Paradise Gardens
Transform your landscape to benefit your loved ones for generations.
Generational wealth is about more than finance.
Passing on true value to our loved ones is about more than just finance, it is about passing on strong family traditions, healthy habits, a cherished childhood, meaningful relationships, a sound mind, body and heart, meaningful stories, and beloved landscapes that are revered throughout generations. We are linked beyond time and space with our loved ones by the experiences we share, our stories, habits, and through the land we walk on and care for. Landscapes hold memory and story. Landscapes are also a deep well of value. Soil health, species diversity, and ecological fertility are values that modern economics often ignore, but the true foundation of all wealth is fertile land. In order to truly guarantee generational wealth to our loved ones, we must allow them to inherent healthy landscapes, healthy lifestyles and powerful stories. We help you become a hero of your family lineage, by beginning landscapes today that will be cherished, and increase in value, for hundreds of years into the future. Planting a strong tree is a way to reach out and touched your loved ones across time.
You may have already succeeded in cultivating financial abundance that will outlast your own life. Now it is time to create ecological abundance and a family legend that will outlast your life, and increase in value every year for generations.
The day will come when your loved ones will have to decide if they keep living on the land they grew up on. By giving them a rich environment to play, delicious memories of berries and enjoyable stories and traditions, they will be more likely to value the land they receive.
Allow your descendants to develop a deep bond with the land you share, by growing a landscape that feeds them physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Families pass on more than just money. They pass on health, rituals, tradition, stories and relationships. Throughout history, land tradition and stories have been the true value and true wealth that is passed on and unites each generation throughout time. Imagine a world where the same tree that your great grandparent planted is the tree you climbed as a child, and the same tree that your great grandchildren climb in the spring, play on in the summer, and collect rich baskets of nuts in the fall. Land and trees connect us across generations, strengthening family bonds and a willingness to continue safeguarding a family landscape.
With the stability of society and the stability of economies in doubt, and with conventional food rapidly declining in nutritional value while increasing in poison and toxins, cultivating a longterm garden full of rich, healthy, diverse, fresh clean food is one of the greatest gifts that you can bestow on your loved ones, and one of the greatest joys that you can share as a family.
Collecting ripe berries as a family creates generational bonds that last beyond lifetimes. Gathering pawpaw, persimmon and chestnut in the fall with elders and children side by side creates unbreakable memories and nostalgic associations that keep relationships resilient, and cherished. Your grandkids will always happily remember the taste, smells sounds and colors of seasonal walks through your edible landscape and seasonal harvests throughout the summer and fall. They will be more likely to pass those same memories on, and the story of your legacy, as they walk the same path and harvest from the same trees, with their grandchildren.
Working with Paradse Gardens, we help you set the foundation of cherished memories and cherished relationships between your loved ones, and with the land itself, helping to ensure that they continue cherishing the land they inherited from you. We help you establish more than just a landscape that increases in value, we help you establish healthy habits, enriching traditions and ideal environments for child development, helping to ensure that your loved ones are best equipped for whatever world they inherit. We help you guarantee that no matter what happens politically or economically, and no matter the quality of accessibility of food… anyone at your site will have the healthietes, cleanest, most nutrient dense food you can provide of them. Longterm edible landscapes, that are well planned and well tended help ensure that even after you are gone, your loved ones are equipped with access to the best food, the best habits, the most enriching childhoods, and a fertile, beautiful landscape the help them live their best lives generation after generation. We hope that these priorities will spread across the whole world. Be a part of the shift. It’s time for a better world! With good design and planning, your edible landscape will be poised to become one of the most legendary living monoliths that the people of the future look upon with awe..
Kids who grow up with lots of time outside, with an active relationship to nature, grow up to have better mental health, higher intelligence, more emotional resilience, self-awareness, self-confidence, practical skills and balanced, integrated psyches. You can raise generations of superheroes, rather than lose them to the decay of screens. Vibrant landscapes create vibrant people!
Grow fresh, clean, healthy food.
Your land can overflow with fresh, ripe, nutrient-dense food.
Time is going to pass whether you plant fruit trees or not. In 5 years from today, you can have the same yard full of grass, or you can have thousands of dollars worth of fruit, nuts and berries that are tastier than anything for sale in the store, fresher, with more nutrition, and zero poison. Whether or not you plant, the same amount of time will pass, and when it does any trees that you plant will have reached maturity.
Growing food at home does not need to be difficult. We select the best species for your particular site and your particular goals. There are any crops that can produce copious quantities of valuable fruit with little to no pruning or upkeep. Persimmon, pawpaw, hawthorn, blueberries, mulberry, elderberry, serviceberry, hazelnuts chestnut, jujube, kiwi, aronia, gooseberry, beach plum and currants are all crops that THRIVE in the temperate northeast with the least amount of care.
