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Fürn Studio, 1732 Hemlock Drive, Lehighton, PA (2026)

02/27/2026

When you plan your gardens, you need to know your plants are going to thrive.

It's hard for me to narrow down this list, but here are five native species that do well in our area:

1. Quercus vellutina: Black Oak. This species is under planted, in my opinion. Beautiful tree that supports hundreds of species of butterflies and moths. Great shade tree that allows for under planting. Good yellow to orange fall color.

2. Cornus Florida: Flowering Dogwood. First slide is a young specimen of the cultivar 'Cherokee Chief' in fall. In my opinion, the most beautiful flowering tree we have.

3. Viburnum prunifolium: Blackhaw Viburnum. A large shrub maturing to a vase-shaped small tree that does well in well-drained soils. Large clusters of white flowers in spring and excellent scarlet fall color that puts the invasive burning bush to shame.

4. Heliopsis helianthoides: Oxeye Sunflower. A cheerful somewhat short-lived perennial with bright yellow blooms in midsummer. It maintains good structure throughout winter, so leave them standing till spring.

5. Symphyotrichum oblongifolium: Aromatic Aster. A tidy and low growing mound of foliage most of the growing season that explodes into bloom in October. Really important late season nectar source for pollinators

02/24/2026

So, I've been working on a planting plan for a good friend and wanted to share. His front yard has a fragipan (a nonpermeable geological feature), so the soils are consistently moist or even wet. His home's previous owners had planted a few evil Callery Pears, which he promptly cut down, Red Maples, and Chokecherry trees.

That means the plant community had to be selected for wet soils and a penchant for part shade. Opening up the canopy allowed for some bigger drifts of taller plants, which is right in line with my client's boho style. Tall Meadow Rue, Spotted Joe-Pye W**d, Thin leaf Sunflower, and Goatsbeard are the big showy stars here.

There are beautiful plants designed for every soil and for your yard.

PM me if you're interested in developing a beautiful landscape that fits your soils and style!

02/16/2026

It won't be long before our world starts to look like this again!

A common preconceived notion about native gardens is that they look wild. While inspiration usually comes from wild places, native gardens are always carefully designed. Native plants can be well used in the full spectrum of planting styles.

How would you describe your design style?

02/13/2026

Hi Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Palmerton, Slatington and the surrounding area! My name's Eric and this is my family. 👋

I'm a landscape designer specializing in native landscapes and outdoor spaces. I blend science and art to craft vibrant, living, and accessible ecosystems toward human flourishing.

My goal? I want to help you build beautiful landscapes that:
✔️ Thrive in our climate
✔️ Support pollinator populations
✔️ Require less maintenance
✔️ Fit your lifestyle and personal preferences

This feels like the dead of winter but spring is coming fast! If you've been contemplating improving your yard but don't know where to begin, send me a PM! 🌿

03/17/2025

Can individual residential landscapes, part of a larger collective ecosystem of other residential landscapes, provide enduring societal change? Heck yeah. Let me give you a few ways they can.

4. People don't like to live in ugly or boring places. It does bad things to our mental health to live in a place we don't like. A dynamic landscape is the cure to an unproductive, bland, and blank expansive short clipped lawns. I'm not opposed to all lawns, by the way! I'm opposed to a lawn as default. My 3-year-old son needs space to run and play, and a lawn is good thing to provide for him. Instead of putting down lawns as floor to floor carpeting with gardens as punctuation, think of lawns as carpets inside native gardens. Then maybe, once the wildlife comes back to our everyday life, we'll be connected to nature again. Imagine a world where a kindergartener can identify all the bugs and birds in a garden rather than celebrities and brand names.

03/13/2025

Can individual residential landscapes, part of a larger collective ecosystem of other residential landscapes, provide enduring societal change? Heck yeah. Let me give you a few ways they ways they can.

3. One small plot of land can make a big difference if it's loaded with beneficial native plants. That small plot of land becomes exponentially more powerful when other similar small plots of land are connected as corridors or networks. Our native plants' function is to produce; they take moisture, sunlight, and nutrients to produce food for our native bugs which our birds need to survive. I know that people have their preferences. Some like wild and abundant gardens while others prefer a restrained and neat formal style. Both can be done with native plants! When we connect plots of both styles, we make a larger and more complete ecosystem. If we want butterflies and birds, we have to begin with the producers so that we can have the pretty consumers.

03/06/2025

Can individual residential landscapes, part of a larger collective ecosystem of other residential landscapes, provide enduring societal change? Heck yeah. Let me give you a few ways they can.

