I have a few clients that challenge me to be the best I can possibly be-this client is right at the top of that list. Her design ability-whether it be interiors, or parties and events, or gardening-is superb. She could have easily founded a School of Design-had she had any inclination to do so. She and her husband live in a beautifully overscaled modern house with a beautifully high pitched roof, and overscaled high-pitched dormers. (This is a landscape designers description of architecture; bear with me.)
To drive into the impossibly small front drivecourt, you would think the house was sited on a postage stamp of land. But in fact, the house is sited on a steep ravine, and hangs out over a rear yard that widens, and goes on to embrace the river. It is a big property, with incredible aerial views.
She loves gardens and flowers. Flowers and more flowers. She is a master chef-so any plan for her has to include acres of basil, and the like. OK-the challenge here-to plant a perennial garden stuffed with roses and other perennials, in a flood plane-courtesy of that river. The first order of business was a lot of drainage, and rear yard grading. When her son got married, we had to install floors in the tents and stepping stones between them at the last second-which we did. The perennial garden ramps up to a curvy modern swimming pool. So far so good.
I met her when I was young-so I had no problem moving every tree and every shrub within two days of my first work there. There were trees, shrubs and perennials placed poorly, and too many boulders. But that house was a jewel-perched out over a beautiful piece of property. The house-a beautifully designed tree house.
A house sited in the crowns of trees-how beautiful. But what if you love to cook, and grow flowers, and want to sit with your garden and family around you?
The house already had a giant deck all across the back. Stairs to the lower level had a small landing-perfect for pots. The lower level under this deck-dark, and intimate. My only suggestion-windowboxes. And lots of pots. 
We built and hung two giant windowboxes-off the deck, at the railing height. There is a whole symphony of flowers in those boxes every year-every year a new arrangement. The pots we outfitted with automatic irrigation-there are too many pots for one family and one hose.
I heard my client tell someone recently I had brought her garden upstairs for her. I had neither the words, nor the clear conscious intent to do this-but I realized when I heard her that she was exactly right.
As I said, she is a client that encourages me to be the best I can be. I am a very lucky designer.
Once you plant an old galvanized bucket with geraniums and strawberries, the eye sees that object in a different way.
It was a 50th birthday present, from me, to me. Every time I look at it, I feel the history of the object, and my own garden making. It is the emotional equivalent of a trip to Europe, touring other gardens, whose pots tell me something about the gardeners who planted them.
No matter that I have been planting annuals for the better part of 25 years; I have yet to get to that point where I have had enough. It’s a yearly conversation I have with myself, usually in late February. Do I still want to do this? Would I like some other career? Am I done with my career-would I just like a job? Another words, I am wringing my hands and fretting such, it would make you laugh.
Annual flowers on a terrace do a lot to warm up all the hard surfaces. I pay particular attention to the overall plant height and composition of those pots, as they are usually viewed up close, and while sitting.
