Here is a gallery of more images of gardens I have built throughout the years. Most photo's will have some notes about the image. Enjoy!
This is the first pond/waterfall I ever built. I built it within and around a very old and mature Rododendra that appreciated the delicacy we showed her during construction by blooming ferociously every year after.
One of my favorite front walk installations. Giant, thick slabs of Pennsylvania stone hand cut into a very modern pattern, free set on road 30" of road base w/polymeric joint sand.
Same walkway as above from the road to the house view. My apologies for the grainy photo - this was pre-my understanding of photo storage.
This is the second part of that walk way that goes from the driveway to the front door. We designed and installed the gardens also here.
Traditional blue stone mortared on concrete with vinca and boxwood hedges. Oak Pollen Gold from the lovely Oaks on this street. We built this in Birmingham, MI.
This corner of the house was designed to be a spring blast of color with a Kousa and Florida dogwood, Magnolia, azalea, creeping phlox - all popping at the same time followed by Iris, hasta and lily in the early summer.
This right here is the classic work of my Garden Guru and Mentor, Betty Sturley. I did prune this tree and work these beds but the assembly of materials here is 100% Betty and this truly is her trademark look. It is astounding. Crabapple, tulip, forget me not and hasta.
Bradford Pears w/vinca. Boston Ivy climbs the fence. Simple. Elegant. Easy to maintain. Installation we did in Birmingham.
I had a great time building this rock wall and am happy with the layering we accomplished via vinca, boxwood, yew and cedars. So long as this client stuck to my program of pruning to keep those pears small this garden would work wonderfully.
Fothergilla, a seldom used and way under rated plant. It is a slow grower. This installation took about 3.5 years to reach this hieght from it's initial 24" planting. Lily of the Valley is the dominant ground cover and provides amazing spring white flower and incredible fragrance. The Fothergilla blooms in mid summer as you see here and the fall color on this shrub is incredible. I love dialing in driveway gardens. This client must have been smiling every time they pulled in or our of their home.
This is the first walk way and garden I built. It was designed by my garden mentor Betty Sturley. This photo here shows the garden 5 years after we touched it. I would not have pruned the crabapple or the other shrubs as they have been pruned in this picture. Very happy with how the walk way has lasted.
Poor photo quality but this is my parents former home and I installed all of the gardens here. We did not do the brick walk, though I like that style of mortared brick on concrete a lot. This patio did have regular repairs it needed every season.
I wish I had the before of this epic crabapple restoration. This tree was a giant, huge mess complete with various fungal problems commonly associated with the crabapple. Imagine this tree, looking like it is yellow and dying and in the shape of a warped basketball. That was the before. I gave this beauty over 75 12" deep and 4" thick organic food plugs that I custom blended and pruned 50% of the canopy and thinned her heavily - creating this weeping elegant drape. This is 1 season after the restoration work. He was so happy with the result that he actually started telling people he pruned the tree himself. Of course, as a by product of the food plugs for the tree the vinca exploded with flowers and new growth.
This is a Betty Sturley classic design right here. I rebuilt these ponds for her and we helped with the installations here but these flower selections are Betty's design. Absolutely amazing - very, very high maintenance and very much changing from year to year but simply incredible.
Betty Sturley's home gardens. This is about 4 seasons after we rebuilt the 3 main ponds that you are seeing here - they are hard to see in and among the plantings but they are there. Again, you can see Betty is a collector and this is a collectors garden which is uniquely different than most of my clients in that it requires tremendous maintenance and attention to work. We planted the huge Cham. Nookt. you see in the back ground and many of the speciality evergreens. Betty's husband built the pergola and swing. I spent almost 15 years sitting on that swing winter, spring, summer and fall.
Here you can see more of the ponds. Though I was raised in my garden understandings by a collector (Betty) it grew to not be my style of choice mainly because it is a little busy for my personal taste and from the standpoint of maintenance, there are very few people who want to foot that bill. Still, I can appreciate the depth of layering and to see this garden morphing throughout a season is something to behold and something no photo can capture.
This Wallace Frost home is so beautiful that it is hard to screw up these gardens. This property has been in and out of my hands for some 10+ years and I have installed 70% of the main structural landscape. I did not do the pots in this picture.
Same Wallace Frost home patio gardens.
AFTER
Blue stone edging and exposed aggregate with wooly thyme, stone and lavender. Bloomfield Village.
Brick pavers we installed in Bloomfield Village.
Ponds at Betty Sturley that Garden Detroit rebuilt. Plantings by Betty Sturley with installation support by Garden Detroit.
Same ponds
Ponds by Garden Detroit in collaboration w/Betty Sturley
Ponds by Garden Detroit in collaboration w/Betty Sturley
Ponds by Garden Detroit in collaboration w/Betty Sturley
The Harris Olsen Tree Peony. Extremely rare and only in the possession of a few people, myself being one. This is a photo of Betty Sturley's raised gardens. I had no hand in this particular garden but wanted to post this picture because of the Tree Peony.
The Harris Olsen Tree Peony. Extremely rare and only in the possession of a few people, myself being one. This is a photo of Betty Sturley's raised gardens. I had no hand in this particular garden but wanted to post this picture because of the Tree Peony.
The waterfalls are so integrated into this garden they are hard to see until you are very close to them yet the waterfall and stream are so loud they can be heard anywhere in the back yard. Plant selections by Betty Sturley - pond & plant installations by Garden Detroit.
Same pond/gardens at Betty Sturley's
Same pergola with Boston Ivy climbing it to add warmth and integration. Again, a little busy for my taste but this is hallmark and standard setting among collectors.
Very simple, very lovely. Korean Lilac and Japanese Maple
Same driveway as left and below - Climbing hydrangea making it's way up. Love it.
AFTER
That darker green vine nearest left is C. Hydrangea = flowers white in the summer and is Gold in the fall.
Peach Trees and Wildflower garden.
Same gardens that had peach/wildflowers. We installed all of this too including the pergola. Brambles on split rail fencing with wild rose, sunburst maples in back ground.
Cedar pergola build w//shade blinds installed. These shade blinds are awesome.
SAME : Peach Trees and Wildflower garden.
Same pergola with Boston Ivy climbing it to add warmth and integration.
Same pergola with Boston Ivy climbing it to add warmth and integration.
Front entrance installation. Blue stone mortared on concrete, boxwood, vinca, Kousa Dogwood, hydrangea.
Before being Pruned by Garden Detroit. Typical 'circle stuffed' base of tree and wild unkept canopy.
Hard to tell this is even the same tree but it is, about 4 seasons later and post our berm installation with sprce, hemlock and about 300 yards of soil. I removed the 'stuff in the tight circle' made the circle an oval and buried a heavy stone - cut a deep natural edge and tricked out the soil with conditioners. The canopy reduction was tremendous and I love the big branch I exposed in the top center of the canopy. The home owner was blow away at the difference.
