Photo: Rachel Loewen © 2017 Houzz
1960s home design photo in Chicago

Natures Realm
Inspiration for a traditional landscaping in Houston.

Walking into the home you have the home office to the right and the dining room to the left. With so much going on throughout the rest of the home, we intentionally choose to keep the dining room simple in design. Around the chalk-painted table we placed woven dining room chairs. Not only do they add warmth and interest to the room but they are easy to clean - perfect for a young family of seven!

Photo of a traditional landscaping in Boston.

This project was do in collaboration with my friends at Sweetwater Collaborative. Sweetwater Collaborative is a non-profit organization that work to educate the public about water wise and regenerative landscape practices. Funded by the City of Santa Barbara as well as several other business and agency Sweetwater Collaborative and I worked to installed this project with the help of volunteers. In a hands-on work shop we explained principles of water wise gardening and demonstrated best practices when installing sustainable landscapes. When the owner of this property decided to build an ADU ( Auxiliary Dwelling Unit) in their back yard they expanded the roof line of their property. In order to be in compliance with new California building the project required that a portion of the rain water coming onto this property must be stored on the property. That is where we came into help. Directing down spouts into basins, or swales in the soil is one of the most efficient and cost-effective way to capture and store rain water on a piece of land. Calculations were done to determine the volume of water coming of the roof line in a given rain event from the ADU. The calculations go: square footage of roofline times .62 times 1, for 1” of rain. That total gives you the amount of water in gallons. Then divide the number in gallons by 7.48 find the cubic feet in that number of gallons. Then a basin with that holding capacity was designed into the landscape. Then the plantings were chosen. In this project we went with an 100% California Native Plant palette. We did this to help educate people about all the benefits of growing natives and to show case some of the beautiful plants native to Southern California. Sothern California is how to some of the greatest biodiversity of plants in the world. Native Plants are best adapted to thrive conditions from which they are natively found plus they help provide forage to the native fauna such as birds and insects. Now the tenants in the ADU can look out and enjoy this colorful garden without the home owners needing to pay a huge water bill.

Example of a transitional hallway design in Los Angeles

Example of an ornate home design design in Boston

This is an example of a contemporary side yard gravel landscaping in Jacksonville.

Steve Lambert
This is an example of a mid-sized contemporary full sun front yard gravel garden path in San Francisco.

Jessica T
Example of an asian home design design in Los Angeles

We plant seasonal flowers outside this Brooklyn Heights's entryway. Martha Lazar
Example of a trendy home design design in New York

Ken Muellers
Elegant stone home design photo in New York

Inspiration for an industrial sunroom remodel in Baltimore

This is an example of a contemporary landscaping in Los Angeles.

Achillea millefolium and bunchgrass border.
Inspiration for a mid-sized traditional partial sun backyard stone garden path for summer.

The Monet trellis was an S&H staple. Here covered with Thunbergia, also called Sky vine. David Morello
Photo of a traditional landscaping in Houston.