Debbie Ballentine
Photo of a landscaping in San Francisco.

If you’re not convinced about growing in pots and containers, here’s a list of reasons why you should get started: Versatile: Container gardens allow you to grow on a balcony, patio, and courtyard. More variety: You can grow plants that may not be suitable to grow in your garden soil. Accessibility: Growing plants in containers makes gardening accessible to almost anyone. Mobility: Plants in pots can easily be moved to suit your needs or to a more suitable sunny or shady location during the day. Flexibility: Rearrange plants to suit the season or your personal taste. Control space invaders: Vigorous growers like mints and bamboo that are too invasive if let loose in the garden do well in containers, but will take over an in-ground garden.

Finally the new Grow Native planting area slowly being implemented over a period of years (not all are natives, as some plants existed here before this native effort on my part). My goal is to grow natives here as dense and self propagating as I have done in the front sunny planting beds shown in other photo sets. This one has just started in 2012-14. I allow the creeping jenny to jump the brick edger into the lawn, add an interesting natural blend and blur of planter bed and turf, just how nature want to behave.

A beautiful habitat plant, this small tree's architectural branches fill with these berries to feed songbirds through the heat of summer, then deliver stunning little bell-like flowers to keep hummingbirds happy as they start their December nesting season. In summer, manzanita holds its bright green leaves - and its hydration. While all plants can burn, manzanita both resists and quickly recovers from fire. It's deep roots help retain slopes.

A close-up photo of an inflorescence on 'Miss Ruby' Butterfly Bush
Example of an eclectic home design design in Grand Rapids

Bram joined Roundtree as our Lead Landscape Design & Sales team member in 2018. An avid traveler and mountain backpacker, Bram takes inspiration both from nature and architecture from around the world when creating new designs. When it comes to Bram’s favorite part of his job with Roundtree, he will tell you it is his connection and relationships with our customers. His goal is to get to know you and listen; to discover the root of your landscape dreams and blend them with plants and techniques that work in our Dallas climate. In fact, it might seem like Bram is getting a little nosy with you when you start the design process with him! But asking questions about where you grew up, your favorite places to travel, and your day to day lifestyle is crucial for Bram when it comes to creating your perfect outdoor living landscape. In fact, the overall caring and cooperative spirit of the Roundtree Landscape team is a big reason why Bram feels like he fits right in with our company. Better understanding you – and caring about your needs - is how Bram brings your best landscape to life. A green industry veteran, Bram has more than 44 years of hands on experience. He started his career by learning greenhouse plant production, which fueled his passion for plants and landscape design. Further study in landscape architecture and botany informed his development as a skilled designer. Bram loves creating beautiful landscapes that are also highly functional; with a keen focus on creating outdoor spaces you can enjoy all year-round. Fun facts about Bram: Around the office Bram is a “Stupid Dad Jokes” expert! You can count on Bram to post a new Stupid Dad Joke at his desk daily. Bad jokes aside, Bram is also famous for his homemade salad dressings and salad creations. He can also hold his breath longer than anyone he knows, so be sure to ask for a demonstration the next time you see him! In addition to backpacking a different mountain range each year, Bram also loves snow skiing and water sports. Bram spends much of his time doing volunteer work for the Boy Scouts of America, The Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney, as well as the Gardens & Grounds Committee at the Dallas Arboretum. Giving is receiving.

This new construction home in the Copper Creek Neighborhood north of Pittsburgh was completed in summer of 2019. The home builder completed exterior work on the home in October of 2018 and from there, our team started work with late season plantings. With winter setting in, work was suspended until spring of 2019. As the grass started to come up, we began work on the backyard. Our team designed an expansive outdoor space which included a large 24×48 foot swimming pool with auto cover, custom benches and lighting as well as a fully equipped outdoor kitchen and bar area conveniently located near the walk-out basement. The outdoor kitchen featured a dual refrigerator to separate the kids’ drink from the adult beverages, an ice chest, an oversized grill with storage underneath and pull-out trash. We installed an oversized, 4×8 foot linear firepit with extra wide sandstone cap for keeping warm near the pool late into the evening. The firepit featured a custom brass burner to provide maximum heat. With the main entertaining area on a lower level, we created custom steps with a boulder wall that creates a grand entrance from the driveway that compliments the hardscaping and plantings. Wet Pittsburgh weather created a challenge requiring us to create temporary access roads to the backyard. The large entertaining space consumed a large portion of the usable space in the backyard, so the homeowner requested that we bring in extra fill to create a large grassy area for the kids to play. We filled and graded part of the rear/side yard and planted it with grass to accommodate this request.

