Garden & Landscape Design, Consulting, & Installations

Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes   

Residential, Commercial, Institutional, & Public Gardens

267.251.5855

Stephen Coan of Stephen Coan Garden Design is an Award-Winning Independent Garden and Landscape Design & Consulting Specialist, Horticulturist, Plantsman, Craftsman, Artist, Naturalist, Outdoorsman, and Adventurer. He exclusively designs, consults, and installs bespoke horticulturally significant, nature inspired, pollinator attracting, naturalistic matrix fine gardens & designed landscapes that are timeless, memorable, and meaningful for discerning high-end residential, public, and commercial Clientèle using his extensive experience working with, studying, exploring, and researching native and beneficial plant species and their natural environments to create unique & novel plant communities.  Through his plant explorations in the wild back country he has discovered a new hybridized plant species and is working on naming it and bringing it to market.  

Stephen helps discerning high-end Clientèle who are frustrated with trying to find horticulturally knowledgeable design professionals that create significant, beautiful, and sustainable gardens that also attract and support butterflies, birds, and other pollinators.  Their properties are transformed from high maintenance, time consuming, and costly lawn environments into beautiful multi-layered, mixed planting, sustainable, and low-maintenance butterfly attracting habitat gardens bespokely created for each client’s unique gardens and landscapes. 

The plant-driven, nature inspired gardens that he creates, many of which include new patios and walkways, are not only beautiful, lush, have meaning, multi-layered, and have many seasons of overlapping flowering blooms throughout the entire growing season, they also have structural interest all through the winter landscape that can capture the sun glinting off the droplets of ice that form on the remaining dormant, quiet, and stark frozen plant materials that are providing a home and food sources for the overwintering butterflies, birds, and pollinators.  

He has repeatedly found that when a garden is done right using the designed novel plant communities that he creates, they naturally bring in butterflies, birds, and pollinators almost immediately upon the delivery and installation of the plants. He can sometimes even tailor gardens to attract specific butterflies.  

Many of his gardens and landscapes are based upon or use solar and celestial events and the passage of time making use of the fourth dimension in conjunction with, and the reinterpretation of, the new movements in garden design - naturalistic, and ecological plantings. The gardens are environmentally friendly using sustainable green practices with a combination of designed architectural features and the use of native and beneficial ornamental plant species that are site appropriate for the soil, lighting, and environmental conditions. 

One client, Susan B. writes: "Stephen designed an absolute oasis for me. He has impeccable taste and extensive knowledge of plants and local wildlife. My goal was to create a backyard haven for people, birds, bees and butterflies. I got all of that and so much more.  I now have a room outdoors in which to spend my most valuable time!"

They are ecologically guided and environmentally friendly using sustainable green practices, rain gardens, and water drainage management with a combination of designed hardscapes and the use of native and ornamental plant species that are site appropriate for the soil, lighting, and environmental conditions, and are not considered to be invasive plants or harmful to the environment or local ecosystem.   

His gardens are in the realm between and uniting naturalistic plantings, matrix plantings, and ecological planting design, with an emphasis on creating beautiful habitat gardens that attract and support butterflies, birds, and other pollinators with an eye on minimal maintenance. 

Gail C. writes:  "He was the first person I talked to who was willing to even let me be part of it--all the others said they would prefer to plan it themselves. His knowledge of plants is immense."

Stephen provides garden and landscape consulting, landscape design, master plans, garden design, planting design, land art, sculpture, plant lists, native pollinator management, project installation consulting services, planting installation, rainwater management, and garden coaching for residential, commercial, institutional, and public gardens.  meadows, rain gardens, butterfly gardens, pollinator gardens, water features, custom stone, wood and metal work, benches, arbors, land sculptures, land forming, lighting, and wildlife habitat garden projects. 

 The best gardens are done together with input from the client.

 Stephen creates beautiful environmentally friendly and sustainable landscapes and gardens.  

 "I work closely with my clients to create an outdoor experience that they will enjoy throughout the years."

Richard A. writes: "Stephen’s design is a knockout in every season, with flash in the summertime and a stark beauty in the winter."

