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We are currently working on a very large, even spectacular landscape design project. One landscape feature we have already created is a rock feature involving boulders weighing up to 24 tons.
 Here is one of the massive boulders for this landscape design before installation. The installation was a technical challenge. We weren’t even sure if we could get the crane in there, and we had to demolish part of the house before the crane could get through. Fortunately, the house was going to be demolished anyway. The crane had to lift the truck carrying the boulders over a bridge because the truck was too heavy to cross the bridge. We also were not entirely certain how deep we could dig without hitting the water table, but fortunately we had no problem with that.
Below you can see one of the giant boulders being set into concrete. Whenever you see a really massive boulder in a landscape, if it is properly installed, generally about 1/3 to 1/2 of the rock is under ground so that it is securely planted in the earth. In this particular case, we added concrete underground, connecting the rock to the concrete foundation with heavy rebar, grounding the rocks securely even though there is less than 1/3 of the rock underground on the side away from the house. In this way, we are preserving the looming height of the rock which juts dramatically upward 14 feet from the ground on that side.
We handled these 24-ton rocks very gingerly because they are moss rocks and the client really wanted these mossy surfaces to be undamaged by the installation process.
 Here is the same boulder being set into concrete re-enforcement. And in the picture below we can begin to see what the final product will look like from the house. From this side, they present a much more modest six foot tall form, which is something of an optical illusion. As you walk around the rocks, you suddenly find the rocks are 14 feet tall on the other side.
Not only will this provide a main focal point from all aspects of the property, but it will also provide a backdrop accenting different forms of the garden.
 Here is the final product as seen from the house. I always enjoy projects that involve inclusion of massive boulders that incorporate the surrounding landscape and nature with what has been created within.
A garden I designed for the Mahaffy residence in Boulder, Colorado is featured in a very nice article in the current issue of Boulder County Home & Garden Magazine. This landscape design was a complete transformation of a mostly wild landscape into a serene landscape with natural themes and plenty of entertainment spaces. Here is just one photo of this residence.
 Mahaffy residence, landscape design featured in Boulder County Home & Garden What makes this article especially interesting are several “before” and “after” comparison shots, so that the reader can really get a sense of that transformation. Mahaffy himself had unique needs for his garden: A successful entrepreneur who recently sold his bio-tech company for $2.9 billion, Mahaffy now travels the world and values his garden as a refuge to come home to.
The Mahaffy landscape design features patios, a stone path leading to a koi pond, a man-made stream as well as a major natural creek, rock features involving large and small boulders carefully placed, and plenty of beautiful low-maintenance plants that thrive in Colorado.
The Home & Garden article also gives a nice expression of my some of my philosophical ideas:
“If I were to pick a theme for this garden–for any garden–it would be the idea of coming to our senses,” Altgelt says. “The garden is a place to feel your own soul in a much larger context of a soul-filled world.”
Here is the Boulder landscape design article, in PDF format.
 Entry to Longmont Prairie-Style Landscape Design To show the range of what I do, here is a landscape design project in Longmont, Colorado, that is much more subtle than much of my work. This open, spacious garden has a large arrival plaza that also serves as a paved play surface for kids. There’s a nice combination of precast concrete cobbles and concrete flatwork. A row of trees give a touch of formality, both accompanying the driveway and framing the arrival parking plaza opposite the house and garage.
 View of Plaza, Perennials, Low Wall in Background Another feature that is not very noticeable in the photos is the use of a lot of stone walls to echo the architecture of the house and give definition of the arrival plaza area. These walls form a circumference around the arrival plaza on the north and west sides, set back from the plaza the same distance as the house is set back from the plaza.
 Longmont Garden: Dry-Stack Pillar, Wall These walls are of dry stack sandstone, picking up the architecture of the house. Perennial beds below and on top of the walls add to the subtle yet strong spacial definition of the entry garden area. I’ve incorporated perennials that bloom in a progression, spring through fall.
 Gate with Perennials This garden makes broad, sweeping gestures, with some big boulders of the same materials as the walls here and there in the rest of the landscape. I’ve used more low, long stone gestures of rock rather than upright, vertical ones to fit the lay of the land. The home is a prairie style home with low, sweeping roofs and an open wraparound porch. Just as the architecture picks up the prairie setting with the mountains in the background, the landscape picks up these gestures of the architecture, relating them even more to the gestures of the given surrounding landscape. Taking my cue from these forms and colors, my aim was to further harmonize the architecture with the setting, using the landscape design to accentuate and weave them together even more.
