Inspirations &
Foundations
A century of design theory, filtered through the lens of modern environmental science — the books, ideas, and principles that shape every Tjaden Design.
What we believe
about design
Our approach to landscape architecture is rooted in the conviction that a truly “beautiful” design is only successful if its “useful” function is fully integrated into its form. We draw from a lineage of thinkers who held the same belief — and we test those ideas every day at The Bluebird Farmstead Project.
The four principles below are not historical curiosities. They are the active foundation of every site analysis, every planting palette, and every stormwater calculation we produce.
The Functionalist Tradition
We operate on the conviction that form ever follows function. In our work, the “function” of a site is not limited to aesthetics — it includes its ability to manage stormwater, support pollinator populations, and build long-term soil health. A design that only looks good has not fulfilled its function.
The Unity of Design
We strive for the “spiritual union” where the built environment and the natural world are not two things in tension, but one integrated whole. A Tjaden design is not “applied” to a site from the outside — it grows from the site’s own character, hydrology, soils, and existing ecology.
The Ethical Aesthetic
We follow the Land Ethic — the idea that a design is only “right” when it preserves the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. This means our designs are accountable not just to the client, but to the soil, water, and wildlife of the place. Beauty and ethics are inseparable.
The Living Laboratory
Our designs are not theoretical. We actively farm and steward our own six-acre property as a testing ground for every sustainable practice we recommend to clients. The systems we design — native plantings, stormwater integration, soil building — are ones we have already put to work on our own land.
Books, articles,
and field notes
An ongoing record of what we’re reading, what’s informing our practice, and what we think every thoughtful landowner should know.
A Sand County Almanac
The foundational text behind our Land Ethic principle. Leopold’s argument — that land is not a commodity to be owned, but a community to which we belong — remains the most important single idea in our practice. His month-by-month observations of a Wisconsin farm are simultaneously ecological science and moral philosophy. Essential reading for any landowner.
Foundational Ecology Land EthicAn Autobiography
Wright’s own account of his organic architecture philosophy, and the wellspring of our Unity of Design principle. His concept of “growing” a design from its site — rather than imposing structure upon it — translates directly into how we approach site analysis and master planning.
Foundational Architecture Organic DesignSakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden
The oldest surviving treatise on garden making — an eleventh-century Japanese manual on placing stones, shaping water, and reading a site until the design follows, as the text puts it, the request of the land. A thousand years old and still the clearest argument that restraint is a design tool.
Foundational Design Philosophy Japanese GardenWaterwise Plants for Sustainable Gardens
The Ogdens profile two hundred plants that earn their place without supplemental irrigation — and make the larger case that a planting designed to the water a site actually receives is more beautiful, not less, than one kept alive against its will.
Planting Design Water-Wise Drought TolerantPlanting in a Post-Wild World
The most practically useful book in contemporary planting design. Rainer and West articulate a framework for designing naturalistic plant communities — not as imitation wilderness, but as intentional, resilient systems. This is the bridge between ecological theory and the planting palettes we actually put on paper.
Planting Design Native Plants Current ReadingYear Three: What the Meadow Is Teaching Us
Three years into our Bluebird Farmstead meadow restoration, the plant community is behaving in ways that challenge several of our design assumptions. Native grasses are suppressing aggressive forbs more effectively than predicted; deer browse pressure is reshaping the structural canopy in ways we did not anticipate. This field note documents adjustments to our adaptive management protocol — changes that will directly inform meadow restoration projects for clients in the 2025–2026 season.
The Bluebird Farmstead Project Meadow Restoration NewRed Clover First: Cover Cropping the New Meadow
Establishing a natural meadow means winning the first seasons against weed pressure. Our rotation seeds red clover heavily at the start — it outcompetes the annual weeds and fixes nitrogen while native perennial plugs and seed mixes establish beneath it. As the natives take hold, the clover is managed out and the meadow carries itself.
The Bluebird Farmstead Project Meadow Restoration NewLasagna Paths: Composting a Removed Tree Into the Garden
When a tree had to come off the property, its chips never left. Composted on site, they now surface the garden pathways over a lasagna base — cardboard first, then mulch, then chips — layers that smother weeds by exclusion instead of spraying. The paths feed the soil as they break down, and a removal becomes a resource.
The Bluebird Farmstead Project Regenerative NewPlanting: A New Perspective & Dream Plants for the Natural Garden
Oudolf’s work fundamentally changed how we understand the visual and ecological potential of herbaceous planting. His layered, naturalistic plant communities — designed for beauty across all four seasons, not just bloom time — are a direct influence on how we approach perennial and meadow planting palettes. If a Tjaden planting plan has a mood, it draws from Oudolf’s grammar.
Foundational Planting Design NaturalisticGarden Revolution
Weaner’s ecological approach to garden design — working with plant succession and site ecology rather than against them — is deeply aligned with how we think about long-term site management. His argument that designed landscapes should become less maintenance-intensive over time, not more, is one we make to clients every day. An essential counterweight to conventional horticultural thinking.
Foundational Ecology Native PlantsBuilding Inside Nature’s Envelope
A rigorous framework for designing the built environment — structures, infrastructure, landscapes — within the carrying capacity of natural systems. This book gives technical language and method to something we have always believed intuitively: that site development is only responsible when it operates within the ecological limits of a place. Essential reading for any landowner considering significant development.
Foundational Site Planning SustainabilityFive Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf
Filmed across five seasons at Hummelo and on site at the High Line, the Lurie Garden, and Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Piper’s documentary is the clearest window into Oudolf’s process — from abstract planting sketches to the way a matrix planting carries beauty through senescence and winter. Essential viewing for understanding why we design for all four seasons, not just peak bloom.
Film Planting Design NaturalisticThe Piet Oudolf Meadow at Delaware Botanic Gardens
Two acres and roughly 70,000 perennials and grasses, centered on native and pollinator-supporting species — the one place within our Mid-Atlantic service territory to study Oudolf’s matrix planting in person. His planting plans are displayed in the visitor center, making it a rare chance to read the drawings against the living result. We recommend visiting in more than one season.
Field Notes Regional Naturalistic