APLD Members Quoted in the Wall Street Journal

Recently, the Garden Media Group connected two wonderful professional landscape designers with the Wall Street Journal -- for a story on winter damage and how to repair your landscape. Laura Kuhn of Massachusetts and Susan Murphy of Wisconsin - both certified professional landscape designers with APLD were included in the print and online issues of the Wall Street Journal. Here is the link to the story As a side note.... I was talking to the reporter about APLD, I mentioned roof damage to my own house -- and poof! I (well really, my old roof) was included in the story too.

I am still high on hellebores. I have tons of pictures to share. But that can wait for another time. Did winter hit your garden hard? Tell me about it! If you read the WSJ article linked above - check out the pictures and let me know what you think!

APLD Heads to Big D

Off to Dallas -- again!

But this time for the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) Annual International Design Conference Sept. 27- Oct. 2.

Dan Maffei and the APLD local team have planned a spectacular conference highlighting the hottest trends in landscape design. We'll see and hear first hand how Dallas landscape designers' dramatic approaches to incorporate sustainable initiatives, art and horticulture in their gardens.

I always learn something new at the workshops and lectures. Cutting-edge landscape designers share their secrets on such topics as creating sustainable designs, using new and different plants and smart water-wise practices.

We're staying at the Fairmont Hotel in the heart of Dallas’s Arts District, and the opening reception is being held at the Nasher Sculpture Center and catered by none other than the famous Wolfgang Puck. Yum!



Plus there will be a TweetUp Wednesday night at Pyramid Lounge from 5-7:30. Stay tuned for lots more to come.

See y'all in Dallas!

Suzi

Garden Media Group

Landscape Designers Meet In the Heartland

Last week I went to Iowa City to attend the board meeting of our client, the Association of Professional Landscape Designers -- APLD. I wish I had gone out a day earlier to really enjoy this wonderful heartland city and see a restored tallgerass prairie.

Judy Nauseef, president of the board and an Iowa City landscape designer, set up a field trip to Hardin Township Cemetery with Chris Henze the Johnson County Vegetation Manager who has restored this prairie remnant.

The APLD Board approved an exciting line up of educational programs, sustainability initiatives, certification workshops and outreach for 2010. Mark your calendars now for the APLD International Landscape Design Conference Dallas September 26-October 2, 2010.

APLD 2010 Design Awards: Call for Entries

APLD 2010 International Landscape Design Awards: Call for Entries
The Association of Professional Landscape Design is looking for landscape projects 'par excellence' for 2010. It's easy to enter -- all online, and their are lots of categories to allow for recognition of show gardens. Sustainability will be considered in the judging .The best entries, judged by a distinguished international jury, will receive a gold award. Margie Grace (right) from Santa Barbara won this year.

Other deserving entries will receive a merit award. From the gold award entries, the judges will choose the 2010 APLD International Landscape Designer of the Year. Her winning design is featured above.

Awards will be presented during the awards banquet at the 2010 APLD International Landscape Design Conference in Dallas, Texas, in September 2010.Deadline for entries is February 1, 2010.

Grace Design takes top landscape design award!

Congratulations to Margie Grace of Grace Design Associates, Inc., a Santa Barbara-based landscape design and build company, for being honored the top award – the “International Designer of the Year” by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD), the leading trade group for landscape design professionals worldwide.

Grace Design’s winning project was for a Santa Barbara residential design -- an “eco-friendly” home and garden. They also won top honors for that same residence, the “Gold Award for Residential Design.”

Margie's work has been featured in Traditional Home, Better Homes & Gardens, California Homes, Sunset, and California Home +Design magazines.

Cutting the Landscape Design Edge

APLD International Landscape Designer of the Year (second from left) Margie Grace of Grace Designs in Santa Barbara, CA, chats with APLD members at the Portland conference to celebrate the professional organization's 20th anniversary.

Great cutting edge design practices, including sustainable landscaping, hell striping, and rain gardens.

Here we are in a private tour of J. Frank Schmidt and Iseli Nurseries and a private garden of landscape designer Michael Schultz - all in Portland at the APLD 20th Anniversary Conference.