Design Projects include:

• The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
• The Montessori Academy, Delran, NJ
• The Perkins Center of the Arts
• The Town of Collingswood, NJ
• The Collingswood, NJ Police and Fire Department building
• DIY Network Home Remodeling Program
• Various Private Residences in NJ, PA, and DE.

Design/Consult/Install Process: 

Click here for the Design/Consult/install Process of Stephen Coan

By Appointment Only.

Stephen Coan 
Stephen Coan Garden Design
Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes 

267.251.5855  

131 Lawnside Avenue 
Collingswood, NJ 08108  

NJHIC# 13VH08688500

For my Garden Blog that I occasionally add to:  Garden Blog

For my YouTube Channel: YouTube Channel

Profile: Click here for the bio of Stephen Coan

Click here for the profile of Stephen Coan

Stephen Coan is the Owner and Caretaker of Ferret Hollow Gardens, a Certified Wildlife Habitat Garden and a Certified Pollinator Habitat Garden.

Legal Notices:

Copyrights © & Usage

Disclaimer

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Disclosure

This new page's description is under development and is in a rough draft form. 

My goal is to create horticulturally and ecologically significant gardens and landscapes that are not only beautiful and lush throughout the year but are also low maintenance and functional supporting pollinators and resolving different issues present in our landscapes.  

A garden should be lush, multi-layered, and densely planted as well as having beauty, interest and function throughout all of the seasons.  It also should be accessible to people bringing them into the landscape instead of just being a picture that you look at through a window or from a patio that is right next to the home never wandering into the gardens and landscape.  A sense of wonder, enjoyment, change, discovery, and transformation.  A refuge that one can wander around in or sit and find solace and peace from the trials of the world and everyday life.  With these conditions in mind they should also be a haven and destination for birds, butterflies, and other pollinators.  We're recreating the ideal of nature.  When a garden is done right using native and beneficial plants in the designed gardens and landscapes they necessarily will benefit all -  man, woman, child, birds, bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.  

There is no going back to the native landscape.  What is it?  When was it?  Where was it?  That time and space is long gone. Native, if you think about it, is only a snapshot in time.  What's presently native in a specific area, micro to the macro, may not have been native 100 or 1000 years ago and may not be in 100 or 1000 years from now.  Are we talking geologic time, or a single human lifetime, 100 years, 1000 years, 10,000 years, 1,000,000 years?  The last ice age, the end of the dinosaurs, continental drifting, the beginning of life on this planet, the formation of this planet, solar system, the beginning of our universe with the big bang.  What geologic and environmental conditions and their evolution's formed our locations and soils.  Each period brought change and evolution.  Changes in the environment - weather patterns, temperature fluctuations, moisture fluctuations, soil conditions, all varying conditions.  Plants and animals can move.  Seeds can be transported by man, wildlife, and the functions of wind, water, weather and geology.  With the introduction of man into natural areas there is always a change taking place with the advent of altering the area to our needs.  Bringing something with us that was not there before.  Taking that plant, herb, vegetable, flower, insect, animal, that was native to our original homeland and bringing that into our new home because it helped us or we found it could feed us, or we thought it was beautiful and reminded us of our grandmothers favorite flower, and planting that or growing that in our new surroundings when we travel from afar.  This brings change, comfort, pleasure, a resource, a problem, some call it invasive, others call it home.  Unfortunately that time of native is gone, the cat is out of the bag, the pig is in the poke, we can never go back no matter what we try.  We are living in a novel plant community, a novel world that man has created, changed, altered, destroyed through our expansions throughout the world.  

The real question is how we use that knowledge of the past and the present new, varying, and evolving conditions.  How do we fit together, socialize, and coexist in a symbiotic fashion.  Understanding the sociability of plants, animals, and the environment, and how they fit together in a harmonious way.  Knowing how a plant grows, its root structures, it's nutrient requirements, its soil requirements, its light requirements, why it grows in a particular place, how it fits together with other plants of its own species or with other species.  Does it want to live with other plants in different sized groups or live all by itself.  Is it aggressive, neutral, or passive.  does it need a lot of moisture or needs dry feet in the winter? Does it like the shade, need to get full sun, or somewhere in-between?  How does it reproduce? Does it support or is it the main food source for pollinators.  All questions that need answers for it to be used in the garden and especially Habitat Gardens.  And more importantly, how to use those plants to create a beautiful, lush, supportive, and year-round garden?  