Deschampsia Cespitosa ssp. Cespitosa / Tufted Hair Grass
Photo of a landscaping in San Francisco.

MULCH is an optional layer of material applied to the surface of an area of soil mostly around trees, flowers and plants. The purpose of mulch is the following: - To conserve moisture - To improve the fertility and health of the soil (for that reason we prefer to use mulch instead of retail fertilizer around flowers and vegetable plants.) - To reduce weed growth (some weeds could still go through mulch if the weed control fabric has not been placed under the mulch.) - To increase the visual appeal of the area

This is an example of a landscaping in Minneapolis.

Stephani Buchman Photography
Inspiration for a mid-sized eclectic l-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor enclosed kitchen remodel in Toronto with an undermount sink, flat-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, stone tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and no island

This is an example of a front yard landscaping in Oklahoma City for winter.

Vance Fox
Large mountain style master medium tone wood floor bedroom photo in Sacramento with beige walls and a ribbon fireplace

Living room - transitional living room idea in San Francisco

Example of a classic backyard custom-shaped and stone pool fountain design in New York

A lovely yard that started as a long bowling alley of lawn. We wanted to create a more human scale in the lounge area without building too many visual barriers. The overall effect is splashes of woodland across a contemporary canvas.

We build our ponds to work with mother nature, not against her. By doing so, we have less pond maintenance, allowing us to enjoy the benefits of the pond instead of having to work on the pond. By constructing your water feature to perform as an ecosystem, nature is at the heart of the water cycle, not man. As a result, the root systems of pond plants filter the water, natural bacteria breaks down organic matter and pond fish eat the algae. No chemicals or other devices, just nature, doing what nature does best. If you live in Kentucky (KY) Contact us to get started with your Backyard Pond design. Photos By H2O Designs Inc. Lexington Kentucky To Learn More about our company and our Ponds visit http://www.h2odesignsinc.com/backyard-pond-installer.html

Photo: Margot Hartford © 2015 Houzz Landscape Design: Chris Kukula http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/56354604/list/my-houzz-backyard-cottage-office-and-an-artful-low-water-garden

