It was always a pipe dream to live in my former childhood home with my now family. Life doesn’t always work out that way but for my local client, she was blessed with the gift of her childhood home. She reached out to me to discuss installing gardens in her backyard and from there I envisioned a multi-seasonal-blooming pollinator & cutting garden. So what was the grounding existing feature that informed my design…?

I absolutely love a natural stone wall for so many reasons: its organic, irregular pattern of rocks, the crevices that allow us designers to try planting within the wall, and variation of light between the bottom garden and the top portion. The reflection off certain minerals in the stone from sun….

The gardens incorporate 70% native plantings to 30” non-native, non-invasive. Additionally, my client desired a pollinator friendly lawn alternative, which I sourced and also recommended a urine-proof version — because who doesn’t let their dogs out in the backyard!