Gardens evolve over time.  They are not static.  The individual plants within whole being are to reproduce themselves in some way whether it be seed, spore, offshoots, underground rhizomes, layering, etc.  Knowing how it reproduces you can then take advantage of those strategies and let them spread or not, to find its ideal conditions within that garden.  For instance, you can plant a true annual knowing that it will spread by seed every year and fill in areas that are less densely planted.  Or, if it spreads by underground rhizomes and to what extent.  Again, strategies to fill in the garden.   

(Most annuals found in garden centers and big box stores are not true annuals but rather tropicals that won't survive over the winter in colder climate zones. A true annual will in one seasons time grow from seed, flower, set seed, spread seeds, and then go permanently dormant.)

How you decide to arrange, what plants to use, and how they reproduce are the keys for determining the amount of input that are needed over time.  A densely planted garden once it fills in, at least with the gardens that I create, needs less and less maintenance over time, usually within two to three years, meaning a low-maintenance garden including how much watering that it may need if any at all.  However that is determined by the soil structure, infiltration rate, and contents of a particular areas soil.  Knowing what Physiographic region the garden or meadow site is located is quite important.  Whether it be in the Coastal Plain or the Piedmont regions of the Philadelphia Tri-State region because of the different soil contents and structure. 

I try to start with a clean slate in my gardens and landscapes, but may be able to work with some of the existing....  

Call me at 267.251.5855 to set up a consultation appointment to help guide you in the right direction.  

Stephen Coan 
Stephen Coan Garden Design
Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes 
267.251.5855  

The Smart Homeowner’s Guide to Landscape Design
An article by Stephen Coan

Most homeowners know they want to enjoy their property and make it look better.  But they’re often fuzzy on who does what, how long it takes, and why design matters so much.  This guide clears the fog — so you know exactly what to expect, what you’re paying for, and why hiring a landscape designer is one of the highest-ROI decisions you can make for your home.

1. Landscaper vs Landscape Designer: What’s the Difference?  Think of your outdoor space like a house:

• A landscaper is the builder — they install, maintain, mow, prune, mulch, dig, and construct.
• A landscape designer is the architect — they create the plan, the vision, the layout, the functional flow, and the aesthetic style.
• A landscape designer that is also a horticulturist is a Plant specialist.

Landscaper

• Works hands-on with soil, plants, lawn care, clean-ups, and installations.
• Focus: execution and maintenance
• When to hire: When you know exactly what you want done and simply need the labor.

Landscape Designer

• Creates the big picture plan for your property.
• Works with shapes, space, sun movement, drainage, circulation, planting palettes, zoning, and visual harmony.
• Focus: strategy, beauty, lifestyle, functionality
• When to hire: When you want anything more sophisticated than “fresh mulch and a tidy lawn.”

In one sentence: A landscaper builds the plan. A landscape designer creates the plan.  

2. Landscape Architect vs Landscape Designer: What’s the Difference?

People often assume these two roles are interchangeable — but they’re quite different.  

Landscape Architect

• Has a university degree and state license.
• Specializes in large-scale and technical projects: parks, commercial properties, stormwater systems, public spaces.
• Required when permitting, engineering, or complex grading is involved.

Landscape Designer

• Focuses on residential and small-scale projects and commercial, institutional, and public gardens.
• Blends artistry, horticulture, and functionality.
• Designs outdoor living spaces, planting schemes, patios, pools, walkways, front entries, courtyards, and backyard retreats.
• Often more nimble and more affordable for homeowners than architects.

In one sentence: A landscape architect is ideal for complex, engineered sites. A landscape designer is ideal for creating beautiful, livable outdoor spaces at a residential scale and gardens at Residential, Commercial, Institutional, and Public scales.  

3. How Long Does a Landscape Design Project Take — and Why?

If you think landscape design is just “drawing where the plants go,” prepare to be pleasantly surprised.  A proper design process has several layers — each one protects your budget and ensures the finished project looks phenomenal. 

