BEFORE. This stone house would seem to require a formal planting - boxwoods, lines,symmetry. But the owner loved color and perennials and had no room in the back - where we had created an outdoor room the previous year. So this is what we did.

And this is the same year as we go into the fall. What we look for in composition is the change in line, form, color as the season progresses.It requires extensive plant knowledge,an eye for composition and the experience that only time brings. It is what distinguishes a good designer from the...