Blog Posts

An outdoor kitchen is one of the more consequential decisions you can make about a backyard. Done well, it becomes the reason the space gets used. Done without enough thought about layout, positioning, or the specifics of the Lowcountry climate, it becomes an expensive fixture that sits underused because something about it does not quite […]

Most backyard redesign projects do not start with a clear decision. They start with a feeling. You have been looking at the same yard for three summers and something is off, but you cannot quite name it. Or you renovated the house and the outdoor space never caught up. Or you bought the property knowing […]

Native plants have earned a well-deserved reputation in the Lowcountry. They are better adapted to the heat, humidity, and sandy coastal soils here than most imported ornamentals, they support local wildlife, and they tend to settle in and thrive with far less intervention once established. But “plant natives” is not a design strategy. It is […]

The most common version of this question I hear is some variation of: “We want to do something with the backyard. Should we wait until spring?” The honest answer is that waiting until spring to start the conversation usually means waiting until fall to have a finished project. In the Lowcountry, timing matters more than […]

Barrier island properties present a specific set of challenges for landscape lighting that most lighting contractors and generalist designers are not set up to solve well. Salt air corrodes the wrong fixtures within a season. HOA and municipal guidelines on Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms limit what can be installed and how bright it […]

Most paver patios look great in the photos taken the week they are finished. The ones that still look great five years later, and that people actually spend time on, are the ones where the design decisions were made before the first paver was set. Here is what those decisions are, and why they matter […]