At Purcells Cove, NS, a combination of metrik paver patio, concrete parking & asphalt driveway provide a variety of textured transitions for this budget-conscious project.
The texture Metrik pavers arranged in a herringbone are a welcoming carpet at the front door. We curated only a few plants at this 60’s Revival home in Purcell's Cove for a simple palette.
The unfinished utility access in the back corner of the property needed an inventive grading solution.
We combined native granite boulders with precast concrete steps for this rear access. The rest of the soil is retained ith a custom metal planter assembled in situ.
One year on the retaining planter developed a rich patina that contrasts the natural setting and plantings have rooted in.
Similar to the rear retaining planter, a custom trough installed between the parking pad & deck provides a green buffer.
A welcoming entrance is achieved by softening the masterfully executed hardscape with carefully placed planting beds and specimens.
Dawn over the Atlantic at this seaside retro-vation.
If there's one thing that ill transform your property it's landscape lighting, providing context for evening arrivals and nightly strolls.
Three species, a grasss, a shrub and a tree, each with singular texture & form, evolve throughout the year, providing 4-season interest.
A small space can have a big presence. Using wood carpet throughout, extends the landscape, suppresses weeds & rehabilitates the soil for a woodland setting in Wolfville, NS.
Designed with carefully placed trees, shrubs & perennials for privacy & ambiance, each plant was curated during nursery visits with the client, like this Seiru Upright Japanese Maple
In a just a few years this modern home will be nestled among stately evergreens, robustly scented shrubs, floriferous trees and swaths of gently flowing grasses.
Concept Site Planning for Kensington Park, PEI. The scaled design showcases a low-cost sprung structural facility utilizing remnant natural resources for an emerging energy conversion system.
Site assessment, inventory, public consultation & stakeholder meetings promote better design...
Modelling a concept can propel a project forward. Renderings are often critical in helping conceptualize the integration of project with the existing landscape.
Most small yards need to maintain their absorptive ability for stormwater management. This was a critical design issue mitigated by subgrade infiltration beds & expanding the perimeter garden with water-wicking plants.
I often use hand-sketching to convey my ideas about landscape intent to clients & discuss planting & hardscape options.
The strength of a successful garden-scape is matching plant quantity, texture variety, form contrast, anticipating garden maturity & realistic maintenance expectations.
Landscape architecture is all about the toolkit of texture, form, colour & contrast.
In december, I switch gears and work with some clients on holiday decorating.
Fresh forest greens overflow from charming tin barrels flank the front door.
Over a couple days, this handsome entrance was decorated with a rich assortment of pine, balsam & hemlock, studded with garland & bright microlights.
A heart-warming holiday display for visitors & passersby.
Landscape planning takes on new horizons for this Victoria PEI project. Adaptive re-use of this farmland into an innovative aqauculture venture in meant rezoning the land as light industrial that ensured environmental integrity & visual character. An interpretive center, exemplory green buffers, land reforestation & watershed protection measures highlight the development agreement.
Lake Charles, Dartmouth, NS. A sloped yard with access to the lake, takes owners from the patio to the boathouse.
Landscape grade analysis... balancing a switchback with landscape stairs that descends through planting terraces & paths.
Final issued for construction tweaks using Maya Natural Landscape Steps, landings & a revised planting plan to simplify the palette.
Granite retaining walls are used extensively to match existing topography and landscape character.
Initial grading for the landscape steps & path transitions. a generous sath is carved to include retaining boulders & planting buffer.
Sometimes builkdings requires you to make critical decisions about existing trees, especially when they are at the end of their lifecycle. New native trees & shrubs with a modest scale added along the property edge will provide a wind break and privacy.
Arriving at this farmstead-come-wedding venue, the Red Barn at Sadie Hill Farms was a bucolic setting. The client had outgrown their home, overhauling is with reconstruction & new addition. A landscape intervention was desperately needed.
