Landscape design

Landscape design is deciding how a yard works before you start digging. Where you walk, where you sit, what you see from the kitchen window, how the planting and the hardscape fit together: those choices get made on paper (or a photo) first, not with a cart full of plants at the garden center.

Good design starts with use, not a plant list. Once you know a space has to hold a dining table for six, screen a neighbor's window, and still leave a path to the shed, the planting decisions mostly answer themselves. Scale, sightlines, and how areas connect matter more than any single plant.

The payoff for a homeowner is fewer expensive mistakes. A plant in the wrong spot is a weekend; a patio in the wrong spot is a contractor and a credit card. The trade-off is patience: a plan asks you to think before the satisfying part.