Kylin Arts

11/21/2025

Around this time of year native pollinators are preparing to hibernate for the winter. One way to support them is by leaving up hollow-stemmed plants where they can take shelter over the cold months. Alliums, joe-pye, and bee balm are some examples of hollow stemmed plants that provide homes for our beloved bees. When in doubt leave it up! You will have less work to do and have the benefit of both helping our local fauna and having more winter interest to observe in the winter months. If you must cut it down, leaving the hollow stemmed plants bundled behind a bush or the shed can still provide some shelter for our important insects.

10/24/2025

Leave the leaves! By allowing fallen leaves to break down, you give your garden much needed nutrients and beneficial bacteria as well as overwintering habitat for smaller critters like butterflies, bees, salamanders, and helpful insects. Here are two thoughtful ways we can prepare your garden for Winter:

1. We would love to clean up any concentrated areas of leaves and disperse them throughout your beds, making sure they are not on top of any evergreens or short perennials, to create a nutrient-rich covering that insulates the soil. This would be the option we recommend most as a company that strives to promote the best ecological practices.

2. We also offer the opportunity to turn your autumn foliage into sustinent rich mulch by using leaf shredders. If you have more leaves than your landscape can handle, shredding significantly reduces the volume and keeps them out of the landfill! This option takes more time but the leaves break down quicker. Access to an outdoor outlet is ideal for our equipment.

06/27/2025

Don’t have a lot of space? Try a container garden! Even a small plot can be a welcoming oasis for our pollinator friends, birds, and other insects. A few containers can can provide beauty and joy to your community! Native milkweeds like Asclepias incarnata, Asclepias tuberosa, and Asclepias verticillata do well in containers thanks to their shallow root systems. Remember containers dry out quicker so keep an eye on moisture levels. Check out our previous post for watering tips!

06/20/2025

Watering Tip! You can water by hand, sprinkler or using irrigation systems. It is always best to water in the early morning, as there will be less evaporation than the middle of the day, and less chance for disease transfer than watering in the evening (water collects on the plants’ leaves overnight). If you cannot water in the morning, the evening is preferable to mid-day. Check that the water has penetrated several inches down into the soil by scratching the dirt to at least 3 inches.

06/06/2025

Have a dry sunny spot in your garden? Plant Asclepias tuberosa! This tough native will brighten up your day with its vivid orange blooms. It’s the shortest milkweed and won’t take over your yard. A favorite of butterflies, this plant is also visited by hummingbirds as well as other pollinators and the leaves are a food source for Monarch caterpillars. 🐛

01/27/2025

Join our team! 🌿

Kylin Arts is a high end gardening company that designs, installs, and maintains residential properties in Philadelphia and the surrounding neighborhoods ranging from West Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Cheltenham, Bala Cynwyd, Ardmore and Narberth. We are a small, hardworking team that love being outside. Through our work we aim to design and maintain outdoor spaces that engage the human soul, provide habitat and food for animals, and nurture the soil and plants. We take a people, planet and pet friendly approach to horticulture, that keeps native and edible plants in the mix and invasive plants and chemicals out. We are seeking folks who are curious, adaptive, diligent, open minded and enthusiastic about plants (to the point of nerdiness).

The positions are:
*Garden Crew Manager
*Spring Gardener

Email us at [email protected] for full job descriptions!

08/23/2024

Not only is milkweed a favorite amongst pollinators, it is also the host plant to the monarch butterfly. According to Texas Butterfly Ranch, caterpillars eat 200X their weight in leaves! To ensure these little guys make it from squishy, leaf eating machines to the iconic butterfly we all know and love make sure to plant our native milkweeds like Asclepias tuberosa, Asclepias incarnata, and Asclepias syrica.Fun fact: monarchs that emerge in August and September are the ones who travel to Mexico for the winter and make the trek back in March!

08/12/2024

Our client had an established shade garden that we expanded by adding two natural pathways. We got our hands nice and dirty creating steps using flagstone and a winding walk way using leaves and branches. If you think you have too much shade, talk to us! We would love the opportunity to showcase what’s possible in a garden with limited sunlight.

08/02/2024

08/02/2024

A highlight from last Fall was installing this pollinator garden in Mt. Airy. Our nature loving clients wanted to convert their side lawn into a native plant paradise for birds, bees and everything in between. We planted around 160 perennials and shrubs, over 600 bulbs, amended the soil with 16 yards of leaf compost, and laid down 1 yard of wood chips for the winding path! This was a collaborative effort that we at Kylin Arts are very proud of and we hope you enjoy the transformation as much as we did.

Now is a great time to think about a Fall installation. Planting in the cooler months gives plants a head start establishing their roots before the summer heat hits. Reach out today for a design consultation!

07/29/2024

Plant Highlight: Vernonia

*Vernonia is native to the eastern US. Likes full to partial sun, average conditions, and is drought tolerant once established.
*Purple blooms Aug-Sept.
*Height ranges from 36"-7' depending on the variety
*Can be found in meadows and city gardens
*Host plant for a number of moth species and is pollinated by butterflies and bees
*The seeds are a food source for songbirds
*Members of the genus Vernonia support the following specialized bee: Melissodes (Eumelissodes) denticulatus

07/22/2024

Need help with erosion control? Our client’s lawn had a slight slope that was causing issues whenever there was heavy rain. We removed some of the lawn to create a new garden bed filled with native plants to stabilize the soil and mitigate any run off. Belgian blocks were added for additional support and as a way to aesthetically define the garden beds.
Interested in a Fall installation? Reach out now for a design consultation!