Typical Timeline: 4–8 Weeks or more for the designs (depending on project size, revisions, scope, and waiting list.)

 Step 1: Consultation & Site Walk (1 week)

• Understand your goals, style, and lifestyle
• Evaluate site conditions
• Discuss budget ranges and priorities

Step 2: Site Measurements & Analysis (1–2 weeks)

• Sun studies
• Drainage & grading notes
• Existing plant assessment
• Access and circulation
• Photographs and base maps

Step 3: Concept Development (1–2 weeks)

• Preliminary sketches
• Mood boards or inspiration images
• Shape studies and layout options
• Functional zoning of the property

Step 4: Final Design & Planting Plan (2–3 weeks)

• Hardscape details
• Planting palette
• Spatial layout
• Materials suggestions
• Cost-range discussions

Step 5: Build Support / Contractor Coordination (1 or more months depending upon contractor scheduling)

• Once plans are approved, designers help coordinate with landscapers and builders
• Ensures the project is installed exactly as designed
• Prevents costly on-site improvisation mistakes

Why it takes months — not weeks

Because a great design requires:

• Research
• Sun & drainage analysis
• Creative planning
• Multiple plant options
• Layered decision-making
• Hardscape + softscape integration
• Budget shaping
• Construction-feasible details
• Plant selection and coordination
• Materials selections and ordering
• Contractor searches and estimates
• Construction scheduling, Construction, and plantings

The result? A space that works, lasts, and feels amazing — not a random collection of plants fighting for survival.  
..........

For information on our process to design and install nature inspired gardens and landscapes click here.

Does Landscape Design Add ROI? 
(Short answer: Yes — and more than most renovations)

You’ve probably heard homeowners say:  “Landscaping is the best investment you can make.”  They’re not wrong. One builder summarized it perfectly in regards to their return on investment (ROI):

• 1x return for inside renovations
• 5x return for outdoor structures
• 15x return for landscaping

And he’s not guessing — these ratios appear over and over in property valuation reports. 

Why does landscaping give such a strong return?  Because it improves the three things buyers care about most:

1. Curb Appeal
       First impressions directly influence perceived value.
2. Livability
       Outdoor living spaces (patios, fire pits, gardens, shade structures) expand your usable square footage at a fraction of the price of building inside.
3. Emotional Value
       People buy homes emotionally.

Landscaping is the single most powerful way to create that “I love this place” feeling in seconds.

Plus — plants grow. Meaning your investment appreciates rather than depreciates. 

What adds the most value?

• Front entry redesign
• Backyard entertainment areas
• Professional planting design
• Lighting plans
• Paths and circulation improvements
• Drainage fixes (so nothing floods — huge selling point)

In Summary

Hiring a landscape designer isn’t a luxury — it’s a smart, high-ROI way to create a better life at home.  A landscaper can build whatever you ask for. A landscape designer tells you what to build — so it looks stunning, functions flawlessly, and increases the value of your property.  And when you invest in professional design, you’re not just buying drawings.  You’re buying clarity, efficiency, beauty, lifestyle, and long-term property value. 

Habitat Gardens: (Shown here is one of our habitat gardens.)

I love creating ecologically and horticulturally significant gardens that are not only lush and beautiful but they immediately attract and support pollinators and birds throughout the seasons and years.  

A habitat garden or pollinator-friendly garden is a created garden environment that serves not only as a beautiful lush garden but also serves as a sustainable haven for local and migratory wildlife, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators.  It provides the essential ingredients for them to thrive: food, water, cover, and places to rear their young.  Think butterfly garden.   

It's a type of garden designed to provide a welcoming environment for local wildlife, such as birds, bees, butterflies, insects, small mammals, and other creatures. The idea is to create a garden that mimics natural habitats, offering food, water, shelter, and places to breed. This kind of garden is not only visually appealing but also contributes to local biodiversity and environmental sustainability.

