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 catch ...

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 ...

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 Aldi ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, enclosure, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...