The Role of a Garden Designer Part 2: Deck Design

A beautiful home, a delightful young family, and a garden full of potential; I knew this was a design project that I was really going to enjoy. Adding a family-sized patio, kid-friendly play spaces that would encourage adventure and exploration, a new kitchen garden within an enclosed courtyard, and low maintenance, easy-care plantings that offered…

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A Garden to Grow Into

It was the all too familiar scenario; a charming new home with a small, non-functional back garden. With a patio barely big enough to accommodate the BBQ and a lawn that was saturated for much of the year there was nowhere to sit and enjoy a family meal, let alone a spot for a child…

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Big Ideas for Balcony-Sized Spaces

It's Showtime here in Seattle! The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is always a seasonal highlight for garden lovers and dreamers with so many ideas to help you make the most of your space no matter how large or small. The City Living display features ten patio gardens, each just 6' x 12', typical of…

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Skinny Shrubs for Tight Spaces

When I realized that my post Skinny Conifers for Tight Spaces has been read over 40,000 times, it inspired me to create a  free booklet for my newsletter subscribers; Top 10 Skinny Trees for Tight Spaces, which expanded that selection to include deciduous and flowering trees as well as conifers. That too has been well…

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Big Ideas for Using Color in Small Spaces

So much color, so many ideas, so little time! That's the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in a nutshell. Thank goodness for my camera because that's how I can look back on special visual highlights to glean ideas for my own garden and share some of my favorites with you. In this post I'm focusing…

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