Custom Landscape Designs, Planting, and Horticultural Consulting

Behind the Gardening Gloves

Susie is a certified landscape, garden designer, and horticulturalist through the Royal British Academy of Garden Design. She is an artist who has worked with nationwide clientele as well as in Vermont garden and nursery centers and conservatories since 1995.

Artistic Landscape & Garden Design Service


Custom Design

Tailored to your unique style, we provide visually appealing landscape design solutions.


Container Gardens

Container gardening is an ideal method for adding life and color to balconies, decks, and steps, strategically positioned containers around gardens, concealing empty spaces, and forming natural "fences."


Four-Season Design

Carefully selected perennials and annuals + a mix of native plants, trees, and shrubs to add color and interest all year long.


Interiorscapes

To combat the winter blues, we design and craft a variety of indoor gardens, including plant walls, Zen gardens, fairy gardens, succulent gardens, and terrariums – the choice is yours to enjoy!


Pollinator and Naturalistic Gardens

Ecologically complex gardens mimic the structure of wild habitats to increase biodiversity.


Garden Establishment and Maintenance

Vermont Garden Design provides soil testing and amendments; pruning; pest control; bulb plantings and seasonal “clean-ups.”

Transformations

Outdoor Garden
- Before -

Outdoor Garden
- After -

Shade Garden
- Before -

One week after being planted

Shade Garden
- After -

One month later

Three months later

Four months later

One year later

Alpine Garden
- Before -

Renowned for her artistic vision, Susie was approached by a client with a unique request: transforming an area filled with daylilies into a more diverse and visually appealing perennial bed. Seeing the potential that lay beneath the surface, the designer eagerly embraced this challenge.

Before of Alpine Garden

Alpine Garden
- After -

The garden stands reborn as an awe-inspiring Alpine garden. Carefully placed boulders punctuate the terrain, lending a rugged charm that beautifully emulates the stark beauty of harsh Alpine environments.

Executing this transformation was not merely a matter of horticultural know-how, but also a brilliantly artistic undertaking. Susie’s touch is unmistakable throughout the transformed space, evident in her careful selection and placement of boulders and unique Alpine plants.

Aline Garden After Photo

The "before" image of Dry Creek portrayed a scenario that was both a challenge and an opportunity for the artistic landscape designer. The client needed a solution to drain rainwater runoff from the driveway to the terrace. Susie combined form and function to create a dry creek.

The project began by digging a trench that gracefully mimicked a naturally winding brook. The fluid design was informed by the natural movement of water, ensuring functionality while preserving an organic feel.

To influence the direction of water, the designer incorporated a fork in the stream design. The integration of this functional element enhanced the feeling of a naturally flowing stream while also acting as an additional diversion of rainwater.

Dry Creek * - Before -

Dry Creek Before

Dry Creek *
- In Progress -

Dry Creek In Progress

Dry Creek *
- After -

Boulders, rocks, and plants were selected and placed to give the creation a naturalistic finish. The use of these elements conjured up the aesthetic of a serene stream, blurring the line between the client's urban property and nature itself. 

The Dry Creek serves as an aesthetic highlight invoking the charm of a serene, naturally occurring stream.

*A dry stream bed, alternatively referred to as a dry creek bed, is a landscaping element designed to emulate the appearance of a creek or stream bed utilizing stones, boulders, and frequently, plants and spill rocks. These features are commonly constructed within gullies or trenches and may serve as a drainage solution. However, their purpose is not exclusively functional; they can be solely intended as an aesthetic addition to a landscape.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Chittenden, Lamoile, Grand Isle, and Orleans Counties in Vermont.

  • Ideally, we start scheduling in early March. Clients are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.

  • Email me here. I will return your email ASAP.

  • Free Initial Consultation
    -
    Email me for a quote.

  • I am an experienced certified landscape and garden designer with a Master's in Museum Education and Art History. I also hold a BA in Fine Arts.