Ecology

Darrel Morrison, FASLA, is an ecologically-based landscape designer. Renowned for his use of native plants, native plant communities and natural processes in the design of landscapes, he was commissioned to re-develop the Round House landscape in 2014.

Morrison primary goal for the Round House landscape was to restore a balanced and complimentary combination of vegetation native to the Connecticut area. This includes reintroducing combinations of wildflowers, tall grasses, trees, stones and even native cactus.

The project began with rolling back a landscape that had been suburbanized with generic grass and minimal diversity for the last forty years. Starting with a series of large swathes, or “drifts” as he refers to them, Morrison built up a clusters of prairie-like sweeps across the property from top to bottom. These drifts help create a natural pattern or flow through the larger area by filling in large blocks of vegetation. These drifts evolve over seasons and even years so that by nature the life cycle changes the total appearance of the landscape.

Morrison has taught Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Georgia, and Columbia University as well being a visiting faculty member at the University of Michigan, Utah State University, and Conway School of Landscape Design in Conway, Massachusetts. He is currently a frequent studio critic and occasional lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin.

He is a two-time recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), and of both the national Teaching Award and the Landscape Design Award from the American Horticultural Society.

Find out more about Darrel Morrison’s new book Beauty of the Wild here.

Landscape Drawing

Drawing plan for Round House Landscape – 2013, image courtesy: Darrel Morrison, FASLA

Darrel Morrison – The Landscape is Our Teacher

Darrel Morrison, FASLA, is an ecologically-based landscape designer. Renowned for his use of native plants, … Continue reading

2018 ELA Conference Round House Presentation

Marc Wolf, executive director of Mountain Top Arboretum speaks about The Round House Landscape.