2023
Kestrel Ridge Residence
A hillside garden built around a single existing oak, terraced with dry-stacked fieldstone to hold the slope without a retaining wall in sight.
Sonoma County, CATerra Firma reads a site's contours, drainage, and light before we draw a single line. The work that follows is slow, native, and built to be inherited by weather.
See the ground we've shaped →Every planting plan starts with what already survives on the site without irrigation. Ornamentals are the last 10%, never the first 90%.
We walk a site through a full season before proposing contour changes. Water tells you where a garden wants to go long before a client does.
A canopy tree planted today is a gift to a client we'll never meet. We draw plans that improve as they age, not ones that peak on install day.
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A hillside garden built around a single existing oak, terraced with dry-stacked fieldstone to hold the slope without a retaining wall in sight.
Sonoma County, CAA stormwater bioswale disguised as a public meadow — three acres of native grass that quietly manages a 100-year flood event for the block.
Portland, ORA tasting-room courtyard set inside a working vine block, graded so every row drains toward a single collection cistern under the terrace.
Paso Robles, CAA concentric meditation garden set into a former parking lot, with each ring planted to bloom in sequence across the liturgical calendar.
Halifax, NSBefore soil, before species, we survey elevation change in half-meter intervals. The lines that come back tell us where water pools, where wind funnels, and where a garden will thrive without our help.
We mass planting by hydrozone rather than by aesthetic zone — the driest ridge and the wettest swale get entirely different palettes, even when they sit ten feet apart.
A season of walking the land in different weather before a single mark is made.
Half-meter elevation mapping and a hydrology read of every low point on site.
Hand-drawn contour studies showing where planting, hardscape, and grade change meet.
Earthwork first, always — the shape of the ground before a single plant enters it.
Two full growing seasons of monitored care before we consider a site finished.
We take on a limited number of commissions each year, chosen for sites where the land itself has something to say. Tell us about yours.
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