Fruit grown at home, that has ripened on the tree is leagues beyond any conventional grown fruit that comes home from the store on terms of floor and nutrition. Take a bite of a tree-ripe peach or pear and discover how fruit was always meant to taste. We design for maximum flavor and maximum nutrition with minimal upkeep. We employ integrative pest management and polyculture principals to make sure that you can enjoy your crops without requiring harmful sprays. Give your loved ones the healthiest, cleanest food possible, and the joy and wisdom that comes from picking it themselves.
Uncommon fruit
Have you ever tried a fresh, ripe Pawpaw? Have you ever heard of American persimmon? Have you ever wanted to try growing hardy kiwi, or medicinal crops like elderberry, schizandra or jujube? Would you like to grow one of the only Hovenia dulcis trees in your state?
One of the joys of edible landscapes is the broad range of flavors that ripen through the year. In a mature food forest, there are new flowers, new colors and new flavors ripening every week to be discovered. We have tested every native and non native fruit that can possibly grow in the temperate Northeast to give you a complete catalog of potential plants for your land. Your yard can become a living collection of the most dependable, common fruits, alongside rare and obscure specimen. After your installation is complete, you will get to enjoy early fruiting plants like gooseberry, honeyberry and raspberries in the first few years, followed by crops like medlar, quince and kiwi that take longer to begin making fruit. There will always be something to look forward to, like persimmon, pawpaw and cornelia cherry which take the longest to produce fruit, and finally, the greatest reward of all will come when nuts like Siberian stone pine finally start producing fresh, flavorful pine nuts decades after planting… and once they begin, stone pine will continue producing nuts for up to 800 years…
Worried you dont know how to grow all these different species? Leave the hard work to us, so that you and your loved ones can enjoy picking delicious healthy fruit every season, and enjoy lifelong memories that will keep your family connected to the land and to one another for generations.
Ecological impact
Our living planet is the foundation of all wealth. Without diverse, stable, resilient ecosystems, all of the dreams of humanity slow to a halt. To measure true wealth, we must also include measuring the health of ecosystems into our calculation. Fertile land, fertile soil, air quality, water quality, species diversity and climate stability are equal parts of our true fortune.
Creating a legacy for your family does not just mean leaving behind a financially rich future, but an environment that your descendants can fully flourish in. More than money, they will need clean air, clean food, healthy habits, a sound mind, and a vibrant world full of beautiful sights and sounds that is worth living in.
Creating a true legacy for our loved ones means leaving them a healthy, fertile, diverse world THAT THEY LOVE.
Growing oases of native plants and trees ensures that your children, and your children’s children have a fertile foundation to enjoy their best lives.
Helping pollinators is helping your own family. Safeguarding the environment is to safeguard your grandkid’s health and happiness. We all must play our part to ensure our descendants’ world. One powerful way that you can help is to convert your land into a sanctuary for native plants, animals and insects. We’ll help you do it.
It is not an exaggeration when indigenous cultures refer to plants and animals as relatives. We share the same home, and our fates are intrinsically connected. Without insects, ecosystems collapse. Without birds, many tree species stop growing. Without wildlife, the living systems that hold our world together break down. We NEED wildlife. Generational wealth includes conserving land and safeguarding earths precious species.
The health of our planet is one giant, collective bank account. Humanity will either fall together or we will succeed together.
As the pages of history turn, those who did the most harm to our planet will be shamed, and those who helped to conserved and repair the land will be remembered as heroes. Be an elder that your descendants ARE PROUD OF.
One small choice
Eternal impact.
Any day can be the day that one small, simple, well-calculated choice permanently improves you life, and the lives of everyone around you.
Any day could be the day that you choose to plant a tree that will live for 1,000 years, providing shade, oxygen, a place to play, a place to rest, endless beauty, and countless pounds of nutrient dense food for centuries.
Any day can pass with no notable deeds. Or, any day can be the day that you plant an ancient, future tree for loved ones whose names we may never know, and whose faces we may never see, but who we know will live and who we know we love.
We can touch those we love through time and space by the actions we take, such as planting and tending small trees today, that will become ancient, grand towering beloved elders of the future.
You can plant 50 small blueberry shrubs. Or you could not. If you do, you and your loved ones will soon be harvesting bushels of delicious, antioxidant-rich, enlivening, sweet, ripe berries, making jam, jellies, pies and lifelong memories.
Any week could be a week when nothing changes, or it could be the legendary week that your beloved family fruit grove is born. Any day could be a legendary page in your family story that permanently, positively ripples for generations.
