wide trunk diameters have fallen on people’s property or have blocked streets and roads. Upon further investigation I have seen that these trees are on the exotic invasive species list of plants for the state of MA., i.e.,( Norway Maple, Black Locust, Tree of Heaven, Sycamore Maple ). These trees present a risk to harm people and/or their property. The Municipal Tree Ordinance in some locals does not include these trees in their tree replacement code for private property tree removals. Instead they insist that the property owner replace these trees if they are a component of the