Key features of a habitat garden include:

1. Native Plants: These plants are suited to the local climate and soil, and they often provide food and shelter for local wildlife. Native flowers, shrubs, and trees attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, and also provide shelter for birds and insects.
2. Water Sources: A pond, birdbath, or small water feature helps to attract animals that need a water source. It also supports a range of insects and amphibians, such as frogs and dragonflies.
3. Shelter and Nesting Areas: Trees, shrubs, and even specially designed features like birdhouses, bat boxes, or insect hotels offer places for animals to nest and take refuge. Leaf piles, logs, and branches also serve as shelters for small creatures.
4. Diverse Habitats: A habitat garden might feature a mix of sunny and shady spots, areas with different soil types, and a variety of heights (such as tall trees, low-growing plants, and ground covers). This diversity ensures a range of creatures can find the conditions they need.
5. Minimal Pesticides: Habitat gardens typically focus on organic gardening methods and avoid using chemical pesticides, which can harm wildlife. Instead, gardeners might rely on natural pest control, such as attracting beneficial insects like ladybugs and spiders.
6. Wildlife-Friendly Features: Adding elements like a compost pile (which provides a habitat for decomposers like worms), wildflower meadows, or areas left a bit "wild" can further encourage animals to thrive.

A habitat garden helps restore natural balance by providing essential resources to support local ecosystems, and it can be a very rewarding way to interact with nature.


Call me at 267.251.5855 to set up a consultation appointment to help guide you in the right direction.  

Stephen Coan 
Stephen Coan Garden Design
Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes 
267.251.5855  

The Spring Bulb Layer is an important multi-species, sequentially ordered, overlapping blooming times, spring-time flowering layer in the garden.  It's an important layer feature in gardens because it fills in a period between the winter and when the perennials begin to bloom usually in late May/June weather depending with a sequence of overlapping flowering bulb species.  There are multiple layers of overlapping in time blooms throughout this period using many species of Spring bulbs that can feed the pollinators as they emerge from their winter rest/hibernation.  Although most are not native they have proven to not only be beneficial to the pollinators but are the start of the season long overlapping blooming's in the gardens during this period when the perennials start to bloom that last into mid to late Fall depending upon the weather.  The Spring Bulb Layer is the last layer to be planted in the garden in the late Fall. 

Call me at 267.251.5855 to set up a consultation appointment to help guide you in the right direction.  

Stephen Coan 
Stephen Coan Garden Design
Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes 
267.251.5855  

Shown here are the bones of a newly installed water management option of a stone rain garden water entrance channel.  The channel takes the rain falling on 1/2 of the roof and channels it down from the downspouts through the channel and into the rain garden depression where it is absorbed into the ground and into the roots of the growing plants.  The rain garden is sized for a 2" rain storm. The following year, 2024, the plants had completely filled in.  The garden is lush and beautiful and also supports local birds, butterflies, and other pollinators.  The problem that it solved was that there were two downspouts drain the Clients roof from 1/2 of the roof, approximately 1,500 sq. ft area, that used to flow across the driveway causing it to ice up during the winter making it treacherous to walk across.  With the addition of the rain garden the water now goes into the garden instead of down the driveway and then flowing into the street or freezing into a sheet of ice across the driveway.  The absorbed water is then added back to the ground water table instead of going into the towns stormwater infrastructure.

Basically, a rain garden is a depression in the ground that you set up to have stormwater flow into it and then gets absorbed by the plants and into the ground. Ideally the water that it accumulates is completely absorbed within 12-48 hours.  The addition of water tolerant plants helps speed the rate up by absorbing some of the water through their root systems.  One word of caution in placing a rain garden - if you find that water is sitting on an area that lasts a number of days that is not the spot to locate it, it means that it won't work to absorb the water.  It's best to do a soil percolation test to see how fast the water is absorbed.  I usually do a 2' x 2' x 2' hole, fill it up completely, let it entirely drain, then refill it for the actual test. If this drains within 24 hours it's a good spot.  It may not work if you're on heavy clay soil.  

________

"What Is A Rain Garden?"                                                                                         

"A rain garden is a garden of shrubs, perennials, and flowers planted in a small depression, which is generally formed on a natural slope. It is designed to temporarily hold and soak in rain water runoff that flows from roofs, driveways, patios or lawns. Rain gardens are effective in removing up to 90% of nutrients and chemicals and up to 80% of sediments from the rainwater runoff. Compared to a conventional lawn, rain gardens allow for 30% more water to soak into the ground.

