At the age of 12, I realized I was a “plant person.” I fed that obsession by gardening for neighbors in my northern Maine hometown until college.  At Connecticut College, I double-majored in Botany/Anthropology, and worked in the Arboretum.   I was fortunate to learn under the tutelage of two influential botanists.  One was the legendary, always-animated-in-the-company-of-a-plant, William A. Niering. Several times, I also visited the home and grounds of Niering’s predecessor, Richard H.Goodwin and his wife Esther.  They, and others, instilled in me a great love and appreciation for natural landscapes and eventually, I became a Certified Landscape Designer from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. 

I settled on the Cape on 1986 (met Thom Huettner two weeks later) and was in business by the following year. Over the past three decades, I have had the privilege of working on numerous projects both small and large scale ranging from work for the Town of Dennis and their ancient cemeteries and various landscape issues, to directing the Falmouth Friendly Lawn project and recently completely redesigning and installing at the Yarmouth Police Headquarters, a 9-11 Memorial Park and adjacent garden of Memorials to Fallen Officers. In addition to these larger scale engagements I have equally enjoyed and worked on several residences across the cape and greater Boston area from completely new construction design, to reshaping existing gardens, or solving a specific smaller issue of an area within a garden.

I'm passionate about plants and our environment.  I've been accused of being a tree-hugger and may even talk to the plants and to myself when I'm out roaming your yard, putting the pieces together in my mind. But every project begins with trying to be a good listener – to understand not just the scope but most important the story you want your garden to express.  I have come to appreciate over these years that a critical part of a successful project is really understanding what you as a client desires both now and in the larger picture - since plants are always growing and evolving they represent a living canvas of organic art. It is the changing palette of color and interest that follows the seasons that is part of thoughtful landscape design – from knowing when a tree will lose (or not lose) its’ leaves to how those colors change month to month to knowing what bees, birds and butterflies will visit different parts of the garden during those times of the year.  These considerations have come with experience and now a “second nature” instinct of what makes a garden work both as a look and a story.