WaterSHED is a dynamic Landscape Design-Build Practice on the Front Range.
WaterSHED is our passionate response to a living earth in need of reciprocal care and healing. A special combination of beauty and purpose emerges when excellent design meets wise ecological stewardship.
Our work is regenerative, climate responsive and ecologically respectful.
Featured work in
Boulder Lifestyle and Boulder County Home + Garden
An Aussie Aesthetic.
…For design help, noosa yoghurt founder, Koel Thomae, turned to Lisa Sangelo, who was working with Boulder’s L.I.D. Landscapes at the time. Besides being a talented landscape architect, Thomae says, Sangelo just happened to have another qualification that came in handy—she’s from Australia, too.
“With Lisa, I didn’t really have to explain everything I wanted,” Thomae says. “She just got it.”
Designing at the Edge
…For Lisa, an exciting aspect to bring to a landscape, one that will set yards apart from those around them, is known as the Edge Effect. David Holmgren first introduced the idea of the Edge Effect in the early ’80s with his book, Permaculture One. The Edge Effect is the idea that the meeting of two biological communities, for instance, forest and grassland, offers the most interesting space because of the diversity of both plants and animals. These transitional areas are called ‘Ecotones’, and you can find species from each neighboring biome as well as species unique to the combination of the two. In the natural world, these edges serve as ‘energy traps’ since they are the points where materials, nutrients, and organisms flow across ecosystems. They create beneficial microclimates, biodiversity, and biomass.
Article by Carolyn Davidson. Photography by Kelsey Huffer + Dehan Davis Photography. Originally published in Boulder Lifestyle
“Lisa helped us re-envision our property after the 2013 floods using all the principles relevant to sustainable and maintainable landscaping in Colorado. She walked us through soil remediation, plant selection, drainage issues, aesthetics and conservation. She has a great eye for design and a deep knowledge base needed to implement.”
– Michele L.
