Items published elsewhere (but by or about us)

Book Review: The Pacific Northwest Plant Primer

This spring, I’ve replaced some of the original plants in my home garden, things planted when I first moved here twenty years ago. I was young, in love with the classics, a good place to start a garden education. Winter daphne (Daphne odora), with it’s earliest perfumed blooms, I’d planted all around … more

Nature Therapy From the Contemplative Garden

  To create a contemplative garden, focus on sensory experiences, species diversity, and generously scaled beds. Your need for peace at the end of a hard day could shift from cracking a beer or mindless scrolling to a moment of immersion in the healing complexities of nature. Whether you have a disciplined … more

Low Maintenance Gardens – Better for Pollinators and People

The first key to low-maintenance gardening is a fundamental perspective shift: embracing a bit of debris, learning to see dead stuff as beautiful rather than as work. The standing dead snag is an easy place to start. You know that’s a favorite spot for the woodpeckers and cavity nesters. On a smaller … more

The Allure of Forest Gardens

A forest garden, no matter how small, can be an opportunity to create a garden architecture that invites you to stay awhile. There can be many ways to wander through the trees and even more places to sit. If you watch a frisky dog in a forest garden, you quickly see that … more

Honored by Morpholio

I was honored as a top landscape designer by the good people at Morpholio. And they made this for me!

Some new ideas for garden ‘screens’

I recently published an article in Pacific Horticulture about “screens.” What is a screen? It’s a display as well as a boundary that hides what’s behind it. If you crave organized beauty and privacy, you may need screening to fill in — sooner rather than later. Check it out here: “The Solution Sparkles … more

Getting rid of the lawn

What can you do if you get rid of the lawn? See one example in my article published in Pacific Horticulture: “Organized Chaos — Food, Roses, and a Jungle Retreat”

The beauty of organized chaos

What makes a beautiful yard or garden anyway? Well, check out my article on “organized chaos” in Pacific Horticulture. “The Beauty of Organized Chaos”