It all begins with a consultation.
Experience matters.
Anyone can draw a map covered in promising, colorful circles that represent theoretical future trees, but a pretty map, no matter how colorful or how well illustrated, is no guarantee that it is an informed design that will pass the test of time. Even the prettiest maps are worth little, if the person who drew it is not highly informed and experienced about what plants grow best where, in which conditions, how large they become over time, the unique maintenance that they each species require, the best sequence of installation, how each plant interacts with one another, what challenges may be present on site, and what species are suited to YOUR landscape, according to your goals.
When you choose Paradise Gardens, you are choosing to harness 20 years of careful observation, rigorous testing, devoted problem-solving and obsessive study of every edible plant and how they each perform in as many conditions as possible across our region.
We constantly revisit our installation to learn what is working, and how we can improve. We also monitor dozens of our peers’ edible landscapes and food forests to track which techniques are working where, and which are not, so that we can continue creating the most impactful, successful gardens in our region.
Our designs consider how to minimize long-term maintenance, which preparations are best for your conditions, and what will be most enjoyable, most attractive and least stress from year 1 to year 1000. We plan how to minimize costs, make the most efficient use of labor, and how to maximize plant survival.
We do not leave our clients with trees that are doomed to slowly fail over the first few years… We leave our clients with trees that have been perfectly selected for your site, thoroughly protected against common pests, sourced from the most trusted nurseries with the most robust stock, planted with expert care at the correct time of year, in the most efficient sequence, with proper spacing and thorough amendments to ensure that they will grow stronger every year, for the next 100 years.
Longterm planning.
We are capable of designing for a dynamic range of sites, goals, timelines, but our premier work is large-scale installation of living megalithic landscapes.
After creating an informed design, our process typically follows a multi-phase installation, to avoid overwhelming the site’s potential maintenance, and to create conditions in advance where young plants will thrive.
Many edible landscapes that fail do so because someone tried to plant too much too fast, overwhelming potential management, or they tried to plant too much in too small of space, causing their own plants to compete for limits space and sun. Other reasons why food forests fail is because overly aggressive plants were either wrongfully introduced, or not adequately addressed before planting.
After two decades of watching what works and what does not, we keep it simple, working in dependable phases that minimize unnecessary headache and maximize the impact of our efforts.
We establish our plants in phases according by management type, beginning with the trees that grow largest, that begin to condition the soil as they grow, making way for the second and third wave of plants, saving time, money and stress. Our designs anticipate a multi-step install, that employs patient, winning strategies, for graceful, impactful transformations.
For the largest installations, we know that we are setting the foundation of something that will last for hundreds of years, so it is worth taking the time to begin correctly. After marking the grid onto the site, we begin with any terraforming and hardscaping that the design requires, followed by any significant stone installation. Next, the site needs to be prepared for planting, which may require eliminating unwanted plants, or preparing a healthy ground cover. Next, we plant the largest, long-term trees first, and often allow them to grow for a full year before installing smaller shrubs. This allows easy maintenance around the first round of trees which can be easily mowed and watered as necessary without navigating around many other small plants. Once the woody plants are firmly established, we can begin cultivating a rich layer of herbs and wildflowers which prefer growing in the the soil that the woody trees have begun to condition.
*In some cases, we will establish the understory at the same time as the woody trees.
Different plants require different care during their first years. If many plants all need different types of management all at the same time, it can become problematic. Instead, we prefer to establish plants that all require the same type of care at once, and then, when they are established, install plants the require the next type of care, simplifying the process, and allowing space for equipment like mowers early on that would otherwise not be able to navigate through a thick constellations of small plants. We are all about good planning and effect use of energy, just like a tree.
Portfolio
Our projects span the Northeast.
We plant on both public and private land, creating longterm landscapes that increase in beauty and productive every year.
Paradise Gardens has installed living sculptures at estates in CT, VT and MA, from rolling hillsides installations to petite, highly-packed yards.
Our eldest and most recognized planting is The Newtown Fruit Trail, in Newtown CT, featured on The National Recreation and Parks Association Podcast.
Add your site to our network of ancient-future gardens.
Our projects are already valuable today, but every single one has been designed with the future in mind, to become champion landscapes and living monoliths that inspire awe and wonder in the people who will live in 100 years. We plan for our gardens to grow in living legacies that promise to be the leading examples of fully grown edible landscapes that future generations will be turning to as models to craft a better world.
We believe that magnificent edible landscapes will be a characterizing part of any future where humanity has inherited a livable planet. People will surely be planting more and more living monoliths in the future, but the ones we start TODAY, this early, will be the OLDEST and most magnificent in the world. You descendants will be proud caretakers and heirs to some of the most impressive edible landscapes in the future. This is like building Stonehenge, or putting your name on the first skyscraper in Manhattan. This is how you carve a place in history, as hero.