New driveway alignment, stone stairs & pathways are flanked by a lush garden, plant massings and easy-care specimens.
The feature swing needed some attention, achieved with up and down lighting the mature oak through its trunk and branches, that creates a moonlight effect on the new hardscape and garden below.
It was important to separate the client's main house from the wedding venue. The private and public driveways are defined by a trellis wall & terrace garden. Private stairs connect the side & back yards.
The existing crabapple was moved further away from the barn into an expanded, avoiding future crowding.
Since wedding events stretch late into the evenings, it was important to showcase the new garden backdrop, adding elegant ambiance to the guest experience & extend the clients enjoyment throughout the year.
Although trees & shrubs often get planted as infants, part of my job is to account for maturity. This assortment of miscanthus, helictotrichon & wegeila will fill, soften & buffer the traffic around the bar shed. Here, light dances through their textures & forms, as the fast-growing cedars demarcate path entrances.
Spillway & decks, Dundas, ON. This bungalow is redressed improving the view to the Niagara escarpment. The dramatic spillway shuttles water from the property & a rain chain splash pad to a detention pond.
A grand walkway leads visitors to a lookoff & extended dining deck, patio & private outdoor shower.
Overgrown & underused, the obstructed view to the woodland & escarpment & deck covered in debris & algae, creating a slipping hazard. The salvageable decking was flipped & sealed to save on material costs.
Cedar rails pitched for comfort & to discourage setting drinks down (hazard for the patio below). The transparent aviation cable trellis & fall guard provide better view-sheds to the yard & woodland beyond.
A custom outdoor shower, tucked in the farthest corner, accessed from the bedroom via a modest service staircase in rough hewn hemlock, plumbed for seasonal use with a custom built rainfall head.
Landscape consruction is messy business. It's my job to hold the vision of the proposed landscape experience. Rough grading to hardscape install, progress is measured stone by stone...
By summer's end the majority of the planting was completed for the owner to enjoy a stress-free fall.
Broader landscapes employ scaled up materials like these Mega Melville Slabs. The offset edge echoes the undulating lake margin.
Precast steps lead you from the patio down to the lake.
The planting corridor between the new house & existing barn, buffers vistors from the headwind off the lake inviting them around to the front patio.
The messy point where a lot of planting solutions get resolved with running drainage & electrical lines for landscape lighting.
By late summer, things have matured and are ready for lighting.
By spring the following year, less than 9 months later the client is able to enjoy their property with the substantial completion of the landscape plan.
Public sculpture, Nocturne 2016 - driftwood painted 'ultimat blue'.
Inside the structure was miniature assemblage painted with a phosphorescent powder.
The assemblage found a home, installed as the focal point in an established Halifax alpine garden.
A landscape plan for this wind-whipped property in Canning, NS, literally started with a napkin sketch.
A major facelift to house colour is a perfect backdrop to the dramatic entrance including a welcoming fire pit, gardens & landscape lighting.
Hardscape construction included a significant circular patio and walkways.
Carrying the vision is important to help guide installation...
Shrubs & trees formed the structure of the planting beds.
The west embankment is dressed with sun-loving, drought tolerant plants & a sweep of stairs to the main door.
A cedar & birch enclosure flanks the north-west entrance.
With the majority of the phase 1 completed inside of 4 months, including lighting, the landscape is a dramatic glow-up.
Haven for Health, McMaster Family Practice, design competition. Using 'M' as the theme, pairs of posts carry pairs of hand-hewn & laminated arches, surrounded by native plantings.
Haven for Health, Hamilton. Original water-colour sketch, assembly diagrams, production & as-built details.
Interior view of parkette, reclaimed space from asphalt parking, fixed benches hung on posts, remnant wood fashioned into moveable benches.
Happy clients using the parkette for discussions & decompression from a busy work environment.
The Haven nestled at the edge of the forest at the top of the parking lot for the clinic, is a destination for decompressing, thinking & learning how to cope in a busy office setting.