Over the years I’ve had hundreds of clients come my way, asking for a patio or a kitchen or a retaining wall or new plantings or… whatever. Some have even considered materials and colors and finishes. No matter the excitement, it’s my job to slam … Continue readingOne simple question that will make your landscape project 1000x better
There are no shortage of posts out there telling you when you should hire a landscape designer. Heck, I wrote one, “Do I really need a landscape designer?” way back in 2010. And they’re all awesome and if you want a great result you should … Continue readingWhen should you NOT hire a landscape designer?
Last week I wrote my post “What is it like to be a landscape designer?” and it occurred to me that every designer has come via a different path and does things a little bit differently. Literally every designer. Give the same problem to fifteen … Continue readingGuest Post! What it’s like for Ben Bowen of Ross NW Watergardens to be a landscape designer
I was a voracious reader as a child. It didn’t matter what you put in front of me, if it had letters imprinted upon it I would read it. Books, magazines, cereal boxes, newspapers, shampoo bottles, I read it. I was well known at the … Continue readingCreating a book-themed reading garden
Ah, autumn. Crisp, cool nights, apple cider donuts at the farmers markets, the crunch of leaves underfoot… and the infernal, deafening, aggravating noise that accompanies every fall season. I refer, of course, to the din of people whining about leaf blowers. Incessantly. On blogs, on … Continue readingIt must be fall ‘cuz people are griping about leaf blowers
Several months ago I got a call to do a Bristow landscape design project (for those not in the know, Bristow is a little town in Prince William County, Virginia). The client, Janice, wanted to take the boring expanse of soggy grass in her backyard … Continue readingCase Study: Virginia Landscape Design with Native Plants
Pizza is good. Pizza done on the grill is better. The absolute best pizza you could hope to have is made in a wood-fired pizza oven. We all know that. But why? The main reason a wood oven does so much better of a job … Continue readingCook outside AND stay warm with a wood fired pizza oven!
One of the benefits of being quite possibly The Most Approachable Guy in the World is I get into a lot of conversations. When these conversations are with folks from the gardening community, and the subject of native plants arises, it gets really interesting. Oftentimes the … Continue readingDo landscape professionals hate native plants?
The great thing about this time of year is that the days are cooler (well mostly, it’s supposed to hit 87 today), the humidity drops, and we start to shake free from summer’s brutal grasp. The not-so-great thing is that most plants are done blooming … Continue readingYour fall landscape is boring if you don’t know about these 8 plants
When I design a landscape there’s an order of operations that I always follow. Hardscape elements (decks, patios, walls, etc) get designed first, followed by trees, and then shrubs and perennials. The reason for this is simple: shrubs and perennials can be shifted relatively easily … Continue readingProper tree spacing and selection: what it is and why you need to know it