2. Community is my favorite thing about small towns. I feel we've lost an aspect of community identity in this age of social media and suburburbanism. We go out our front doors and immediately get into our cars to drive to Walmart rather than walking to our nearest locally owned general store or hardware store. We don't know our neighbors like they did three generations ago.

However, this is the world we live in and we can't deny how we operate today but we can make small steps to restore the neighborliness that makes towns great. We can start that ball rolling by thoughtfully designing our home landscapes. Opening up our properties to neighbors can foster more trust and companionship where we live. We can make the choice to build a community space in our yards. And it doesn't need to be big: a bench along the sidewalk and a few perennials is all it takes. It can be more than that, of course! But small steps can have big impact.

03/04/2025

Can individual residential landscapes, part of a larger collective ecosystem of other residential landscapes, provide enduring societal change? Heck yeah. Let me give you a few ways they can.

1. Regionally native plants and local materials define a place. These and other vernacular elements are what make a certain place feel unique. By celebrating our native plants, we're celebrating where we are located, not only geographically, but topographically. Species adapted to dry soils aren't the same species that grow in wetlands. That's a gross oversimplification but this post isn't the time to expand on that. In short, regional plants inspire pride in the places we call home!

02/18/2025

Oaks are a common shade tree, at least where I live, but I rarely see this one and that’s a shame! This is Black Oak (Quercus velutina). Black Oak is medium sized, for an oak species, and that makes it very manageable in the residential landscape. It’s not too big like White Oak or Northern Red Oak, which can outgrow their allotted space. As always, consider the mature size of a tree before planting a sapling. Black Oak will typically mature to a size of 50 to 60 feet with a similar spread. This species is very adaptable and will handle dry rocky soil as well as moist fertile soils. Typical of oaks, Black Oak has a deep taproot which allows it to excel as a street tree and accommodate ground covers and shrubs beneath the canopy. Even turf grasses should do well beneath it because the large leaves produce a dappled shade.

Like other oaks, Black Oak supports over 500 of species of butterfly and moth as their larval host. Some of those include the entire Hairstreak Butterfly family and the striking Mourning Cloak Butterfly. More importantly, the caterpillars are food for birds, so the Black Oak sits at the base of a food web, supporting many more species than just the butterflies and moths that munch on them as babies. If you want lots of birds, plant an oak!

Black Oak has lustrous dark green leaves in summer that turn vibrant shades of gold and orange that seem to glow against azure autumn skies! Be sure to ask your local nursery about Black Oak; I think this one should be way more commonly planted for its utility and handsome traits.

02/13/2025

You can't tell by looking outside right now, but spring planting season is almost upon us! So I want to start a series highlighting little-known trees and their ecological importance in addition to their ornamental worth in the home landscape.

Here’s a unique and adaptable small tree, the native Toothache Tree (Zanthoxylum americanum)! One of our few native members of the citrus family, this guy is TOUGH. It'll laugh off dry and rocky soil. They tend to spread by underground stems to form dense thickets (aka perfect nesting sites for Cardinals, Indigo Buntings, Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, and Blue Grosbeaks), so please place it in a corner of your property where you can enjoy it while it does its thing. Don't get too close, though. This tree is covered in sharp spines. These small trees work well as living fences to keep out unwelcome guests! Toothache Trees produce excellent dappled shade which allows a healthy ground layer of plants to thrive. I’d plant sedges, Eastern Red Columbine, American Alumroot, Creeping Phlox, Bluestem Goldenrod, and Spotted Geranium as a multi-season groundcover beneath them.

They don't have showy flowers (though they're very fragrant), but they will sport dense clusters of red fruits which contain a numbing compound, hence the common name. Red berries are nontoxic and come in handy if you have a toothache. Compound leaves, which superficially resemble Ash leaves, reliably turn gold or orange in fall. Beyond its ornamental characteristics, they’re a host to several large and showy butterfly species: Giant Swallowtails, Tiger Swallowtails, and Spicebush Swallowtails. Though Tiger and Spicebush Swallowtails do have a few other host plants, Giant Swallowtail caterpillars eat the leaves of native citrus trees exclusively.

Ask your local nursery about them since these amazing trees aren't often sold in the trade. I'm looking to change that, since we have so many great native species waiting to take their place in our home landscapes.

These photos aren't mine. The credits go to Van den Berk Nurseries (thank you for carrying this species!) and Gardenia.net

12/29/2024

Who says the winter landscape has to be bland? Grasses like Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) almost literally glow against remnant seed heads of Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and Orange Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida). The towering Tall Boneset (Eupatorium altissimum) adds a ghostly presence.

Fürn Studio

02/27/2026

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03/17/2025

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