I was describing this landscape design in these terms to a friend of mine, who commented, “You know, Tom, if I were actually sitting in that garden, I believe I would just have such a peaceful, contented feeling and have no idea why. I could pick out certain plants or rocks that I would think are pretty, but I really wouldn’t have a clue about how the whole thing flows together to create this sense of harmony. Now having your explanation of how the various elements all work together, I can get a little glimpse of how you understand and appreciate the landscape, the building architecture, and the surroundings.”
Here is a sketch of a landscape design I did for a very unique property. This land was a little piece of untouched prairie until a couple of years ago, up against the flatirons with killer views, north of Chautauqua Park in Boulder. The project was a collaboration with the developer, the architect, and myself, from the earliest design stages. It is a spec home that will be on the market very soon.
 Landscape Design Plans for Boulder Flatirons Residence The landscaping involved bringing in hundreds of tons of stone. It’s on enough of a slope so that we could create very interesting combinations of moss rock walls with huge boulders. A soothingly geometric water feature, paving, benches, and a naturalistic rock garden combine sculpturally alongside expanses of wildflower and native meadow. It’s an example of how to set a very large single family residence into a prairie setting, with harmonious transitions from ultra-modern elements to a natural prairie landscape. If you’re curious to see the finished landscaping, check back in a few months. I expect to have some photos in the late spring, perhaps the end of May.
The house itself is extraordinarily modern looking. The architect, Sam Austin, is very creative and does a wide range of architecture. I consider him one of the best architects in the area, and it was a real pleasure to work with him on this project. He designed a rooftop terrace, which provides even more spectacular views.
We’re expecting it to be finished in a couple of months. It’s really one of the Denver area’s few remaining spectacular lots with no previous development. Since the recent reworking of the building codes in Boulder, I don’t know whether anyone could even build a house as large as this one anymore.
 Pam Prescott's garden design I was gratified to receive this email recently from Pam Prescott, a landscape design client in Boulder, Colorado:
…. I can’t tell you how often I am stopped on the street by people telling me that our landscaping is drop-dead gorgeous. I always give them your name and say that you deserve all of the credit. You clearly have much bigger, more spectacular projects, but the fact that you used your creativity and artistry to make our small project a thing of beauty speaks to the spirit with which you design.
Thank you again, for making our property beautiful.
What is particularly interesting is that this was the first of about five or six residential projects done with a team of people, including a developer, an architect, a builder, and landscape contractor. It is an example of the wonderful new homes that can be created when a great team of professionals works in harmony with one another. I think that Pam would make a similar statement about any member of this team. It’s a real tribute to great teamwork.
 Prescott garden design: dry stream bed with bridge Essential to this garden are the wonderful perennials, in juxtaposition with beautifully scaled rock formations. A man-made dry stream bed provides grading and drainage, and becomes the focal point of the garden.
Equally important, the walkway from the sidewalk to the front door features a combination of natural sandstone slabs and precast concrete pavers which have been tumbled for an antique look. We utilized several drought tolerant groundcovers, including an extraordinary native called “pussytoes” between the stepping stones. Part of the walkway is a bridge crossing the dry stream bed.
Following the stream bed further into the property, we see it suddenly becomes part of a group of beautifully wild naturalistic rock formations, set into a plethora of flowering perennials and ornamental grasses. This landscape design project involved a great deal of shaping of the earth, with berming for privacy. As the dry stream bed runs into edges along the berm, it carves away at the base of the berm, exposing a ledge outcropping, as would happen in nature. A beautiful flowering, fruiting multi-stemmed tree on top of the berm provides additional privacy, blocking out both houses across the street, as well as the traffic.
 Prescott patio  Prescott garden design: side view It is the front yard that is the primary garden space. It’s an entry garden. We put most of our strong intention and creativity into beautifying the experience of approaching the front door, as well as looking out from the dining room. Often enough, people put so much of their effort into a more private rear garden, and here this is a garden that greets visitors, establishes the ambiance of the property and the house, as we had hoped that this entry garden would do. Even with the privacy features, it is still quite open to the street, so it adds to the whole neighborhood. It’s no surprise that a lot of people stop to talk and to compliment Pam on her garden.
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