Many new developments in Mt. Pleasant are manifesting a planned community feel that aligns with my native, low-maintenance landscape design philosophy. This trend started with the development of I’On, a planned community in zip code 29464 that brought a New Urbanist feel reminiscent of Daniel Island east of the Cooper. Since the creation of I’On,…
Daniel Island is a pretty place. The houses are gorgeous, and green spaces are abundant. However, Daniel Island landscape design isn’t without its challenges: Much of the island looks man-made. In many ways, there’s less harmony with the natural Lowcountry environment on Daniel Island than there is in other parts of the Charleston area. Notably,…
In Charleston landscape design, details are important for a number of reasons. Obviously, paying close attention to details is an integral part of harmonizing Charleston area properties with the natural Lowcountry environment…my native, low-maintenance landscape design philosophy. is predicated on the fine details of the unique maritime ecosystem that is the South Carolina Lowcountry. Similarly,…
Ubiquitous and soft due to the large quantities of water they hold, native palmetto trees were used to line the walls of Ft. Moultrie during the Battle of Sullivan’s Island in order to minimize the impact of cannon balls fired from British ships. The iconic native species did an admirable job of protecting the fort:…
I apologize for the long period between posts. Lowcountry Vistas and my Spanish tutoring side business have been keeping me busy, to say the least! I wanted to take this opportunity to describe a couple of projects I’ve completed since my last post. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to build colorful…
The featured image of this post is from a downtown Charleston bar I frequent for Spanish happy hours. The bar, which did a wonderful job of renovating the building, clearly spent good money on this raised, stucco, self-draining planter on the back patio. Unfortunately, they’ve let it go. The planter, for which good money…
Since I distribute Lowcountry Vistas’s flyers myself (make sure to read my letter to the editor in the Post and Courier about the outrageous experience I had with the USPS), I visit hundreds of yards each week. Sometimes, I’m impressed by what I see. Other times, I’m disheartened by the number of elements some…
I like to use evergreens and perennials as much as possible in my residential landscape designs so that yards look good year-round and maintenance remains minimal. (Annuals, on the other hand, must be replaced each year.) On this project, I used plenty of coastal grasses and sabal minors (look like dwarf Palmetto trees) to…
Sometimes, Lowcountry yards are a diamond in the rough. They don’t require a complete redesign to look good; they just need a good eye and plenty of tender-loving care. For this yard, I removed a significant amount of overgrowth to create a view from the street that revealed it at its full potential: a…
