Portfolio

Because of the relative youth of my design business, these photos depict young gardens whose plantings have not reached maturity. That said, they should give you an idea my style preferences, design sensibilities and plant palettes.

Blessed with Boulders

This site was blessed with a surfeit of large rocks, some as big as VW vans. The trick was to work with and enhance the saguaro and limberbush plantings that already existed on the site without making the whole thing look too contrived. To this end, we added blackfoot daisy, various agave species, beavertail prickly pear, ocotillo and host of other plants.

Return to Top

Banking on Seed

In this Catalina Foothills landscape, the biggest challenge was what to plant on top of a septic tank and field that dominated the front yard of a newly constructed home. Considering the septic tank, we decided to eschew large woody plants in favor of wildflowers mixed with succulents and a few desert shrubs. The resulting garden preserves views, creates a vivid spring flower display, compliments the contemporary architecture of the house and saves water. The floral display is due, at least in part, to my clients, who followed my penstemon germination instructions explicitly. So much so, that they have created a mighty seed bank in their soil. Initially, we planted about a dozen parry’s, superb, and firecracker penstemon plants. Each May, my clients dutifully collected the seed from these plants, and waited to sow them until fall. The result is a garden thick with penstemon, fairy duster, desert marigold, and brittlebush. In addition to the perennial wildflowers and shrubs, the garden is graced with fishhook barrels, ‘Durango Delight’ agave, and Mexican blue yucca. The landscape is very water efficient with the client’s 2008 water bills averaging only $13.37 per month.

Return to Top

Desert/Oasis

Over the past few years, this garden has been a joy to build and work in. Because the architecture of the house was clean-lined and honest, I wanted to create a garden that would compliment the design of the house and walls. When I began the project, the deep koi ponds and swimming pool were in place. My job was to preserve the valuable desert plants on the site, remove thirsty exotics, and create a desert feel with the plant palette. I began by removing a large hedge of oleanders and replacing it with a trio of beaked yucca underplanted with barrel and hedgehog cactus salvaged from the site. In the central planting area, I placed dioon plants and totem pole cactus under a large foothills palo verde. Around the koi ponds I planted bull grass, Chihuahuan orchid shrub, and a variety of penstemon and agave species. Although the garden has a pool and koi ponds, the plants that surround those oasis areas require very little water. We repurposed a trio of pots and moved them in a line leading to the front door and planted them with Mexican tree ocotillo seeded with wildflowers. We had large custom colored concrete pots fabricated for around the pool which we planted with a large boojum tree, and two ‘Macho Mocha’ Manfreda plants. As the garden has matured, the wildflowers like Goodding’s verbena, Parry’s penstemon, and sundrops have colonized wonderfully.

Return to Top

Flagstones and Feather Trees

When I began this remodel, the site had three great assets: a little group of mature feather trees, nice chunks of flagstone, and a whole bunch of overgrown slipper plant. In the new design, I was able to repurpose all three of these assets. We shaped the trees and left them in place, made some nice new pathways with the flagstone, and potted the slipper plant in four glazed pots under the porch. The square courtyard lent itself to a more formal pattern and I put a small stock tank fountain in the center of the garden, which effectively divided the garden into quadrants. In those quadrants I planted gorilla’s armpit, Texas tuberose, partridge breast aloe, and Angelita daisies.

Return to Top

Faraway Skies

This little backyard began with a bold purple-blue color, “faraway skies” that plays off the ochre-yellow stucco of the house. Once the wall was painted, we used blackbrush acacia, ‘Silver Peso’ Texas mt. laurels, ocotillo, and desert milkweed as the major plants. To break up the long rectangle of the backyard, we used a French curve-shaped steel border to separate a gravel patio from planted areas. In the gravel patio, we located a fountain and fire pit. Both the fountain and fire pit have custom made steel trellises that are meant to suggest stylized ocotillo fencing.

Return to Top

Saddlebrook Cactus Club

This home in Saddlebrook had a wonderful but shabbily arranged collection of cactus. In this garden we were able to move, cluster, and pot, dozens of specimen cactus to create a more pleasing scene. In addition, we planted wildlife attracting plants such as desert willow and palo verde trees to help create an equilibrium with the existing cactus-heavy plantings.

Return to Top

Moroccan Blue Garden

Taking cues from a notorious blue-walled garden, Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, Morocco, this central Phoenix courtyard uses silvery leaves and blue walls to make a design statement. Although the wall color is Moroccan influenced, the major plants are Sonoran desert species like palo blanco and sweet acacia.

Return to Top

Rustic Redo

Around a low weathered adobe wall, we added Chihuahuan desert plants like Damianita daisy to existing plants like catclaw acacia and jojoba to add color to this backyard redo. The design also features a seep-like fountain.

Return to Top

Sonoran-Asian Fusion Courtyard

Using pavers from Kornegay Design (www.kornegaydesign.com) we fashioned as simple courtyard planting using Sonoran plants like desert willows, yellow orchid vine, bamboo muhly, slipper plant and grape ivy. This design also includes a basalt column fountain and steel trellises for screening.

Return to Top