A rain garden is not a water garden. Nor is it a pond or a wetland. Conversely, a rain garden is dry most of the time. It typically holds water only during and following a rainfall event. Because rain gardens will drain within 12-48 hours, they prevent the breeding of mosquitoes."

Excerpt from the Groundwater Foundation. 
https://www.groundwater.org/

Call me at 267.251.5855 to set up a consultation appointment to help guide you in the right direction.  

Stephen Coan 
Stephen Coan Garden Design
Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes 
267.251.5855  

Lighting plays an important function in the garden and landscape.  Subtle lighting opens up the darkened gardens at night to become a wonderland.  It also functions as a way to navigate though the landscape without tripping and sometimes for safety.  I always feel that less is more in regards to the intensity of the lighting. We use lighting to add some color to the nightscape giving it visual interest instead of a black hole as seen in many locations.  It's especially wonderful when there is a layer of snow for the colors to bounce off of giving the snowscape an otherworldly effect and livens up the winter gardens and landscapes as well as the rest of the year.  

Call me at 267.251.5855 to set up a consultation appointment to help guide you in the right direction.   

Stephen Coan 
Stephen Coan Garden Design
Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes 
267.251.5855  

Mid to late fall is the time to put your gardens to rest for the winter. 

1. Don't cut down the plants and grasses, They provide food for the birds and overwintering shelter for many pollinators including many butterflies.  They'll also provide structure in the garden during the winter as well as some subtle colors in the garden.
2. Use the fallen leaves to fill in the garden as a mulch and plant food as the plant debris breaks down.  The leaves will be your mulch layer for the next year if you use enough and will provide nutrients to the soil in the gardens as they break down.  You can also mow the leaves into any lawn that you may have to provide natural nutrients to the soil to feed the grass.
3. Lay down any fallen plants onto the ground in the garden so they can break down and feed the soil. 
4. Plant spring bulbs when temperatures start to drop in mid to late fall before the ground freezes.  
5. Take care of any garden chores that have been put off during the year.
6. Drain your hoses.  
7. Stop feeding any pond fish that you may have when the water reaches 55º after having already switching to a cool water fish food.
8. Clean the pond and any filters on your pond and add fall/winter prep.  A very good source for pond care information is: Carolyn J. Weise's book - ABCs of Ponds.  It's out of print but you can still find them for sale.  
9. Turn off any fountains, drain, clean, dry, and cover for the winter.  You don't want water left in the pumps to freeze and damage them. I personally leave the waterfall on my pond running throughout the winter to provide a water source for any local wildlife, mostly birds, throughout the winter.  As long as it keeps running it won't freeze but the surrounding areas will.  Just keep an eye on it for any potential problems, I've never had any problems with doing this. 

Call me to set up a consultation appointment to help guide you in the right direction.  

Stephen Coan   
Stephen Coan Garden Design 
Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes
267.251.5855

Garden & Landscape Design, Consulting, & Installations

Residential, Commercial, Institutional, & Public Gardens

The timing for the Spring cut-down is based upon the vagaries of Mother Nature and when she feels like letting go of the winter and allowing spring to emerge.  Depending upon if you have early spring bulbs planted you might do the cut down earlier during the late winter when they start to emerge.  Just cut or break the stems of the plants down, break up into small pieces, and lay down on the ground to be the mulch for the year.  You can hold off a bit if there are no bulbs but you still do the same with the dried plants.  With hollow stemmed plants I sometimes leave about 12-15 inches of the stem standing for any solitary bees such as Mason bees or Leafcutter Bees that use the hollow stems them to lay their "eggs" in.  My thinking for using the plants for mulch is that Mother Nature did just fine for millions of years using the dried plant debris to fertilize the soil.  Once the emerging plants fill in you won't even see the plant debris.  Doing this eliminates the use of hardwood mulch which plants never evolved to be able to grow in.   

Call me to set up a consultation appointment to help guide you in the right direction.  
 

Stephen Coan    
Stephen Coan Garden Design  
Nature Inspired Gardens & Landscapes
267.251.5855

Garden & Landscape Design, Consulting, & Installation

Residential, Commercial, Institutional, & Public Gardens