Gardens
Meadow terrace in brooklyn heights — in development
Comprised of primarily grasses and flowering perennials, this garden aims to soothe the senses with cool blue green foliage and pastel blooms. In the summer, butterfly weed comes online to add one dramatic color accent.
As the goal of this garden was to create a sense of calm, we picked plants that would create movement and rhythm, giving the gaze a place to land during quiet reflection—often in meditation, it helps to allows one sense to rest and focus on something while our other parts look inward. In this garden, blue grama grass and serviceberry leaves particularly have a beautiful sway in a breeze, and come fall and winter, butterfly weed seed pods unleash their billowy seeds to the wind.
This garden is a wildlife powerhouse from spring to fall. Serviceberry flowers provide some of the earliest forage for pollinators, and those blooms give way to fruits that are much loved by birds. A steady supply of blooms will keep the bees going all season, and then the many visually interesting seedheads will continue to feed the birds well into the cold months.
Plant List: Amelanchier canadensis, Andropogon ternarius ‘Black Mountain,’ Asclepias tuberosa, Bouteloua gracilis, Euphorbia corollata, Erigeron annuus, Monarda fistulosa, Oenothera berlandieri ‘Siskyou Pink,’ Tiarella cordifolia
Tribeca flower garden — fall 2018
We were called in to add some pops of color to this split level rooftop in Tribeca, which came with long flanking planters of Japanese holly and Arborvitae along both sides. To offset the severity of the screening plants, we added ebullient, soft planters in bright colors and a naturalistic style. The goal was to create a little wildflower nook on the north side of the terrace, with color accents across the rest of the space.
shade border in windsor terrace — Spring 2022
The residents of this small co-op in Brooklyn’s Windsor terrace wanted a simple border for the front of their north-facing building that would provide interest year round, beautifully contrasting foliage types and a restricted color palette.
It is a tricky site—the orientation of the building and the tall apartment complex across the street leave this garden in deep shade for most of the day.
We went with a shrub backbone of rosebay rhododendron, redtwig dogwood, clethra and Haas’ Halo smooth hydrangea. All provide winter interest in some capacity, be it evergreen foliage or seedheads that persist into winter.
During the growing season, the garden is filled with white, lavender and pink blooms provided by foamflower, striped cream violets, black cohosh, heuchera and white wood aster. All of this is combined with a variety of ferns to flesh out the desired textural element.
Despite its semi-formal nature, this garden is tough and easy to maintain. Once established, this garden will be able to withstand periods of drought, and it features many plants that will spread to fill empty spaces, which will reduce the amount of weeding that needs to be done.
Historic chapel hill garden—ongoing
We are gradually redeveloping the entire grounds of this colonial style home in the Cameron-McCauley Historic District of Chapel Hill, NC.
The challenges in this garden are numerous—tricky dry soils and intense root competition from the district’s iconic mature oak trees, as well as heavy deer and rabbit pressure. We are addressing these challenges with an ever-evolving set of tools, including installing owl boxes and developing a plant palette of herbivory-resistant plants.
This client has an elegant sense of color and a particularly keen eye for design. It has been a joy and challenge to work with someone who has a clear vision and enthusiasm for the work. One of our main tools for collaboration is Pinterest, and some of our process can be viewed here, here and here.