Landscape design & build · Salem
A garden should feel older than the house.
We're a five-person studio in South Salem. We draw the plan, set the stone, and put the right plant in the right light — then keep it that way, season after season.
The studio
Slow gardens,
made to settle in.
Most yards in this valley are asked to do too much at once. We start the other way round — one long walk-through, a soil probe, a note about where the afternoon sun stops. Then we draw something that suits the ground you actually have.
Our beds are built to look right in their fifth year, not their first. That means fewer plants set further apart, a soil profile you can dig with one hand, and stone laid on a base that will not heave the first time the valley freezes. It also means we say no to a fair number of things — lawn where nothing wants to grow, plants that need a hose in August, retaining walls doing a job a grade change could do for free.
More about how we work- Designing valley gardens
- 16 years Designing valley gardens
- Gardens drawn and built
- 240 + Gardens drawn and built
- Walk-through to drawings
- 4 wks Walk-through to drawings
- Warranty on every plant
- 1 yr Warranty on every plant
What we do
Five things,
done properly.
Design and build under one roof, which is the only way the drawing and the ground ever agree. Take one piece or the whole sequence.
Full service detail- 01
Landscape Design
A measured site plan, a planting palette chosen for your light, and a drawing you actually understand.
- 02
Full-Yard Installation
Grading, drainage, irrigation, soil, and every plant set by our own crew — never subcontracted out.
- 03
Native & Drought-Wise Planting
Oregon grape, camas, snowberry, blue fescue — beds that hold their looks through a dry August.
- 04
Patios, Paths & Stone
Hand-set flagstone, dry-laid walls, and bluestone steps cut to the fall of your ground.
- 05
Seasonal Care Plans
A pruning calendar, spring bed refresh, and eight visits a year so year three looks like year one.
We design for the fifth spring, not the first.
A garden that looks finished on install day has been over-planted. Ours look a little sparse the first year, generous the third, and inevitable by the fifth — which is when people start asking who did it.
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Licensed & insured
Oregon LCB #92009. Bonded, and every crew member is on our payroll.
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One-year plant warranty
If something we planted doesn't take, we replace it and re-plant the spot.
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Fixed written quotes
The number on the proposal is the number on the invoice. Changes are yours to approve.
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Mid-valley only
Salem, Keizer and ten minutes past. Small radius, same crew, faster call-backs.
From the neighbourhoods
They spent an hour just watching where the sun landed before they drew anything. Three summers on, the ferns have closed in exactly the way Nadia said they would.
Our back slope was mud every winter. Moss & Meadow terraced it in dry-laid basalt and planted it out. It has not moved an inch since, and we sit out there now.
I asked for something that would survive me forgetting to water it. What I got is prettier in August than my neighbour's lawn — and I haven't turned a hose on in two years.
Walk-throughs are free
Show us the yard. We'll tell you honestly what it wants.
An hour on site, no charge, no obligation. You'll leave with a rough scope, a realistic range, and a sense of whether we're the right studio for the job.