Habitat Focused

Landscape Design

Our goal is to design gardens that are not only sustainable but also offer beauty and natural wonder in all seasons. We start by incorporating a minimum of 20% or more native plants in every design. We utilize water-wise plants, including many colorful perennials to create full gardens with plants that host a diverse array of beneficial insects all season long.We emphasize ecosystem-friendly elements, like rain gardens, native habitat areas, stumps, nurse logs, birdbaths, and meadows, to enhance biodiversity and reduce pollution.

We encourage clients to pursue the Backyard Habitat Certification once their project is complete. Most designs bring properties up to at least the Silver level certification, and full-yard redesigns often qualify for Gold.

Our designs are crafted for year-round interest, incorporating evergreens, colorful stems, and winter berries. We consider accessibility, maintenance, drainage, sunlight, and design elements like texture, color, and height variation. Throughout the process, we ask for your feedback at each stage to create a garden that aligns with your style, budget, and outdoor living needs.

Are you a 'Do it Yourself' person?

We offer stand alone design services. We are happy to use our expertise to come up with a DIY plan tailored to your project. We provide support and guidance along the way.

Our Planting Style

We lean on the side of a heavier planting with little to no mulch showing when the garden is mature. From an environmental standpoint a full planting is ideal because it helps shade out weeds, reduces mulch needs, provides better habitat for beneficial insects and wildlife and sequesters more carbon.

Certified Naturally Grown

Plants + Planting

Procurement

We design primarily from our own Certified Naturally Grown nursery which produces several hundred varieties of plants well adapted to our climate. Our nursery is unique in that we grow without any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. We love plants of all types and grow many wonderful perennials, ground covers, grasses, shrubs and natives. However, we can’t grow everything, so we often fill in from other nurseries for a small portion of the plants in our designs. We offer procurement services for plants we do not grow such as trees or customer special requests. If something is out of stock, we can usually suggest an alternative or we can add it to the procurement list if the exact plant in the design is desired.

Layout + Marking

Once the plants are on-site, they need to be placed in the landscape according to the Master Planting Plan. We do this whenever you hire us for planting services, making sure all the plants are in the right place with the proper spacing between them. Sometimes small adjustments are made to improve the layout on-site.

We also offer (and recommend) this service for clients who plan on doing their own planting to ensure everything is in the right place with enough room to grow.

Installation

With each plant installation, we prioritize soil health and enhancement by incorporating a compost-based soil amendment with the native soil for each plant. This no-till practice gives your plants a healthy start while leaving the rest of the soil (and its structure that soil organisms have worked so hard to create) undisturbed for optimum soil health. Instead of rototilling, regular mulching and letting nature do the rest of the work for you will improve soil health and keep stored carbon underground. Prior to planting, many of our plants also undergo a gentle trim (when suitable). This practice not only stimulates branching for fuller healthier looking plants but may reduce transplant shock as well when planted in warmer weather.

Project Management

We can manage contractors to help free up your time and to make sure all pertinent details are communicated. We are happy to collaborate with a contractor of your choice or help you select one. We work with many talented craftsmen and contractors in the area, for cleanups, hardscaping, mulching, etc. If you would like to consider “Do-it-yourself” for all or part of your project, ask us about our DIY install manual.

Billed hourly, we can help as much or as little as you would like in the process of bringing your project to fruition.

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