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Congratulations to the winners of our 2008 Conservation Landscaping contest!

Professional Category

Natural Resources Design Northern Viriginia site, Potomac River waterfront
Top Score (CCLC board organization)

This garden is in a very steep wooded setting with a lot of White Oaks which are very sensitive to disturbance. The garden has been in for at least two and half years and we have not seen any dieback yet on the trees which is tremendous. The homeowner's design request was for access around the house down to the lake, we used a natural stone as our long term (sustainable) solution. We installed a wet meadow by the lake's edge with tons of native plants...the joe pye weed was so happy it grew 8' tall the first season prompting the homeowner to ask us to replace it with a smaller cultivar. Wood ducks and snakes happily make their home here now.

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Greener Than Green Gardens/Heliconworks
Takoma Park, Maryland
Top Score eligible for prize

I am a gardener that specializes in recommending edible and native plants. I have a number of edible plants here that are not necessarily native – fig trees, thornless blackberries, grapes, apple trees, a vegetable garden. We live in an area of underground streams. When we have a heavy rain our sump pump runs a lot. We are looking into a cistern to capture that water. But in the meantime it is filtered through our driveway filtration system. Also, we use on site whatever we can – for instance, when we took up our concrete driveway, we used the chunks to build a retaining wall in front....our garden shed is made from lumber slabs and broken windshields. It is charming and such a better alternative to the garden sheds available on the market.

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Non-profit/Assn./Gardening Group Category

Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center, Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Top Score (CCLC board organization)

Arlington Echo’s site is an environmental learning center where we demonstrate environmental practices. Our site includes curbside swales, forest buffers, a green roof, rain barrels, bio-retention areas, a section of pervious concrete and a natural shoreline. The majority of the 24 acre site is a wooded area with vegetation to naturally slow rainwater and prevent erosion. Areas with gardens are designed with native plants and meant to encourage infiltration, reduce the need for fertilizers or watering. Arlington Echo’s site also includes 2 bio-retention areas which are located in areas to collect rainwater runoff and prevent erosion.

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Lake Barcroft Association, Falls Church, Virginia
Top Score eligible for prize

The Lake Barcroft Association in Falls Church, VA is a community of 1,050 properties on a 135 acre lake in Fairfax County’s Cameron Run watershed.

The approximately 4500 s.f. shoreline of one community beach area was primarily invasive plants. Volunteers worked to transform this area to a nearly wild, native plant garden filled with plants that typify the goals of Fairfax County’s Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance and their designation of a Resource Protection Area.

Seed money for plants and other goods was provided by Fairfax Water while community members donated money (in the form of paying for specific plants) that totaled over $7,000. The remainder of the monies were provided by the homeowners association.

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Homeowner Category

Amy Haden
Scottsville, Virginia
Top Score eligible for prize

Our property is part of a former loblolly pine plantation. When we bought the land & built the house, it was about 7 years after the land had been clear-cut & burned, and the property looked like a huge field. Unfortunately, that gave the non-native invasives a bit of a head-start.

I have gently thinned out the native shrubs & trees as they’ve grown up (now 22 years after the clear-cut) in an effort to shade out & slow down the invasives. I’ve also made sure to cut honeysuckle out of trees & shrubs to keep it from strangling them.

Young, healthy trees are some of nature’s best natural air cleaners. We have been actively working (for the past 15 years) on helping the young trees in our small 4 acres of forest stay as healthy as possible by thinning out trees (mostly shorter-lived loblolly pines) & trying to promote as wide a variety of tree species as possible.
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I have a hard time using bark/ground wood mulch because I own chickens – who love nothing more than to dig & move mulch all over the yard. So, in open flower beds, I often put down a mulch of pruned branches (keeps the chickens out & catches leaves in the fall, which become mulch).

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Winners were selected from 28 applications. Top-scoring prize-eligible applicants received a complimentary registration for CCLC's Turning a New Leaf Conference held in December 2009. The scoring committee was very impressed with the pool of applications that were submitted, and we appreciate everyone's participation!

Professional Category: Natural Resources Design, Northern Viriginia site, Potomac River waterfront

Professional Category: Greener Than Green Gardens/Heliconworks
Takoma Park, Maryland

Nonprofit Category: Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center,
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Non-profit category: Lake Barcroft Association, Falls Church, Virginia

Homeowner Category: Amy Haden, Scottsville, Virginia