Design Evolution: doing it your way

As an independent designer I'm in the fortunate position of being able to design gardens that will be professionally installed by my recommended contractors*, by the homeowners themselves, or even by another preferred and local-to-the-site contractor. (*I never accept a referral fee so my recommendation is  based on the fact that they always do outstanding…

Read More

New Year, New Vintage(s)

It's no secret that I enjoy a glass of wine in the garden. So imagine my excitement when I received an email from Proven Winners a few days ago, where the word "wine" appeared SEVEN times in just a few short paragraphs! Naturally they knew they would have my attention, so as I continued to…

Read More

Layers in the Winter Garden

Layering is a way of life here in the Pacific Northwest where on any given day, regardless of the season, you may be reaching for a fleece jacket one minute and peeling down to a T-shirt the next. As I looked outside early this morning the sun was just beginning to rise over the tree…

Read More

Planning Fabulous Fall Combinations

Stop what you're doing for a moment, look out of the window, and take a long, hard look at your fall garden.  What do you see? I'm sure there are individual trees or shrubs that are breathtaking, but are they shown off to their best advantage? Do they read as random sparks here and there,…

Read More

September Successes: planned and serendipitous

I've admitted already that this year my garden adventures have been more misadventures; moments here and there with little time, budget or frankly incentive as other priorities took center stage. Thank goodness nature – and serendipity often make up for my lackluster attempts! I went out into the garden with my camera just now to…

Read More