J. Gieo Pensoneault, MLA

Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers

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J. Gieo Pensoneault, MLA

3 Reviews

The Praire Garden

The inspiration for this garden comes from a new movement in planting design that is often referred to as Prairie Style or Meadow Gardens. The use of hardy perennials and ornamental grasses, selected for comparability and adaptation to the region are features that make for a very low maintenance garden that flourishes.

Project Year: 2012

Project Cost: $7,501 - $10,000

Country: United States

Zip Code: 80903

A line of ornamental grasses creates the backbone to this Prairie style garden

The Praire Garden

Mass plantings of hardy perennials like this black eye susan provide an explosion of color at different times of the season

Hardy perennials

Echinacea is one of the perennials that does so well in our high desert environment.

Echinacea x white swan

Sedum and Black Eyed Susan

This Prairie style garden environment wraps around the house creating the feeling of living in the garden.

A house wrapped into the garden

All of the perennials and grasses that I use the Prairie Garden thrive in our high desert environment. The result is a garden that is low water use and very easy to care for.

High Desert Plantings

I often use ground covers like Dragons Blood Sedum and varieties of Ice Plant to fill out the garden area. It adds texture, color and makes it difficult for weeds to take over.

Grasses and Groundcovers

These are relics in the garden with a modern twist. The large clay pots are sunk into the soil and have Purple Ice Plant spilling out into a stream of Snow in Summer.

Perennials Spilling Over

These are relics in the garden with a modern twist. The large clay pots are sunk into the soil and have Purple Ice Plant spilling out into a stream of Snow in Summer.

Purple Ice Plant

A late summer bloom of Agastachea. The flowers are beautiful and they smell like root beer.

Agastachea in the Garden

This is what the space looked like before the new garden. People mistakenly think that rock will make a no maintenance landscape, but the opposite is true. Weed seeds blow in and create a night mare. Plus its just plain ugly.

Before

I like to create a central line of movement with the tall ornamental grasses. The perennials are placed to make drifts of color that layer down from the center to the lowest ground cover plants at the edges.

Planting Day