Evolution, Renovation and Rejuvenation – Revisited

I originally published this post in November 2011 on my old blog and continue to see the images re-pinned on Pinterest as well as receiving emails about the custom trellis design. Since it clearly struck a chord with so many I decided to re-post it here, with larger photographs, some new images and minor text…

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Front Garden Re-Imagined

How do you know when it's time to re-think the front garden? Certainly overgrown trees  and a fractured driveway are clues but spray painting the lawn green last summer was the final 'Aha!' moment for my Greater Seattle area clients. Yet funnily enough when I initially suggested a complete renovation they innocently asked "Which tree…

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Taming the Front Garden

Eek! Where would you start? Pruning the overgrown rhododendrons and camellias? Removing towering, diseased conifers? Hauling away a pampas grass the size of a Volkswagen? Well maybe, but the biggest problem was actually the driveway, assuming you drove a vehicle larger than a Mini cooper. Besides some areas that were crumbling away, it was extremely difficult…

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A Change in Perspective

It wasn't so much a patio as an apology. I  mean seriously, what are you supposed to do with an 8' x 13'-10" space? Sure you can fit a BBQ on there plus two or three people standing, providing you play doh-si-doh to get in and out of the house. But sitting on a comfy chair?…

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Scratch and Sniff

  Seattle is having an unprecedented mild spell which tempted me out  to visit the winter garden at the University of Washington arboretum this weekend. The birds were singing, the frogs were….doing what frogs do, the hummingbirds were dipping and diving and people were swooning. Really? Yes really. Pure olfactory overload – the witch hazels are…

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