The American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) is one of my favorite trees. Why, you ask? I’ve always had a thing for interesting plant textures, and trees with unique bark always … [Read more...]

I know winter is the last thing on anyone's mind right now, but if you’re considering planting any shrubs this year, you still need to consider how they’ll look in the winter. When … [Read more...]

When someone asks me, “can I lay pavers/brick/flagstone over my crappy old concrete walk?” I think about the difference between frugal and cheap. Frugal is shopping at stores like … [Read more...]

Since I was young, my parents have always been big advocates of traveling. When I was 5 years old, for example, my dad had to take a business trip to France. He decided to turn it … [Read more...]

This is the last part in a series on basic principles of design. We made it! Check out the intro, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5 if you haven’t already, then get ready to dive … [Read more...]

Before reading this post, check out the first four posts! So far, we’ve been introduced to the concept of design principles and the four foundational elements. We discussed scale, … [Read more...]

This is part 4 in a series on basic principles of design. If you haven’t read the previous posts, check them out! After a brief introductory post, we dove into the four main … [Read more...]

This is part 3 of a series on basic principles of design. Check out the introduction to the series and this post on point, line, plane, and volume first if you missed them! This … [Read more...]

Hold up! If you haven’t yet read the introduction to this series, check it out before reading this post! Point, line, plane, and volume are the four most basic spatial … [Read more...]