A colorful sunset highlights winter tree branch structure.
Author Archives: mike
A bit of maintenance for the Deschampsia
Time for a haircut for the Tufted Hair Grass. Here’s how they look after trimming.
Frost-colored
Some plants almost seem to like cold weather. Their leaves change from green to deeper hues of red, orange, purple. When the weather warms again, their leaves will once again become green.
Frost-zapped!
Some plants ignore frost, others do interesting things, and others… you never know until you try. Climate zones are good enough indicators most of the time, but weather is fickle and doesn’t follow lines on maps.
A step forward: new concrete paths
The concrete was installed today, pumped from a truck into the forms set up earlier, then textured. It won’t be walkable for three more days, and it will take three more weeks until anyone can drive on the banding. The concrete arrived pre-mixed in trucks, with color already added to the mix. The wet “mud”Continue reading “A step forward: new concrete paths”
A new garden comes together in Fair Oaks
By spring, this natural-looking landscape should be growing in. The plants are supposedly deer-resistant, although I say, “supposedly” because deer can’t read and don’t always know they’re not going to like something. Many of the plants are natives, so there should be more birds and butterflies adding life. This is a borderline area, more visualContinue reading “A new garden comes together in Fair Oaks”
A foggy day
This ethereal foggy morning is now gone, blown away by strong winds. Wet, dewy fog has to be enjoyed while it’s here, especially in fall when it intensifies colors and transforms an ordinary leaf into a translucent jewel.
Support your local microbusiness!
Maybe you heard about a campaign to promote local small businesses by shopping on a certain day? Their vendor list is extensive, including cars, hardware, sushi, guns, bicycles, pizza, dental services, cameras, lingerie, jewelry, liquor and other stuff (no landscape architects though). What do these companies have in common? Credit cards. It seems this “smallContinue reading “Support your local microbusiness!”
Adieu, Montréal.
We’ve achieved a new milestone. We entered a design competition in French, giving ideas for the beautification of a really ugly freeway in Montréal. No, we didn’t exactly clean up in the awards department. We may have been a bit, well, wild. Even though we didn’t play it safe, we did have a lot ofContinue reading “Adieu, Montréal.”
Rhus typhina – now that’s fall color!
Our Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) is putting on quite a show now that we’ve had cool nights and bright, sunny days. These plants get around twelve feet tall, and develop an interesting branch structure. They also have strange, fuzzy tapering knoblike flower heads in summer that give them a bold, architectural look. Staghorn sumac isContinue reading “Rhus typhina – now that’s fall color!”