It has been terribly busy in the last few months since we are moving to a bigger home. We have put up our old home for sale and it is almost certain that it will be sold in the next month or so. When we first bought it in 1999, the backyard was 1000 square feet of bare dirt. My wife and I spent most of our leisure time for more than a year to get it into shape. About eight tons of bad soils were hauled out before new soil, new pavers, and new plants all came in. It seemed like every week there was a pile of something on the driveway, and it was very exciting to see all the changes and progresses. That experience was a major factor for me to make the decision of becoming a landscape designer. It was so much more rewarding than working hard on an engineering project for several months only to see it getting cancelled for some other reasons.

Here are some photos of our garden in the beautiful and wet spring of 2010:

1. One of the frontyard beds completed in 2008 after removing a boring Bradford Pear tree and a small patch of lawn. The big shrub with blue spikes of flowers is Echium candicans ‘Star of Madeira’ and the giant-leafed plant in the back is Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Steroidal Giant’. Both are extremely fast growers.


2. Back yard tropical corner

3. From tropical corner looking back at pond pavilion

4. Semi-raised pond with seven kois

5. Outdoor BBQ counter and door to garage

6. Plant close-ups, clockwise from top left: Musella lasiocarpa or Chinese Yellow Banana, Aloe polyphylla, Clivia miniata Orange Variegated, and Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Hercules’ with oversized flowers

7. Inside greenhouse

8. Full view of pond and pavilion