16Apr
Photo of the finished project, a covered in rocks gently sloped up to the woods, with the neighbors unprotected, eroding bank adjoining.
Bret HuntmanFeatured Projects

Shoreline Erosion Control on A Forested Site

 

Photo of a sandy lake shoreline adjacent to a forest. In the foreground several trees have fallen across the beach and into the lake. Their roots pull the bank down. The eroding bank is roughly three to four feet tall. Down the shore a point is littered with stones.At this location (photo above) on Douglas Lake, ice push and the power of wave action at high water levels can be devastating to near-shore banks and trees. The photo, taken from an adjoining property, shows our client’s property in the background. It includes the rocky area and a portion of the heavily eroded, bare bank. Note also the many uprooted and fallen trees, just a fraction of those lost over years of damage.

A close-up before picture shows stones and plastic weed barrier--from an improperly designed erosion control structure built roughly 20 years earlier--tumble down the steep shoreline into the lake.

The steep bank on our client’s site has been shaped by years of ice push events despite a previous effort to stop the erosion. Roughly 20 years ago, rip rap stones were installed over landscape cloth. This photo illustrates three problems with the previous installation:

  • First, using landscape cloth interfered with the establishment of plants that would otherwise grow between the stones and help stabilize the shoreline. Plant roots cannot readily penetrate the plastic material. The plants we use have deep, fibrous roots.
  • Second, the rocks were installed at too steep a slope, so instead of sliding up and onto them, ice pushed INTO the bank, destabilizing the entire structure.
  • Third, given the property’s orientation and the distance the wind travels across the open lake, the rocks used were too small for the expected waves. After the rocks were disturbed by the ice push, storm-driven waves washed many of them out into the lake, along with the newly exposed soils. The upper bank was then undercut, and the erosion worsened.

To address all three issues, our North By Nature team applied the current best practices in biotechnical and natural shoreline protection.

First, we removed as much of the old landscape cloth as possible. This will allow the owner to plant a selection of native shoreline plants into the rip rap where they will form a strong web of roots. These plants, along with the existing trees, will seed more native shoreline plants into the rip rap. Over time they will vegetate the upper bank.

CAD drawing showing the necessary gradual slope which will allow ice to ride up onto the stones instead of pushing them into the bank. Also shown are the stones sizes calculated to with stand wave action at the site given its orientation and fetch.

Second, the finished slope of the bank is engineered to be shallow enough to direct both expanding ice formations and windblown ice up and onto the protected shoreline instead of into the face of the bank.

Photo of work in progress: an excavator arm is used to roughly place the largest stones. Adric and Chris use hand tools to adjust them to achieve the required slope.

And finally, the stones were sized to remain in place even when three-foot waves batter the shoreline for days on end.

Almost an "after" photo: in the foreground the new stone rip rap slopes gently toward the lakeside, ready to deflect wave energy and ice for decades to come. Down the beach, the crew continues to install stone.

Visit the Shoreline Erosion Control gallery on our Photos page for before and after photos a few of our other shoreline projects.

03Apr
Photo showing an Adirondack chair on a flagstone patio with leaves tucked here and there.
Bret HuntmanFeatured Projects, News, Uncategorized

Delay Yard Cleanup!

Photo of a chrysalis with coloration very similar to dried leaves and stems.
Do Not Disturb: a chrysalis is a future butterfly, waiting for its moment to emerge.

How would you like one less item on your to-do list this week? Pollinators are still overwintering in leaf litter, stalks, and among roots underground, so you can hold off on spring garden cleanup tasks.

When will they be safely on their way? This article from the Xerces Society shares signs to look for as spring unfolds each year.

https://xerces.org/blog/dont-spring-into-garden-cleanup-too-soon

With the time you’ve freed up, you could get out your hammock or lawn chairs: it is a great time to sit and enjoy the fresh spring air in northern Michigan! Maybe all bundled up…

Thanks for joining the North By Nature team in protecting biodiversity and pollinators!

21Mar
A photo showing a steep slope descending next to a new home. North By Nature Landscapes designed and installed a retaining wall and stairs which provide access from the front entry to the lower level patio and yard.
Bret HuntmanFeatured Projects, News

From Hazardous to Handsome

The owners of this new Harbor Springs home came to North By Nature Landscapes with several challenges around the steep slope to the right of their elegant front door:

  • stabilizing the surface in front of the entryway,
  • allowing for access to a water spigot located on the side of the stone column and
  • creating a path down the steep slope to their lower-level patio and yard.

 

 

(A closer look at the surface to be stabilized and the spigot, above.)

 

Our designer suggested using natural limestone outcroppings and flagstone to complement the color and texture of the beautiful stonework on the house. First, we retained the earth at the entryway level with this dry-stacked wall. The outcroppings were stacked, without the use of mortar, on a compacted base of crushed stone to assure good drainage. One course of outcroppings are buried to provide the mass needed to retain the slope.

 

 

Next, we created this flagstone extension of the poured concrete sidewalk to further stabilize the area and keep everything neat.

 

 

A photo showing a steep slope descending next to a new home. North By Nature Landscapes designed and installed a retaining wall and stairs which provide access from the front entry to the lower level patio and yard.

Then, we installed snapped limestone steps down the hill. Note the large outcropping stones set in the garden between the house and the stairs. These help to stabilize the slope and provide access both to the spigot and for maintaining the new garden.

Finally, we began plantings on the reshaped slopes on either side of the stairs.

Handsome, huh?

01Dec
Katherine MelbyFeatured Projects, News

Sound Up! Shoreline Pollinator Garden Sound Effects.

Shoreline Pollinator Garden featuring New England Asters. Seed grown native species are crucial for the health of our landscapes and ecosystems. They are also visually stunning and are the last flowers to bloom – often into October when all others have faded. We have combined them with Stiff Goldenrod, Mountain Mint, Swamp Milkweed, native Hibiscus, Blue Lobelia, Cardinal Flower, and Tussock Sedge in a shoreline buffer garden replacing an unmowable and swampy lawn. Background audio is the real deal so turn it up to enjoy fully.

New England Aster and Stiff Goldenrod, October 2021, Walloon Lake, MI

New England Aster and Stiff Goldenrod

Shoreline Buffer Garden with Michigan Native Plants

 

02Apr
Lakeside Garden
Katherine MelbyFeatured Projects

Little Traverse Bay Cottage

We first met these clients on a cold winter day in 2017. Sipping coffee around the dining-room table we looked out over the frozen shoreline. As you can see in the first images, all vegetation had been removed, truly presenting a blank slate. We spent the morning learning about our clients’ aesthetic preferences and discussing North By Nature’s mission and methods. Their primary goal was to re-establish the lake-side landscape with low-growing, native perennials and grasses that would attract pollinators and require little long-term maintenance.

Based on the conversation that day, a concept was developed and, in the following weeks, presented to the clients, along with a draft plant list. Images that conveyed a sense of what we envisioned were included and showed scenes of native rock gardens and coneflower medleys.

After working through the concept phase, we moved on to material selection and plant procurement. Our client was concerned about also attracting nuisance pests like ticks, so finer sedges replaced the proposed grasses and we suggested planting lavender as a deterrent. The woodland fringes were planted with a few multi-stemmed paper birch trees and bayberry and nanny berry shrubs to enhance and frame the view. Temporary irrigation was used to establish plants, but there should be little need to water once established. A variety of straight native species were combined with selected cultivars for a broad palette of color displayed from June through October.

Please take a moment to peruse the slideshow. The captions have been written to guide you through the first two growing seasons and help identify these native beauties. If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to call or email Bret.