Services

Haven’t any idea where to start? Or, do you have a sense of what needs tending in the garden, but aren’t sure how to do it yourself? Are the spring weeds popping off? Do those old shrubs need an overhaul? Are you overwhelmed with life’s tasks, and want to take yard care off your plate? Schedule an initial consult with me and we’ll create a maintenance program just for you, incorporating your top priorities alongside some basic principles of habitat gardening. Maintenance is my bread and butter.
fine gardening
pruning
weeding
soil care
drip irrigation
vine training
perennial maintenance
planting
habitat support

I am a registered business with the Backyard Habitat Certification Program, administered by the Bird Alliance of Oregon and the Columbia Land Trust. The program supports and motivates homeowners and businesses to manage their land using best habitat practices, using easy-to-understand criteria. As a registered business, I can support clients in pursuing a BHCP certification through my maintenance, design, and consultations. Note that I myself do not certify backyard habitats, but I can connect you with the staff and volunteers who do. Nor am I am employee of the program itself.
Click the logo below for more details about the program.

Slow Redesign

Using this program, I will work with you over the course of a couple seasons or more to carefully observe what’s going on in your landscape, understand the possibilities, identify what you want, and integrate changes as needs and a vision emerge. I normally take this approach to design one garden bed at a time, for clients who also hire me for year-round garden maintenance.

With slow redesign, the process tends to be less pressureful and labor-intensive. I get to know my clients, there’s more time to get things just right, the costs are cheaper overall, and the results tend to be more sustainable and satisfying.
All things being equal, it’s my preferred approach to landscape design!

Formal Landscape Design

This plan of action is great if you feel wholly dissatisfied with your garden, there are few salvageable or habitat-supporting elements in your garden, and/or you’re simply ready to hit the reset button.

Formal landscape design starts with a series of carefully focused consultations, throughout which a series of drafts evolve into a final plan for your yard, which includes a list of specific plants and a hand-drawn plan for where to place them in the landscape. From there, I often connect clients with trusted landscape contractors to install the hardscaping, and then they pass me back the baton. I source all the necessary plants, plant them, and finish off the landscape with irrigation, soil amendments, etc. This approach to landscape design is great for effecting comprehensive change to your yard. And you’ll get a set of gorgeous and helpful design documents for your reference, perusal, and enjoyment.

If you have specific plant-related questions (how do I prune this? what can I plant to support wildlife? what’s this plant? what’s this disease?) If you want to work in your garden and you’re not sure where to start… If you feel motivated to learn about plants and garden maintenance, and want some 1:1 support… If you have decision fatigue and want someone to just tell you what to do next… If you need a second opinion on a design schema…

Schedule a consult with me!

There is a vast array of expertise in the world of landscaping and gardening. What I can provide is information, instruction and advice delivered with integrity. I keep one eye trained on supporting habitat, another eye on your personal capacities and context, and yet another pointed toward tasteful garden aesthetics. Throughout it all, I am very aware of my areas of knowledge, as well as its limits, and who to ask/where to look when I don’t know the answers.
I’m a careful listener with a previous career as a teacher: I work hard to identify what you already know, and focus on what would be useful to understand from that orientation. I wasn’t born with a green thumb: I had to teach myself how to be good with plants. These combined traits mean I’m uniquely positioned to make our conversations and consultations useful to you.

Initial 1-hour consultation (toward future design or maintenance work) ~ FREE

Garden maintenance ~ $50/hr.

Consultation and training ~ $75/hr.

Landscape design ~ I prepare an estimate based on an initial design consultation. Design-only projects (a combination of consultation, plant list, and/or drafting) have ranged from $300 to $1,200. Design projects that also include elements of installation (site preparation, planting, and finishing) have ranged from $600 to $10,000. Costs vary based on size of property and granularity of design process. I can tailor my designs to most clients’ budgets.

Sliding scale available for disabled and/or BIPOC folks who are low-income. Let’s talk!