They come to us with images and descriptions of places they have been to or have seen. Our job in most cases is to translate their thoughts into an environment that is specific to the site, complementary to the style of the architecture, and unique to the personality of each family. We also borrow shamelessly from the wealth of garden, design, and technical information available on TV, in books, magazines, garden catalogs, and album covers. Your designs blend plants, trees, wood, stone, and brick without it looking overdone. I think the biggest challenge is to avoid the temptation to do too much.
Restraint is the key to successful composition.
We try to distill our designs down to the essential, core elements necessary to achieve that desired effect. Visual complexity can make a garden interesting and dynamic, but as a balance, you can't beat a still pool of water or a flat carpet of lawn to allow the eye to rest. The variability of heat and moisture and the extremes that one can encounter in a single season, in many cases necessitates the installation of an irrigation system. On the plus side, the length of the growing season allows for a very rich and varied palette of planting, extending the bloom cycles of our gardens well past that of our northern counterparts. Also, the tremendous resources of information and quality plants available from Southern Nurserymen is probably unequaled in the country.