There's a quote by Helen Dillon that I keep coming back to: "If you keep the edges tidy, nobody minds the messy middle." It feels almost too simple. But the more I work with ecological plantings...the wilder, more naturalistic designs that are so good for the environment...the more I believe it'...

Many of you know I love hand-drawing my landscape designs. There’s something really special about exploring ideas on paper with a pencil in hand. I truly believe that learning to draw on paper first is incredibly important. Building skills in line quality, proper line weights, and scale, while fe...

When I’m drawing… pencil moving slowly across trace, ideas taking shape…I often have a podcast playing in the background. Not something that demands too much attention, but voices that keep me company. Conversations about plants, places, process, and perspective. ⚘ Recently, I asked the designe...

TEMPTATION + DISCIPLINE It’s plant sale season…the time when carts overflow and restraint feels impossible. I’ve been making the rounds, too, scooping up clearance plants for just a few dollars each. But here’s the difference this year: I finally feel like I know what I need. It’s taken years t...

A WORK IN PROGRESS Like many of you, our garden is a work in progress. Our first step back in 2020 was establishing our garden rooms (dining area, fire pit space, paths), plus defining our planting areas. We’ve also been slowly adding fences, arbors, furniture and planters. I didn’t do a full-bl...

I’ve always been drawn to cooler colors like green, blue, and purple. They feel calm and natural to me. Orange, on the other hand, felt like a stranger in my palette…too loud, too warm, too much. I admired it in other people’s gardens, but in mine, it felt out of place. Then we moved into our cu...

White gardens have a special kind of charm. They feel calm, fresh, and a little bit magical...like a quiet pause in the middle of a busy day. If you’re looking for a simple way to bring some peace and light into your garden, white might be just the thing. THE FIRST WHITE GARDENMany credit Vita S...

Few colors have as much presence in the garden as red. It’s the color of passion, love, and adventure...a hue that radiates energy. Even a single red bloom has the power to pull your eye from across the yard, making it a natural choice for drawing people in and leading them through a space. Red ...

When you think of gardens, you probably picture soft pastels, bright greens, and sunny colors. But what if you flipped the script and embraced something darker? Deep purples, shadowy greens, and yes, even black, can bring a striking, dramatic edge to your outdoor space. And black doesn’t just hav...

Pink is often described as the meeting point of red’s passion and white’s purity...a combination that results in a color symbolizing love, nurture, and compassion (as the color experts at Hunter Lab put it). It’s a beautiful reminder that color in a garden can do more than decorate; it can set a ...