Getting to Know Us

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Zone4 Landscapes is a full-service landscape design, installation and maintenance outfit specializing in the unique challenges and opportunities of the Catskill region of NY. We love what we do and strive to make the collaboration with the client an enjoyable and productive experience from beginning to end.

This outfit cranked up in 2005 so we have been around for a while now, and boy do I wish I knew then what I know now.  I call it an outfit because it feels more like a rock band (without all of the fighting) than a business.  None the less, it is a real business with good insurance, seasoned employees and a great deal of water under the bridge.  I am Mel Bellar, the main designer, head honcho and chief bottle-washer, and I have learned a lot on this journey.  In addition to learning a lot about what works (and doesn’t!) to make successful landscapes, I have learned that the most important thing in business is to have fun and do work that I love.

For instance, we love to collaborate with you to create a design that will meet your functional and aesthetic goals so that your landscape will be comfortable, useful and beautiful.

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Don’t worry, if you are not sure what you want, we will work together to figure it out. Then we will work with you to tailor an appropriate plan, culminating with an installation meeting our specifications. We would love to continue on and maintain your garden if you so desire and nurture the garden  into its full glory.

Following a garden through the years is very gratifying as the old adage, “The first year it sleeps, the second it creeps and the third it leaps”, is pretty close to true.  It is always a challenge to make a newly installed garden look great and plan for it to continue to look good in 3 years, 5 years and 10 years.  It involves choosing the right plants, placing them optimally, and either patience while they fill in or the willingness to do some thinning as the garden grows.  Regardless of the initial approach, a garden requires serious coddling for the first few years.

“Gardening is the slowest form of the performing arts.”  This anonymous and provocative quote is a good introduction for the new gardener or client and a great reminder for the landscape designer.

Check out the blog

Divine Design

When someone asks me what I do, I tell them that I am a landscape designer.  I will very likely continue on to say that I have a landscape design, installation and maintenance business, because installation and maintenance are a huge part of what we do, but the emphasis is on design.  Clients and friends […]

A Blast from the Grass

I don’t think I need to tell you again how much I love autumn, but it is my favorite time of year.  It always has been, even growing up in Louisiana when it meant going back to school (which I did not like!).   This year it was a bit of a tease as it seemed […]

More Shady Characters – Perennials and Groundcovers

As I start writing this, I intend for it to be the last installment in this woodland garden saga, but then I never planned for it to be a serial in the first place, so who knows.  Originally, it was all about my excitement for the plants in some gardens I was designing.  Then I […]

Nice things our clients say