Below, we have put together some resource pages, articles, select advertisements and links to help you with your landscape needs, whether you are a former client, future client or just looking for help. For more information or a free consultation, please contact us. We look forward to serving you.
Historic Garden Restoration: Yawkey House Museum Project
Xeriscaping: Minimizing Irrigation Needs
Gardens Used for Quiet Reflection
Landscaping in a Commercial Setting
Outdoor Kitchens: A Growing Trend in Landscape Design
Landscape Design for Your Existing Structure
View SAMPLE SKETCHES by Landscape Solutions
It's time to plan your vegetable garden, order seeds
Laura Lantzer - Wausau Daily Herald, February 2009
This is the time of winter when it’s a good idea to think about what will go into gardens this spring. The seed catalogs are arriving and it’s not too early to order! Think about what is important to you and some of the meals you want to create from your garden. Vegetables can be enjoyed right away and also preserved for enjoyment in the winter months. All I have left in my pantry from this last summer is a small bag of dried tomatoes....
Basil in the garden and kitchen
Laura Lantzer
Basil is my favorite herb. The smell alone of fresh basil is wonderful, but then the taste! I grow and use basil throughout the summer and then preserve it for use in winter by drying, freezing, or making pesto to freeze. I’ve been a fan of basil ever since I began making pesto about 25 years ago. An organic farmer at the farmer’s market in Wausau was passionate about basil and told me how great pesto was. Once I tasted pesto, basil has been in every garden I’ve had since—a sandy plot behind an apartment in Albuquerque, pots on a patio in Fitchburg, and now in a fenced-in raised bed.
Creating Environmentally Responsible Landscapes
Susan Murphy, APLD
Sometimes I wonder just what we do have control over. I struggle with change, but know it is most often good. As we mature as a people, we hopefully become more aware of the interconnectedness of all life. We are faced with daily decisions, many of these on a base level of existence. If each of is just makes one change for the good, we will be improving. This is not ideological juvenile "hog wash," this is reality...
Conserving Water in the Landscape with New Products
Susan Murphy & Laura Lantzer - Wausau Daily Herald, May 2008
We’ve heard a lot about “going green.” This is a term that is being used frequently now, but is an idea that has been a way of life for many of us for years. One of the best things you can do to contribute to “going green” is by planting a tree.
Trees are invaluable to the landscape. Besides improving the aesthetics of the city landscape, they are beneficial to the environment. Trees improve air quality by...
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Planting on a Slope
Laura Lantzer & Susan Murphy - Wausau Daily Herald, May 2008
A hillside planting can be a spectacular accent to your landscape. In the past, many people just planted a groundcover such as crownvetch - a practical solution for keeping erosion to a minimum, but not aesthetically appealing. The Wausau area has numerous examples of beautiful ways to contend with steep slopes.
There are some important points to consider before beginning....
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PRESS RELEASE: Color Mastery
Susan Murphy, owner of Landscape Solutions by Susan Murphy, LLC, Weston, along with Kathy Johnson attended an advanced weekend graphics workshop on “Color Mastery” in Evanston, Ill open to architects and designers. The class taught by Richard E Scott, ASLS, ASAI covered detailed concepts and techniques for rendering graphics and landscape designs covering: how color works, mixing colors, three dimensions of color, and the rendering process.
PRESS RELEASE: Taking Stock
Susan Murphy, owner and senior designer of Landscape Solutions, recently attended a conference in Minneapolis on Green Roof Tops for Sustainable Communities. She received a certificate of completion of Green Roof Design where she learned the essentials of designing and installing roof top gardens including but not limited to: Benefits to the public- including storm water management and improved air quality, Design benefits for improved Health and Well-being, Site analysis, Construction Details, Irrigation, Growing Mediums, and Plant Materials.
For more information on Green Roof Tops and how they can benefit a healthy city please visit www.greenroofs.org.
Backyard Retreats
Author, Magazine - Publication Date
With summer in full force it is the perfect time to take a vacation. What most people don't realize is that the next great vacation destination just might be in their own backyard.
"Right now people are gardening more and doing more outdoor improvements because they are doing a lot of entertaining at their homes..."
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APLD 2006 Landscape Design Awards Entry
In spring 2004, I was working on a front entry project with my client. In passing, I mentioned that their existing back yard patio would make a great entertainment and outdoor kitchen area. It was beautifully situated within 100’ of a class ‘A’ trout stream, here in central Wisconsin. Large residential windows took in the view. That summer I got a call to develop an outdoor kitchen and entertainment area that would be constructed in conjunction with their garage and laundry room expansion in the fall of 2004...
