Outdoor Maintenance – Natural Renderings by Ruth Heil

Why a picture of a baby box turtle? It represents life that can occur when we give nature some space.

Natural Renderings specializes in maintaining and enhancing rural, wooded, and/or naturalized spaces. Here, nature drives the design, and the complex and ever-changing ecology within the system is celebrated versus controlled.

I am looking for property owners who want strategic help from a conservation-focused individual. Whether I work alone or right alongside the do-it-yourself owner, my goal is to assist with the creation or maintenance of a landscape that features biodiversity and a natural aesthetic.

It is my mission to help you keep natural areas and woodlots on your land. I employ basic ecological principals to modify or improve the habitat, function, enjoyment, and aesthetic of your nature-dominated spaces.

Who am I? Click here for the answer.

What Natural Renderings can do:

Reduce longterm maintenance costs with tactical alternatives to prevailing landscape practices.
Address problems with solutions that coincide with natural processes.
Enhance visual interest while preserving favorable vegetation, soil health, and other critical natural resources.
Increase wildlife habitat.
Improve the appearance and function of property border zones and other naturalized privacy buffers.
Collaborate with ecoconscious landscape designers to protect existing trees and other native assets.
Assist with tasks required to meet the goals of a forest stewardship plan or the maintenance terms of a riparian buffer or other conservation easement.
Work side-by-side with the overwhelmed do-it-yourself gardener or be a companion to those whose physical abilities have become limited due to age or injury.
Connect you with ecology-focused resources for reducing stormwater runoff, planting for wildlife, generating income from woodlands, etc.

Specific Examples:

Manually cut unsightly overgrowth or invasive tangles. This includes cutting woody vines (without harming favorable trees) or non-native shrubs and saplings that offer no value to the system.
Prune native shrubs and small trees.
Inspect saplings for structural defects or other restrictions to longevity and vitality.
Clear or create footpaths that encourage exploration, highlight visual interests, promote low-impact enjoyment and recreation, and safely avoid hazards such as (habitat-valuable) standing dead trees.
Improve soft-edge transitions from lawns to natural spaces.
Weedwack invasive grasses prior to unwanted seed production.
Girdle invasive trees (i.e., notch to kill without cutting down).
Cut firewood from fallen or storm-damaged limbs and other debris.
Retrieve litter from streamside buffer zones after flood events.
Create artful, habitat-valuable brush piles, slow-compost piles, or slash fences from debris and organic waste.*
Manually clear fence lines or foundations of unwanted vegetation

Standard Process:

My clients are not just paying customers; they are partners in a shared vision. I will:

Discuss your broader, land-stewardship goals before any work begins.
Perform all the work myself with pre-approved exceptions.
Retain leaf litter and encourage vegetation diversity.
Avoid soil compaction as much as possible.
Limit the use of power tools to a weedwacker, chainsaw, and on rare occasion, a leaf blower.*
Refrain from the use of chemicals or synthetic fertilizers*
Look for opportunities to reduce future maintenance requirements.*
Share decades of experience and a reputable network of individuals, organizations, and resources in the environmental conservation and ethical tree care arena. In short, if I can’t do it, I likely know someone trustworthy who can.

What Natural Renderings Does Not Do:

Mow or maintain lawns
Use any heavy equipment
Hire laborers or run multiple crews
Apply chemicals*
Design landscape installations*
Build walls or other hardscape*
Haul material (to or away from site)*

*Available through a select group of individuals who offer related services that dovetail mine.