Contemporary planting design for a sloped back garden using a mix of ornamental grasses, herbaceous perennials and native ferns and shrubs. Native shurbs such as Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (kinnikinnick) and Symphoricarpos albus (snowberry) were used to help stabilize a particularly steep slope. Installed by Grass Roots Gardens

Boulevard and front garden design using architectural plants with unusual, striking or bold forms, foliage or flowers, to provide drama. The design consists mostly of shade tolerant plants except for a few sun-loving species located in the south part of the boulevard. Installed by Grass Roots Gardens

Small, decked back garden between main house and laneway house consisting mostly of evergreens for year round interest. The purpose of the design was to create a cosy, intimate feel using a few large evergreen shrubs trained into small multi-stemmed trees to enclose the deck, and different layers of evergreen planting to break up the hard walls of the laneway house and fencing. Installed by Grass Roots Gardens

Redesign for front garden beds. This design consists mainly of sun loving perennials and ornamental grasses as the south facing site receives a lot of sun. A sea of small leaved, drought tolerant Achillea ‘Firefly Amethyst’, Eryngium ‘Blue Hobbit’, rosemary and lavender constitute the majority of the design with black stemmed Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Onyx Peacock’ and statuesque Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii forming larger focal points. Allium ‘Gladiator’, Allium ‘Mount Everest’ and yellow crown imperials contrast nicely with feathery Stipa tenuissima, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ and graceful Actaea simplex ‘Black Negligee’.

Redesign for courtyard garden. The purpose of this design was to create more structural planting that would provide interest throughout the year. Plants used included Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Pink Dawn’ with its winter flowers on bare stems, Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’ with its beautiful fall colour and tidy branching structure, and Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ with its tall feathery plumes that can give fall and winter interest. Other plants such as ferns and Fatsia provide evergreen and architectural elements.

Redesign of planters for front of small apartment building. The design replaces many of the herbaceous plants with woody shrubs, and where some new herbaceous plants are proposed, e.g. autumn ferns and Bergenia, they are evergreen instead of deciduous. Some existing Viburnums and one Spirea were kept and moved and hopefully left to grow to their natural shapes and to flower more. A Chinese witch hazel was proposed for the main planter near the entrance in a bed of evergreen and perennial groundcovers. One of the main aims of the design was to use plants that the landscapers would not automatically shear into balls and boxes!