Creating Spaces Where Nature Feels at Home

  • Black eyed susans
  • Winter flowers
  • Flowering clover
  • Freshly picked strawberries
  • Bumble bee on a lavender sprig
  • View of Hosta plants and outdoor seating
  • A vibrant perennial garden filled with colorful flowers, lush green foliage, and a variety of plants blooming under the sunlight, creating a serene and picturesque landscape.
  • Vibrant purple heather flowers growing in a landscaped garden with green shrubs and rocks."
  • A cluster of vibrant purple crocuses blooming amidst a forest floor, symbolizing spring's arrival.


I create gardens that renew, inspire and heal by blending the dreams of my clients together with the needs of nature.

My designs artfully blend a variety of plants on the basis of their four-season beauty. In the natural garden, plants are chosen for their dependable traits, where minimal intervention is required. The result is a harmonious, everchanging arrangement of colour, form, texture and movement, pleasing to all the senses. A microcosm of nature occurs- with butterflies and other pollinators abounding.

Perennial meadows are created using all of the elements of a naturalistic garden. Informal pathways and resting places are artfully placed amongst swaying grasses and splashes of colour. In the winter, sunlight shimmers on frosty seedheads.

Xeriscape gardening is not “ZERO”-scaping. On one hand, zero-scaping consists of layering inert rock on top of landscape fabric, destroying the soil and creating a space devoid of life or beauty.


Xeriscaping, on the other hand, is designing landscapes that flourish in our unique, semi-arid Okanagan climate. The framework of the garden may use artfully placed rocks and boulders, pathways and other hardscape features for visual interest. Added to this is a living plant community that thrives with minimal supplemental water, and healthy soil teams with life. The hardy plants chosen in my xeriscape designs are often native to the Okanagan or other, similar environmental regions, grown in native soil wherever possible. In this way, even urban neighbourhoods become a refuge for our sensitive pollinator species and native ecosystems prosper.

Native habitat restoration projects can be very simple by design or they can be challenging and elaborate. Creating space that supports native wildlife is something we all can participate in. For example, verge gardens can be incorporated between property edges and the roadside. These have many benefits, including improving visual appeal, cooling the urban heat island effect, reducing runoff, creating habitat for beneficial insects and birds, and fostering a sense of community with neighbours.


Restoring all or part of our lawn areas to native habitat has the same benefits.
In urban centers, or landscapes affected by natural disasters, damaged ecosystems can be restored to healthy native habitat to support living wildlife communities.

Food growing can be well above and beyond farm fields and formulaic backyard gardens. Edibles can be beautiful and versatile; food bearing plants can be integrated wonderfully into ornamental landscapes in unique and exciting ways. Food can be celebrated with all the senses, nourishing the body and soul. By nature, gardening in the front yard unites people in neighbourhoods in conversation and sharing, and provides wonderful learning and collaborative experiences for adults and children alike.

Contact

Email: info@wildcaregardendesign.ca