Stuart Wade, Envision Virtual Tours The second-largest and most developed of Georgia's barrier islands, St. Simons is approximately twelve miles long and nearly three miles wide at its widest stretch (roughly the size of Manhattan Island in New York). The island is located in Glynn County on Georgia's coast and lies east of Brunswick (the seat of Glynn County), south of Little St. Simons Island and the Hampton River, and north of Jekyll Island. The resort community of Sea Island is separated from St. Simons on the east by the Black Banks River. Known for its oak tree canopies and historic landmarks, St. Simons is both a tourist destination and, according to the 2010 U.S. census, home to 12,743 residents. Early History The earliest St. Simons Island Village record of human habitation on the island dates to the Late Archaic Period, about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago. Remnants of shell rings left behind by Native Americans from this era survive on many of the barrier islands, including St. Simons. Centuries later, during the period known by historians as the chiefdom era, the Guale Indians established a chiefdom centered on St. Catherines Island and used St. Simons as their hunting and fishing grounds. By 1500 the Guale had established a permanent village of about 200 people on St. Simons, which they called Guadalquini. Beginning in 1568, the Spanish attempted to create missions along the Georgia coast. Catholic missions were the primary means by which Georgia's indigenous Native American chiefdoms were assimilated into the Spanish colonial system along the northern frontier of greater Spanish Florida. In the 1600s St. Simons became home to two Spanish missions: San Buenaventura de Guadalquini, on the southern tip of the island, and Santo Domingo de Asao (or Asajo), on the northern tip. Located on the inland side of the island were the pagan refugee villages of San Simón, the island's namesake, and Ocotonico. In 1684 pirate raids left the missions and villages largely abandoned. Colonial History As Fort Frederica early as 1670, with Great Britain's establishment of the colony of Carolina and its expansion into Georgia territory, Spanish rule was threatened by the English. The Georgia coast was considered "debatable land" by England and Spain, even though Spain had fully retreated from St. Simons by 1702. Thirty-one years later General James Edward Oglethorpe founded the English settlement of Savannah. In 1736 he established Fort Frederica, named after the heir to the British throne, Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, on the west side of St. Simons Island to protect Savannah and the Carolinas from the Spanish threat. Between 1736 and 1749 Fort Frederica was the hub of British military operations along the Georgia frontier. A town of the same name grew up around the fort and was of great importance to the new colony. By 1740 Frederica's population was 1,000. In 1736 the congregation of what would become Christ Church was organized within Fort Frederica as a mission of the Church of England. Charles Wesley led the first services. In 1742 Britain's decisive victory over Spain in the Battle of Bloody Marsh, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, ended the Spanish threat to the Georgia coast. When the British regimen disbanded in 1749, most of the townspeople relocated to the mainland. Fort Frederica went into decline and, except for a short time of prosperity during the 1760s and 1770s under the leadership of merchant James Spalding, never fully recovered. Today the historic citadel's tabby ruins are maintained by the National Park Service. Plantation Era By the start of the American Revolution (1775-83), Fort Frederica was obsolete, and St. Simons was left largely uninhabited as most of its residents joined the patriot army. Besides hosting a small Georgia naval victory on the Fort Frederica River, providing guns from its famous fort for use at Fort Morris in Sunbury, and serving as an arena for pillaging by privateers and British soldiers, the island played almost no role in the war. Following the war, many of the townspeople, their businesses destroyed, turned to agriculture. The island was transformed into fourteen cotton plantations after acres of live oak trees were cleared for farm land and used for building American warships, including the famous USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides." Although rice was the predominant crop along the neighboring Altamaha River, St. Simons was known for its production of long-staple cotton, which soon came to be known as Sea Island cotton. Between Ebos Landing the 1780s and the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65), St. Simons's plantation culture flourished. The saline atmosphere and the availability of cheap slave labor proved an ideal combination for the cultivation of Sea Island cotton. In 1803 a group of Ebo slaves who survived the Middle Passage and arrived on the west side of St. Simons staged a rebellion and drowned themselves. The sacred site is known today as Ebos Landing. One of the largest owners of land and slaves on St. Simons was Pierce Butler, master of Hampton Point Plantation, located on the northern end of the island. By 1793 Butler owned more than 500 slaves, who cultivated 800 acres of cotton on St. Simons and 300 acres of rice on Butler's Island in the Altamaha River delta. Butler's grandson, Pierce Mease Butler, who at the age of sixteen inherited a share of his grandfather's estate in 1826, was responsible for the largest sale of human beings in the history of the United States: in 1859, to restore his squandered fortune, he sold 429 slaves in Savannah for more than $300,000. The British actress and writer Fanny Kemble, whose tumultuous marriage to Pierce ended in divorce in 1849, published an eyewitness account of the evils of slavery on St. Simons in her book Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 (1863). Another Retreat Plantation large owner of land and slaves on St. Simons was Major William Page, a friend and employee of Pierce Butler Sr. Before purchasing Retreat Plantation on the southwestern tip of the island in 1804, Page managed the Hampton plantation and Butler's Island. Upon Page's death in 1827, Thomas Butler King inherited the land together with his wife, Page's daughter, Anna Matilda Page King. King expanded his father-in-law's planting empire on St. Simons as well as on the mainland, and by 1835 Retreat Plantation alone was home to as many as 355 slaves. The center of life during the island's plantation era was Christ Church, Frederica. Organized in 1807 by a group of island planters, the Episcopal church