When our client bought this Berthoud home, the outdoor space included only an expansive lawn little more than an outdoor rug with a lot of upkeep. Our designers came up with a proposal that incorporated several spaces including an outdoor lounge, and a water feature connected by breeze pathways.

An important goal for this project was the appropriate use of space, allowing for expansive areas for play and more intimate, secluded spaces. Our designers proposed a generous, configurable stamped concrete patio off the house and a fire pit lounge separated by a screen of plants and a sandstone path. Tatarian Maples provide a sculptural buffer and a bower to the lounge. Balancing local materials with native and native-adapted plants, this courante is an elegant execution of time and space in a Colorado context.

A case study in suburban turf conversion, we wanted to convert this ecological desert to a viable habitat for pollinators and other endemic wildlife. One of our goals was to bring native plants endemic to the Front Range back into downtown Longmont, Colorado. We carefully selected plant species that thrive in stressful conditions, contribute to native wildlife and look beautiful together. We broadcast a custom seed mix between plants and used an overhead watering system to imitate natural dynamic systems. This allows the garden to self-repair by filling in gaps with ruderal species. The front yard features custom concrete steppers, built-in planter boxes and a redwood deck. In the back yard, we extended the patio off of the house by matching the existing concrete, and created additional spaces including a separate outdoor lounge and fire pit.

Truly a mountain home, this project required design and engineering innovation to harmonize the natural beauty of the place with the functionality needed for the built environment. In order to minimize the impact on the existing natural landscape while still creating an enduring retaining wall, we utilized a vegetated MSE wall system not commonly seen in Colorado. We built a wall of biodegradable, soil-filled bags, and hydro-seeded with a diverse seed mix that would blend into the mountain landscape. As the bag material composts into the soil, the living roots of the plants hold the wall in place, creating a wall rated to last 120 years. Best of all, the enduring space offers a gracious invitation to pollinators, birds, and people to come and enjoy.

This new build home provided lots of microclimates for our team to explore with plants adapted to the site conditions. On the green roof, we included dynamic grasses, sedums, cactus and yucca that would thrive in the intense heat and relentless sun. Below the drawbridge entrance, we filled the space with facultative grasses, perennials and sedges. We developed a site-specific prairie seed mix for erosion control due to the site’s steep grade. Given the variability of the site conditions, we were able to use an eclectic palette of plants that compliment the austere concrete home.

Boulder, 2017-18

Grace and beauty mingle in this garden as the curved lines of the Fibonacci sequence pull and accentuate one another throughout this design. The underlying rhythm of this garden is based on  a mathematical ratio, giving a sense of unity and order to each part. With a mixture of black granite boulders and gray stone patios, the plantings in this garden fill the bold form with delicate beauty. These special clients had a daring vision for their yard: remove nearly all of their expansive Kentucky Bluegrass lawn and replace it with spaces which would be more useful, beautiful, and enjoyable. Fire, water, patios, a zip-line and ninja-line, all lay in the midst of this beautiful family garden.

Boulder, 2019-20

Nestled into the Boulder foothills, this designed landscape serves as a transition between the client’s contemporary house and their Ponderosa forest surroundings. Echoing the perfect angles of the architecture, the lines of the formal landscape reach out to the forest while also drawing it into the space where our clients can entertain guests with their pool, cooking, dining, and fire sitting areas. With grasses as a matrix for the garden, the foliage of the structured space merges with the montane grassland in a way that immerses the user in nature from the comfort of their designed mountain retreat.

Boulder, 2015-17

Pitched against Boulder’s Flatirons, this residence is seated on the edge of open space, entertaining a steady stream of wildlife visitors. Instead of fencing them out, we designed these gardens to support and exist alongside the native fauna. Plants that are deer-resistant and pollinator-friendly are able to support local biodiversity while making the garden both an inviting and enchanted space.

Boulder, 2017

In a community surrounded by open space at the foot of the rockies, these gardens are exposed to some of the region’s most extreme wind and weather. We chose this colorful palette of hearty perennials, shrubs and trees to capture and reflect the bold romance of the home and natural setting.These photos, taken during the planting of the gardens in 2017, capture the joy and excitement experienced at this phase of the landscape installation. The process of living plants mathematically laid out by our designers and carefully placed in the soil by our attentive staff is both gratifying and foretelling of the life and fullness that is to come.

Longmont, 2018

When our client decided it was time for her Kentucky Bluegrass lawn to go, we designed and created a garden that would bring life and beauty to her home and neighborhood. Our design used local red sandstone boulders to retain the grade and a naturalistic stone paths with stone slab steps for access through the garden to the door. Our client’s vision for her yard was to create a garden which reflected the Colorado Aesthetic in form and character while keeping things low-maintenance. She also wanted to make a welcoming space for pollinators and birds. Now all who come to her home feel welcome as they experience the beauty of her garden.

Boulder, 2015

One of the best parts of our work is the process understanding our client’s vision for their space and turning it into reality. These wonderful homeowners wanted the tranquility of falling water in their backyard while maintaining a modern aesthetic that reflected the design and architecture of their home. They wanted patios for entertaining and hosting as well as a welcoming place for their children to play. These stone patios and granite boulder retaining walls bring a timeless and rooted feel to the space while their muted hues lend themselves to an understated elegance.

Westminster, 2016-18

Visions of Japanese zen gardens were in the back of our client’s minds when we met with them about their front yard. While not an everyday request, designing zen-style gardens is not out of the question. With our climate’s extremes of hot, cold and dry finding the right plants can be a challenge. These gardens rely on the contrast between void and form. Pathways flow through the heart of the garden, designed to create vantage points and give the sojourner a window through which to glimpse beauty. A singing brook bubbles from an outcropping of massive river boulders, winding its way beneath a stone bridge, ending in a shallow pool.

Boulder, 2012

The hardscapes at this Boulder country estate had fallen into disrepair. After coordinating with other contractors, we brought together the outdoor living space by adding the finishing touches on the pool, laying the pool deck, building the stone walls and iron fence and creating the grand the fireplace. The finished product is an elegant and classy space perfect for summer relaxation or an autumn evening fire.

Mead, 2015

Charged with the task of re-creating a failed, cascading stone river and falls, extensive dressed-stone retaining walls and another stone pool and falls, the Kelly residence was not a trivial project. It seems that to rebuild something is always more challenging than to build it from scratch. Salvaging bits and pieces from the old walls and river and combining them with new material, we were faced with the challenge of blending our work with that of the old, intact walls. Our task of restoring the river and walls was accomplished and the call of beauty from the distant mountains was answered.

Longmont, 2017

On a windy ridge looking out onto the Front Range, this property boasts exceptional views, however the need for defined spaces always exists. Constructing mounds on each side of a long driveway, we planted them with trees, grasses, shrubs and perennials to frame the home as well as the mountains. Spatial definition is always a balance between entrapment and exposure. While neither of those are comfortable, well defined boundaries allow us to feel both free and safe.

Longmont, 2015-18

Astride Rabbit Mountain, this garden presented the opportunity to blend home and outdoor spaces with the wild surroundings of the open and rugged beauty of the Rocky Mountain foothills. We used natural materials local to the site and designed the plants of the garden to echo the landscape of the mountainside. We also wanted to incorporate extravagant colors that would take the scorching sun and reflect its high intensity in both bright and cool hues. We were able to capture a piece of each sunset in the back lighting of the native shrub Fallugia paradoxa Apache Plume. The vibrancy the plants of this landscape reflect the beauty of appropriate plants in an equally appropriate setting.