Your yard can be among some of the most valuable, living arks, bursting with rare, valuable plant genetics, that will be feed families, and demonstrating techniques that future generations will learn from and improve upon as more and more people turn toward regenerative, perennial agriculture, and invest in true generational wealth and beauty.
Our Ancient Future.
Throughout history, certain people have succeeded in creating megalithic installations that contemporary humans still marvel at today.
Stonehenge was built 5,000 years ago, and people still travel far and wide wonder in awe at what one group of people chose to create. The people who placed these stones are gone, but we can still feel the ripple of their lives and almost even reach out to them through the stones.
How many people in the past 5,000 year lived and died without leaving much of a trace that we can notice today? Somehow, the few people who placed those stones still touch us today. Whatever their intentions were, the people who created Stonehenge made an impact that has spanned generations, leaving every who came after something to marvel at, study and be inspired by.
Today, contemporary society often abandons notions of longevity or generational planning for short term gains. In our world, structures tend to be quick to build, quick to fall and quick to be replaced. That is not because less equipped than these ancient people. It is because too few are thinking in terms of generational planning. In fact, we are better positioned now than any other time in history to create legendary marvels.
Right now, we have greater access to materials, greater tools, greater information and techniques than another time in history. The engineer and architects who created ancient wonders of the world would be ASTOUNDED by the levels of technological advancement that we have to work with today. We have access to tools and materials that they could hardly dream of, and yet, most people are not making impressive use of our opportunities.
It is time to venerate longevity and generational planning again.
If we approached our world with heightened care and consideration for legacy, beauty and true, generational wealth we could give life to astounding works of living art and living ecological sculptures.
We here at Paradise Gardens are working to fulfill that inspiration. We are designing living cathedrals and monumental living landscapes that we hope will become future wonders of the world.
We want to work with YOU to challenge ourselves and encourage others to start dream and start building a world that is as intelligently designed, and beautiful as possible. We want to work with YOU to create something that our families will be proud of throughout our entire lineage.
Why not use the time and opportunities we have to build something that can last as long as Stonehenge? This is your chance to be remembered and create lasting beauty for our world and families.
The team.
Having the crew of Paradise Gardens at your site not only means bringing in experienced landscape architects, it means bringing in passionate, enthusiastic new friends and guides to help ignite a love of the plants, introduce you to each new species, create meaningful memories throughout the process and boost the magic of your landscape with high spirits.
When our crew works on your site, we are weaving joy and wonder into your landscape. The process through which a creation is born influences the overall, longterm, energetic imprint of what is made. When a garden is created with soul, you can feel it. We now how to get the job done well, while keeping a sense of celebration. After all, your new chapter should begin with ceremony!
We enjoy working with you. We enjoy sharing our passion at every step of the process. If you want us to explain what is happening, or if you would like to be part of the process, we’re happy to invite you in. As lifelong gardeners, we are just as excited about each new plant as you are, almost as if we were planting them at our own home.
We will gladly explain what we are doing, why we are doing, what each new plant is and all the wonderful fruit and flowers that you can look forward to. We love to empower our clients not only with the knowledge and skills to take care of your new garden, but to transmit a deep love and reverence for the magic in every plant. If you would like, your installation can include elements of ritual. We want to sow love and passion into your land and into your heart for you to transmit to all of your loved ones once the project is complete. We enjoy helping others cultivate a relationship to project, leaving you with increased excitement, knowledge and fond memories of your process.
We know that this work is deeply meaningful. We know that our actions ripple long into the future of your site, your family and our world. Everyone who is part of our team has an inherent sense of reverence. We are all motivated by a similar love of our world and feel the pain of our world. We have each been on deep and challenging journeys that have shaped into people who stand for what we know is right, and who despite it all still strive toward hope, goodness and beauty, all to arrive at your site, and build your garden….
Longterm signage.
We have developed a library of attractive, educational signage to decorate our projects. You may choose to include advanced signs in your design, to increase the educational value of your installation.
We will print and install longterm, colorful signage to help guests and visitors deepen their experience at your site. Choosing this option allows your landscape to have a built in self-guided tour and the energy of a professional botanic garden or park.
Including our signs in your landscape is like having a permanent, expert, enthusiastic guide with you at all times, offering tips and insights about each plant.
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Our signs are carefully designed to illustrate how each plant looks throughout the year, including relevant notes about how and when to harvest, their role in the ecosystem, what native wildlife they benefit, and other interesting notes to help deepen your relationship to the trees.
Our signs give a voice to you plants. Can you hear them?
