In a quickly changing world, we need to plan for community resilience.
At RDG, we specialize in productive landscape design. Our work is to help our clients build adaptable communities filled with:
With an eye to beauty and simplicity, we create energy-efficient, agriculturally productive, and ecologically abundant habitats for people, plants, and wildlife.
Re-gen-er-ate: adj. formed or created anew; restored to a better state. (Webster)
Re-gen-er-a-tive De-sign: 1. design that mimics and strengthens the patterns and processes of healthy ecosystems.
2. design of human habitats that revitalize and support ecological health through the sustainable production of energy and material goods.
Kent Hospital wins Rhode Island Environmental Sustainability Award
Tom Benjamin of Regenerative Design Group has been working with Kent Hospital in Warwick, RI to acheive cutting-edge, environmental landscaping on the hospital's campus. Their efforts to manage stormwater sustainably, use low-maintenance native plantings, provide healing gardens, walking tours, flower and vegetable gardens has helped them win the Award for Sustainable Operations, given by Hospitals for a Healthy Environment in Rhode Island. Read more about Kent's Sustainable Landscapes. It's a terrific example of environmental stewardship acheived through ecological design at institutional scale! Read the article here.
Hitchcock Center Panel on Invasive Species
Jono Neiger of Regenerative Design Group will be contributing to a panel of local experts with diverse perspectives about non-native, ‘invasive’ plant species that have found their way into the Valley. Learn about the issues of competition from non-native species, some of their benefits such as delicious fruit production, and the important evidence they bring to bear on adaptation and survival in the wild. Promises to be a stimulating evening of presentations and Q&A. You are sure to leave with some new ideas about this important and controversial topic. • FREE • Donations appreciated
Upcoming Mass Aggie Seminars
Check out the exciting list of upcoming seminars offered by UMass Extension. Topics include fruit production, edible forest gardens, and native pollinator conservation. This is a great way to learn from experts in the field and tap into resources that the University has to offer.
Permaculture at the UMass Chancellor's House
As part of RDG's on-going work with Permaculture initiatives at Umass, Amherst, Jono Neiger is teaching a course that leads students through the design of a food producing garden at the Chancellor's House. The vision is to have a community garden that will be designed, implemented, and maintained by the UMass Permaculture Committee this spring! Read about this course and other efforts in the UMass Permaculture eNewsletter.
RDG also facilitated the design and implementation of the permaculture gardens at the Franklin and Berkshire Dining Commons. Read and watch more about UMass Permaculture.
"Mimic Nature in Your Garden", a presentation by Jono Neiger, covered by local author
Pat Leuchtman, Author of "The Roses at the End of the Road" reports on a recent presentation by RDG's Jono Neiger to the Greenfield Garden Club entitled, "Mimic Nature in Your Garden". This exciting report of Jono's informative and well-received talk is available on Leuchtman's blog, Commonweeder.com.