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Download AWARD ENTRY as a Microsoft Word Document 27.3 KB
When one sits in this entertainment area it “just feels right.” Balance was achieved. From the inside of the residence, the European fireplace lures you out into the space. Once there the sound of the water and birds bring one out into the environment. This project is the product of several skilled craftsmen working together for a common cause. It was a joy to participate in the creation of this beautiful space. Get more information from this project below.
Download the SPECIES LIST as an Microsoft Excel Document 22.5 KB
Download the PROJECT NOTES as an Acrobat PDF 12 KB
Download the PROJECT NOTES as a Microsoft Word Document 20.3 KB
Putting on a fresh face: Consider updating house as well as landscaping
Jamie Orcutt - Wausau Daily Herald, April 2007
The owners of this house removed the formal hedge, left, and updates the home's facade with new shutters and a window box. New steps were added to the front of the porch to connect with the paved walkways. Simple plantings of easily maintained shrubs complete the new look...
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VIEW PROJECT PAGE: Landscape Design for Your Existing Structure
Northwoods Landscape Design: The Importance of Hardscaping
Susan Murphy - APLD website June 2005
Why does anyone live in zone 3b-4? It’s vivid, fluorescent “fiddle heads” in spring popping up with wet moss underfoot. Mystifying northern lights that enrapture the heart dance across the sky on cool summer evenings. Hardwood forests heat up with analogous warm hues that crescendo in the fall. Winter branches heavy with snow create magic tunnels. It is easy to envy zone 5-6, but then the magnificent lady slippers bloom and everything is right...
Fall Reflections: As garden season ends, it's time for reflection
As the landscaping installation season begins to slow down in preparation for the winter season, it seems a good time to reflect on why landscapes are so important. We feel that a beautiful landscape...
Laura Lantzer & Susan Murphy - Wausau Daily Herald, September 2007
Benefits of Landscape in Residential Communities
Landscaping helps unify the dwellings with their environment by interfacing/connecting the buildings with the surrounding area through the use of plants and hardscaping. Themes or styles can be applied repeating plant material and hardscaping elements providing continuity or sense of community. Color and textures in plant materials...
Rock from the ages: Area quarries offer rich variety of stone
Jamie Orcutt - Wausau Daily Herald
The forces of nature that shaped central Wisconsin millions of years ago left behind a virtual artist's palette of colorful stone to inspire today's builders and landscapers. The areas quarries offer...
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The Passionate Gardner
Being passionate about something in life can make all the difference in the quality of life. Passion gives one a reason to get up in the morning, it energizes. It spurs one on, it has no time line or limits. I don’t think you can control passion, it is a gift. It brings joy lifting and encompassing all that pass through it’s doors. Passion can help focus until all is done.
I feel passionate about the creative process; meeting people, developing concepts and thoughts, creating beautiful places. I feel blessed to have passion in my life! Find something to be passionate about and it will affect all around you. Have a wonderful fall season… and Happy Gardening!
Susie
Form, texture add distinction to landscape
Laura Lantzer & Susan Murphy - Wausau Daily Herald
When choosing plants for the landscape, many homeowners first think of color and how it will improve their landscape. We would like you to consider form and texture and how those elements can help you create a distinctive landscape...
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My Life, My Garden
Susan Murphy
I wonder just where my life would be without growing and tending plants. As a toddler I was already picking flowers for the family vase. I had an affinity towards nature. I was attracted to the dirt, the trees, flowers and weeds. Growing up one of twelve children in a small central Wisconsin town we had to learn to entertain ourselves. My brothers and I would climb the samplings and sway with the wind...
Peace and harmony
Amy Ryan - Wausau Daily Herald
Janet Vittone was looking for a garden that wouldn't require a lot of maintenance. When she saw plans for a Japanese-style garden, she knew it was exactly what she wanted. "I liked the quiet peacefulness of it," Wausau resident said...
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Protecting Plants from Gnawing Damage
Rabbits and voles (field mice) are the primary animals that may gnaw on tender bark of trees and shrubs in winter. Putting up a barrier, such as poultry wire or hardware cloth, is the best defense. Put a fence around shrubs, and secure with a few stakes. Put a loose cylinder of hardware cloth around the trunk base of younger trees susceptible to vole or rabbit gnawing. Removing excess vegetation and debris near plants will also help reduce cover, especially for voles....
Easy Living Landscape: Thoughtful design helps reduce yardwork
Jamie Orcutt - Homestyle May/June 2007
Like overfilling our plates in the buffet line, some of us dish up more gardens that we have the time or energy to maintain. "As much as I love gardening and perennials, it takes time to do it right," says Susan Murphy of Landscape Solutions in Weston. Pinching back deadheading and thinning plants, watering and fertilizing all take time. not to mention weeding. "It's difficult to maintain for a long time unless you become critical of weeds," she says...