is the second oldest in the Diocese of Georgia. Embargoes imposed by the War of 1812 (1812-15) prevented the parishioners from building a church structure, so they worshiped in the home of John Beck, which stood on the site of Oglethorpe's only St. Simons residence, Orange Hall. The first Christ Church building, finished on the present site in 1820, was ruined by occupying Union troops during the Civil War. In 1884 the Reverend Anson Dodge Jr. rebuilt the church as a memorial to his first wife, Ellen. The cruciform building with a trussed gothic roof and stained-glass windows remains active today as Christ Church. Civil War and Beyond The St. Simons Island Lighthouse outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 put a sudden end to St. Simons's lucrative plantation era. In January of that year, Confederate troops were stationed at the south end of the island to guard the entrance to Brunswick Harbor. Slaves from Retreat Plantation, owned by Thomas Butler King, built earthworks and batteries. Plantation residents were scattered—the men joined the Confederate army and their families moved to the mainland. Cannon fire was heard on the island in December 1861, and Confederate troops retreated in February 1862, after dynamiting the lighthouse to keep its beacon from aiding Union troops. Soon thereafter, Union troops occupied the island, which was used as a camp for freed slaves. By August 1862 more than 500 former slaves lived on St. Simons, including Susie King Taylor, who organized a school for freed slave children. But in November the ex-slaves were taken to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Fernandina, Florida, leaving the island abandoned. After the Civil War the island never returned to its status as an agricultural community. The plantations lay dormant because there were no slaves to work the fields. After Union general William T. Sherman's January 1865 Special Field Order No. 15 —a demand that former plantations be divided and distributed to former slaves—was overturned by U.S. president Andrew Johnson less than a year later, freedmen and women were forced to work as sharecroppers on the small farms that dotted the land previously occupied by the sprawling plantations. By St. Simons Lumber Mills 1870 real economic recovery began with the reestablishment of the timber industry. Norman Dodge and Titus G. Meigs of New York set up lumber mill operations at Gascoigne Bluff, formerly Hamilton Plantation. The lumber mills provided welcome employment for both blacks and whites and also provided mail and passenger boats to the mainland. Such water traffic, together with the construction of a new lighthouse in 1872, designed by architect Charles B. Cluskey, marked the beginning of St. Simons's tourism industry. The keeper of the lighthouse created a small amusement park, which drew many visitors, as did the seemingly miraculous light that traveled from the top of the lighthouse tower to the bottom. The island became a summer retreat for families from the mainland, particularly from Baxley, Brunswick, and Waycross. The island's resort industry was thriving by the 1880s. Beachfront structures, such as a new pier and grand hotel, were built on the southeastern end of the island and could be accessed by ferry. Around this time wealthy northerners began vacationing on the island. Twentieth Century The St. Simons Island Pier and Village opening in 1924 of the Brunswick–St. Simons Highway, today known as the Torras Causeway, was a milestone in the development of resorts in the area. St. Simons's beaches were now easily accessible to locals and tourists alike. More than 5,000 automobiles took the short drive from Brunswick to St. Simons via the causeway on its opening day, paving the way for convenient residential and resort development. In 1926 automotive pioneer Howard Coffin of Detroit, Michigan, bought large tracts of land on St. Simons, including the former Retreat Plantation, and constructed a golf course, yacht club, paved roads, and a residential subdivision. Although the causeway had brought large numbers of summer people to the island, St. Simons remained a small community with only a few hundred permanent residents until the 1940s. The St. Simons Island outbreak of World War II (1941-45) brought more visitors and residents to St. Simons. Troops stationed at Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah; and nearby Camp Stewart took weekend vacations on the island, and a new naval air base and radar school became home to even more officers and soldiers. The increased wartime population brought the island its first public school. With a major shipyard for the production of Liberty ships in nearby Brunswick, the waters of St. Simons became active with German U-boats. In April 1942, just off the coast, the Texas Company oil tanker S. S. Oklahoma and the S. S. Esso Baton Rouge were torpedoed by the Germans, bringing the war very close to home for island residents. Due in large part to the military's improvement of the island's infrastructure during the war, development on the island boomed in the 1950s and 1960s. More permanent homes and subdivisions were built, and the island was no longer just a summer resort but also a thriving community. In 1950 the Methodist conference and retreat center Epworth by the Sea opened on Gascoigne Bluff. In 1961 novelist Eugenia Price visited St. Simons and began work on her first works of fiction, known as the St. Simons Trilogy. Inspired by real events on the island, Price's trilogy renewed interest in the history of Georgia's coast, and the novelist herself relocated to the island in 1965 and lived there for thirty-one years. St. Simons is also home to contemporary Georgia writer Tina McElroy Ansa. Since Epworth by the Sea 1980 St. Simons's population has doubled. The island's continued status as a vacation destination and its ongoing development boom have put historic landmarks and natural areas at risk. While such landmarks as the Fort Frederica ruins and the Battle of Bloody Marsh site are preserved and maintained by the National Park Service, and while the historic lighthouse is maintained by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, historic Ebos Landing has been taken over by a sewage treatment plant. Several coastal organizations have formed in recent years to save natural areas on the island. The St. Simons Land Trust, for example, has received donations of large tracts of land and plans to protect property in the island's three traditional African American neighborhoods. Despite its rapid growth and development, St. Simons remains one of the most beautiful and important islands on the Georgia coast.