If I asked you to tell me about crape myrtles, what would you say? My guess is the first thing you’d mention is the fact that the flowers are pretty spectacular (because they are). You might even say that it blooms in the summer, unlike … Continue readingAre you ignoring the coolest feature of a crape myrtle?
If you’re like a lot of homeowners, you’ve been looking at your landscape plants with a little bit of worry lately. The cold has been brutal. If the Weather Channel is saying that Valentine’s weekend was “potentially life-threatening cold,” what does that say for the … Continue readingWinter plant damage: watch for these 3 problems
Winter storm Jonas (why are we naming them again?) is barreling towards us, and that’s caused a number of friends to send me panicked texts and Facebook messages like “will this destroy my new plants?” and “help me save my trees!” I figure if they … Continue readingProtecting your landscape from winter storm damage
I’m always on the lookout for new tech tools, especially ones that could make life easier for my clients. A few months ago I stumbled across Plants Map, a cloud-based way to document and record plants you’ve planted, plants you’ve found and loved, and more. … Continue readingPlants Map: because paper gets wet and we forget stuff
This was a great Alexandria landscape design project. Sometimes you roll up to a new potential client’s home and you see something that makes you say, “we’re totally working together.” That was the case with this project. As I drove slowly down the street, looking … Continue readingCase study: An Alexandria landscape design all about the dog
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
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
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