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Maintenance Tips for Perennials, Shrubs and Trees
Enclosed are some maintenance guidelines to help the beginning gardener care for their plant materials.
With new products coming on the market, and regional differences, this list is not all-inclusive, but should point the beginning gardener in the right direction for our zone. Remember any garden is only as good as the soil it is planted in.
Susie Murphy, APLD
Versatile mint makes itself at home in sun, shade
Mint is one of our favorite summertime herbs. Besides being a useful culinary herb, it also mas medicinal and cosmetic properties. It is a good companion plant in the garden to a host of other herbal plants... Mojito recipe included!
Susan Murphy & Laura Lantzer - Wausau Daily Herald, June 2007
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The Importance of Hardscaping
by Susan Murphy, APLD- Wausau Daily Herald, August 2007
Hardscaping is one of the most vital aspects of the landscape design process. It comes before the planting plan. How exterior hardscaping interacts with the dwelling should be well thought out. In new construction, or major remodeling, it should be considered an important element in the total design package. In many of today’s house plans, it is not uncommon to find some of the same elements used in the exterior brought into the interior in the form of stone floors, counters, and the like. Hardscaping unifies the dwelling with the surrounding environment...
Hospice House's new respite garden planted with memories
Amy Olson - Wausau Daily Herald
Landscaping is a labor of love, but for Kurt Siewert of Land Art, Inc., the respite garden at Aspirus' Hospice House was an extra special project. The garden brought together traditional landscaping elements including rock walls, winding paths and moving water. For Siewert and many others, it also brought together special memories of loved ones...
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VIEW PROJECT PAGE: Spiritual Health in Design at Hospice House
Late Summer a Great Time to Plan
Susan Murphy & Laura Lantzer - Wausau Daily Herald, July 2007
After a long, cold, dark Wisconsin winter, people are eager to get outside and enjoy “Mother Nature.” They’ve spent time in bookstores looking at gardening books, as well as researching on the internet and attending gardening seminars and shows. They’ve collected ideas from magazines and are full of design concepts that they’re ready to implement! In April and May, people are full of energy and desire to make their outdoor dreams come true...
Spring Pruning
• Deciduous trees except for maples, which should be pruned in summer after the sap has finished running
• Evergreens when new growth is emerging, pinch back if needed
• Shrubs that bloom on new wood, such as weigela, spirea, peegee hydrangea and Annabelle hydrangea (Endless Summer Hydrangea blooms on old and new wood: removing spent blooms will encourage rebloom.) Do not prune early spring bloomers, such as lilac, forsythia, and rhododendron until shortly after blooming.
• Some clematis varieties: please call with specific questions on these.
Please feel free to call with any pruning questions!
715-355-1771
Specimen plants are landscape designers' favorite
Laura Lantzer
Being in the landscape design business, Susie Murphy and I often talk about the nature of plants and how they relate to one another in the garden setting. We are constantly inspired by having such a great palette of plant materials from which to choose. We wanted to give you some ideas to help make your landscape sing and invited other contractors and designers to share their current favorite plants...
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Fall Tips
• Make sure all newly planted trees and shrubs, evergreens, rhododendrons, and Carol Mackie Daphnes are well watered throughout the root system before deep frost.
• Wrap chicken wire/hardware cloth around base of all tender trees and shrubs to avoid rabbit girdling including, but not limited to: Serviceberry, Burning Bush, Crabapples, and Viburnums.
• Wrap tender tree trunks to avoid sun scald and deer rubs...
Spring Tips
• Cut back all perennials to ground level that where left in place through the winter months. Rake up or blow out left over leaves from previous fall. Iris needs special attention at this time. Cut back old leaves and clean them down to the rhizome. Do not mulch. Remove any soft or rotting rhizomes and check for Iris bore. Discard or compost the old foliage and leaves. (See enclosure for composting guide.)
• Unwrap evergreens. Spray with deer repellent if necessary.
• Start annual seeds indoors in late March or early April. Pull back mulch materials for spreading plants to allow them to mature...
Weird, wonderful structures inspire imagination
Susan Murphy - Wausau Daily Herald
Exploring inspires me. Spending time visiting peculiar and beautiful places helps me form new ideas, as well as stay in touch with nature. This brings me to today's topic., the weird and the wonderful - grottoes, burial mounds and follies. I have grouped them, but each one is unique. What they have in common is that they are peculiar structures that were built by man...
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Landscape Solutions in Advertising
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Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (Rooftop Landscaping Information)
Wisconsin Landscape Federation
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