Rain Gardens and Landscaping
CCE Onondaga’s Landscaping for Water Quality in the Finger Lakes: This booklet provides information on different landscaping best practices, different types of landscaping for water quality (including filter strips and rain gardens), and native plant selections for your property.
CCE Onondaga Rain Gardens: This brochure provides information on how to design a rain garden based on different site characteristics.
CCE Onondaga What Plants Do I Choose: Offers suggestions for native plants for shorescaping/landscaping.
NYS DEC Native Flowers for Landscaping and Gardening: This factsheet offers more suggestions on native plants.
Native Plants for NY Streamsides: Provides more examples of native shrubs and trees.
CCE Onondaga’s Lawn Care for Water Quality: A Homeowner’s Guide: This brochure provides information on DEC’s Nutrient Runoff Law and ways homeowners can reduce nutrients from getting into waterbodies while still keeping a green lawn.
Cornell Turfgrass Program: This program provides resources on environmentally-friendly lawn care. Check out their webinar on Healthy Lakeside Lawn Care!
The Central NY Stormwater Coalition publishes the Gardens and Gutters newsletter periodically. The newsletter provides information on best management practices for homeowners (including landscaping) for water quality and stormwater management. Check out the July 2021 edition of Gardens and Gutters.
Transitioning Your Lawn to a Meadow Webinar - July 14th, 2021
This webinar discussed how land conservation and stewardship can help protect water quality, ensuring clean drinking water is available for future generations. Learn more about ways to steward your land to protect water quality, promote birds, bees, butterflies and other beneficial wildlife, specifically the benefits of transitioning your lawn or a portion of your lawn to a more natural, meadow landscape. Presented by Cornell Cooperative Extension Onondaga County in collaboration with Sam Quinn from the SUNY ESF Restoration Science Center.
Click here to view the Transitioning Your Lawn to a Meadow webinar recording on Youtube
Click here to download the presentation slides from Transitioning Your Lawn to a Meadow
SUNY ESF Restoration Science Center - Converting Lawns to Meadows: A Pocket Guide for CNY Landowners
SUNY ESF Restoration Science Center - Making a Meadow video series on YouTube
Shoreline Stabilization and Erosion Control
The NYS DEC Shoreline Stabilization Techniques page is a good way to learn more about the different shorescaping methods with step-by-step instructions.
Vermont/Lake Champlain Shoreline Stabilization Handbook: a more technical, but very detailed resource on shorescaping.
Hudson River Sustainable Shorelines is an initiative focused on generating science-based information on best management practices for shorelines in the Hudson River Estuary Watershed. They offer different webinars, handbooks, and case studies on shorescaping, which are applicable to lakes/streams outside of the Hudson River watershed.
Landscaping for Shorelines Webinar - October 14th, 2020
This webinar by CCE Onondaga provided tips for landscaping shorelines to prevent erosion and protect water quality, including examples of native species that are low maintenance, resilient, and ecologically valuable.
Introducing Shore Zones Webinar - April 6th, 2023
This program defined shore zones and explained why they are important. This presentation also highlighted the ways humans impact shorelines, and shared some general tips to protect shoreline ecosystems.
Keeping Up With The Joneses – How Neighbors Influence Shoreline Type - June 21st, 2023
Ever wondered why your neighbor has a hardened shoreline instead of a natural shoreline? This session by CCE Onondaga provided context on human behavior related to shorelines, specifically research-based information on predictors of shoreline type, or what influences a property owner’s shoreline type. The event also explored research about peoples’ willingness to participate in different hypothetical shoreline programs. Additionally, there was a presentation introducing the Vermont Lake Wise program – an example of an initiative by a neighboring state to encourage natural shorelines and protect lake health.
Plant Databases and Other Resources
New! Skaneateles Lake Association and the SUNY ESF Restoration Science Center are giving away Wildflower Seed Starter Kits - click here for more information.
There are several different plant databases that help with selection of native plants, depending on site and other characteristics:
Cornell’s Woody Plants Database: You can use this database to look up trees, shrubs and woody vines based on your site’s characteristics.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Find native plants based on different characteristics or native plant suppliers.
Audubon Native Plants Database: Find plants that attract specific birds.
Other resources that can help with landscaping for water quality include:
Cornell Cooperative Extension Soil Testing: A soil test will tell you what nutrients are in your soil and what you may need to add. Be sure before adding any fertilizer, you follow the NYS Nutrient Runoff Law. This law restricts the use of lawn fertilizer based on different factors and who is applying it.
Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners: Have a gardening question? The Master Gardeners are trained volunteers who work in partnership with their local county Cooperative Extension office. They also have a plant sale every spring. To contact them, call (315) 424-9485 ext.236 or email ccemastergardener@gmail.com
Wild Ones Habitat Gardening in CNY Chapter: Resources and regularly offered gardening programs specific to the central NY area. They also offer a Native Plant Shopping Guide each year.
NYS DEC Buffer in a Bag provides property owners with at least 50 ft. of shoreline along a waterbody with free trees and shrubs.
NYS DEC Trees for Tributaries offers grants to organizations and municipalities looking to undertake streamside plantings.
CCE Onondaga Stream Systems 101 for Skaneateles webinar recording: Skaneateles Lake has about 150 distinct watercourses that flow into the lake, all of which play a role in the lake's water quality. Homeowners and other stakeholders are invited to learn the basics of how stream systems function and the role stream health plays in water quality of the lake. Presented by Carl Schwartz, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Coordinator, US Fish and Wildlife.
Soil and Water Conservation Districts typically hold a tree sale every spring: