By Labor Day, my garden is limping along. The fantastic colors of spring and early summer have passed, and the plants basically have heat stroke after baking through August. Come September, the garden wakes up again – and it feels like magic.

As the Texas heat permeates the air during our first heat wave of the year and even the early mornings aren't cool enough to do much outside, I'm reminiscing about last late July when I visited the Denver Botanic Gardens.

By nature, native plants that have coevolved with native insects for millions of years will provide nectar, host, and food sources for insects, pollinators, birds, and the entire ecosystem. If you have a tough spot or a large area to cover, these native naturalizers are especially good at taking up a lot of real estate. Since most are at least semi-aggressive, they can be installed by seed or plug, depending on the plant.

You are a talented landscape designer – you love the creative process, and your clients are crazy about you and your results. But do you feel you are also a master juggler, working to keep dozens of balls in the air, struggling to keep your business moving forward?

We are surrounded by many landscapes, but are they living? A house and garage expansion made way for this major site renovation, which includes a large edible garden with multiple raised beds, fire pit, paver walkways, rain gardens, permeable driveway, and a huge selection of native plants!

Allergy free gardening? Is there such as thing? While you can’t eliminate allergens and pollutants in the air and carried by the wind, you can certainly choose plants based on an allergen scale to help.

Let's learn about Anne Spencer and her inspiring garden in celebration of her birthday and Black History Month.

Winter is just around the corner and so is the call for entries in the 2023 APLD International Landscape Design Awards. It’s time to photograph your best projects and set aside time to tidy up the plans.

No space is too small to be green, and I truly believe that the possibilities for our small outdoor spaces are only as limited as our imaginations!

What happens when your dear friend and fellow APLD Designer texts you and says she’s been accepted to the Royal Chelsea Flower Show in London, England? Why, you immediately offer your help, book an AirBnB, get your plane tickets, and head off to London!  

As everyone seems to say, the sessions and garden tours are phenomenal and inspiring. But for me, it is the one-on-one time with like-minded people that I get the most out of. Meeting up with peers that “speak the same language” as me is so validating and supportive.

As a professional landscape designer, I find my greatest challenge isn’t choosing the perfect plant or solving a difficult site issue — it's finding the time to get it done and to do it well! And if I don’t carefully manage my work day hours, that “quiet creative time” can quickly become my nights, weekends, and holidays. So, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned from books, colleagues, and time management classes/lectures throughout my career.

From narrow urban backyards to front courtyards and from fencerows to entry gates, there are many different types of small spaces. Designing in a small space requires thinking outside of the box while also maintaining a strong focus on efficiency.

Planting a garden, or a plant cemetery?

When looking at sustainable landscape design, the saying “location is everything” also rings true. A beautiful planter off of a golf course will need different elements than a garden in Regency, where you determine your sensible use of materials.

By taking small steps, like replacing lawn with native plants, we can help these hard-working insects by providing them with the nectar and pollen they need to live and to feed their young.  

Landscapes have musicality sprinkled into them; we can spot these elements by being observant and using active listening.

Mesa Fire is a testament to how intentional design and the ability to execute it elevates lives. Here the TLC Gardens Team created a timeless, inviting outdoor living space for family and friends to come together in this 2017 Boulder residential project. It was the first renovation we completed with a Team, after transitioning from a one-woman design firm to a full design build team earlier that year - truly a steppingstone in our growth as a company!

Every pathway should get you from point A to point B. That's the lowest bar. I think it's not a path if it doesn't! Really, the journey is what matters. You can tell when you're on a well-designed pathway. It has a purpose. Its shape, layout and materials all support that purpose. We can create a pathway that becomes a journey by using simple, intentional design.

We’ve heard about the Green New Deal and the Biden Climate Change Plan, so I thought it might be timely to take a look at what these policies are and are not, and what we as landscape professionals need to know in order to prepare our businesses for the future.