Kanata · Ottawa · The Valley
Now scheduling new installations for Summer 2026
Est. 1999
§ 01 · The Full Commission
Installations

From bare ground to garden.

Modern stone home with newly installed garden

A new installation is a ground-up commission — the full design, the full plant list, the full execution, all of it carried by us. We are landscape designers who plant; we are not contractors who sub the work out. The same hands draw the plan and put the plants in the ground.

"No heavy machinery. Your lawn will still be there when we leave. Your neighbours barely notice we're working."
How an Installation Unfolds
I

The Walk

A first conversation in the garden.
≈ 90 min · No charge

I come to you. We walk the property end to end, and I take notes — light readings, current soil conditions, drainage patterns, sight lines from inside the house, the corner where the dog actually lies down. We talk about what you love, what you avoid, and how you really use the space rather than how you imagine you do.

You're under no obligation after the walk. If we're a fit, we move to the drawing.

Often, prospective clients come to my own gardens first. It's a chance to see many of the plants I'll suggest in their mature form — how they hold themselves through the season, what they look like next to one another — before any decision is made.

II

The Drawing

Concept, planting plan, palette.
Week 2 – 4 · Deposit to proceed

Two to three weeks after the walk, you'll receive my initial design ideas. Inside: a planting plan keyed to a full plant list, a material and palette page with photographs, and a fixed-scope estimate. No surprises later.

We sit down together and walk through it. You react, we revise. Once the plan is yours, a deposit secures the install window.

III

The Planting

Install, by hand, in season.
Scope-dependent · 2 – 8 weeks

We arrive with the crew and the plants. No skid-steers, no excavators — every shrub and perennial goes in by hand. The lawn stays where it is. Materials are staged tidily. The site is left clean at the end of every day.

I'm on site every working day, the first one and the last. If something on the plan isn't quite right once it's in the ground, we adjust it then and there.

IV

The Settling-In

Aftercare, for as long as you'd like.
Year 1 · Year-round option

Every install closes with a written aftercare protocol — what to water, when, how much, when to prune, when to leave alone. I am always available to answer questions.

Many clients then move onto an optional seasonal maintenance programme. The garden stays close to the original plan, year over year, because the same person who designed it is the one keeping it true.

Stone block house with shaped hedge
Plate II Stone, Spruce & Feather Grass Kanata · 2025
Backyard before and after — lawn transformed into meditation garden
Plate V From Lawn to Meditation Garden West End · 2025
Backyard retreat with stone path and gazebo
Plate VI A Shaded Retreat in Late June Kanata · 2023
§ 02 · A Plan, Quickly
Express Designs

Send us photos. We'll send back a plan.

Not every property needs a full installation. Sometimes what's wanted is a clear plan for a focused area — the front bed, the side strip, the corner around the patio — and the freedom to install it on your own timeline.

Express Designs are built around a simple exchange. You send photos of the area you'd like to address. Donna draws a planting plan directly over your photo, every plant placed and labelled, and returns it to you with a full plant key. From there, you can install it yourself, take it to a nursery, or commission us to plant it for you.

Quicker than a full design engagement. More bespoke than anything you'd find on a Pinterest board. And the start, often, of a longer conversation.

How It Works

Three steps, no site visit required.

1

Send Photos

From the angles I ask for.

We'll send a short shot list — the area straight on, from each side, plus a wide of the surroundings. A few measurements help; rough is fine. No drone, no expertise required.

2

Donna Draws

A planting plan, rendered on your photo.

Every plant placed and labelled by letter. A separate key lists each one — common name, Latin name, mature size, what it does in winter. Drawn by hand, by me.

3

You Receive

A printable, shareable plan.

Yours to install on your own, take to a trusted nursery, or hand back to us if you'd like us to plant it. The plan is yours either way.

Express Design overlay sample showing labelled plant placements on a client's patio area

An Express Design overlay, returned to a client. Six plants placed and labelled A through F, each named on the accompanying key. Installed by the homeowner over a long weekend.

§ 03 · Bringing It Back
Rejuvenation

An overgrown garden, read again.

An overgrown garden is rarely a garden in the wrong place. It's usually a garden that's stopped being read — plants that have eaten each other, edges that have softened into lawn, mulch gone grey, a rhythm lost.

Rejuvenation is the work of putting it back in focus. We edit what's there, keep what's working, add what's missing, and finish with new plantings, fresh mulch, and clean defined edges. You hand us a property; you receive a garden.

First moveEdit
SecondKeep
ThirdAdd
FinishMulch & edge
Front walk before and after — overgrown to refined
Before / After

The Red-Door House, Reclaimed

A front walk lost under twenty years of well-meaning planting. We removed two-thirds of what was there, kept the mature anchor, and replanted with a tighter palette — restoring the line of approach to the door.

Dunrobin · 2024 Rejuvenation
Front bed before and after — bearded iris monoculture replaced with mixed shrubs, layered perennials, and a clean curved river-rock edge
Before / After

From Iris Patch to Layered Garden

A front bed that had narrowed, over the years, to a single mass of bearded iris. We kept the mature tree as the anchor, edited out the monoculture, and rebuilt with mixed shrubs, layered perennials, and a clean curved edge in white river rock. A garden where there had only been a patch.

2025 Rejuvenation
Side yard before and after — overgrown to a row of perennials
Before / After

A Long Border, Found Again

A side-yard border that had become a hedge by accident. We re-established the line of perennials, reintroduced seasonal interest, and restored the breathing room the garden was originally drawn for.

Cedar Hill · 2025 Rejuvenation
A note on aftercare Many rejuvenated gardens benefit from a season or two of seasonal maintenance to hold the line — to keep the new edges crisp and the new plantings ahead of the old ones. Available on request, never assumed.
Begin a Conversation

Whichever path fits — write me.

I answer every enquiry myself, usually inside two working days. No form-routing, no assistant — just a note from me. Tell me about your property and what you're imagining; I'll come back with thoughts and what a first walk would look like.

— Donna
Send Donna a note →