Happy 2012! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years. We had a wonderful time with family and friends throughout the past two weeks and with the recent snow and cold temperatures it finally feels like winter. During my week off from blogging I created a very long list of topics/thoughts to share this year, but thought I would start off with a best of 2011 and some photos that never made it on the blog last year.  Thank you for following me this year, it has been a great year and plan for a better 2012!

Top posts from 2011:

Holiday at Home:
Thanks to Pinterest this post has received so many hits. Working on our own home allows us to experiement more freely than on client properties. The only issue is that I don’t have that much time to work at home on our landscape.

Bird Houses – Modern and Sculptural:
This post was big from Google Searches. I am sad to say that no bird family made a home inside our two birdhouses last year. However our European Hornbeams (Carpinus betulus) hedgers are home to more than one nest. 


Hellebores – Lenten Rose:
This was another big post from specific Google searches. I am glad to see one of my favorite spring flowering plants is so popular.

Here are some unseen photos from 2011.

This was a garden in South Carolina that we saw while on a bike ride during our vacation. Basket weave pattern set within turf, shows how simple patterns can be used in many different ways.

This is a home in German Village that is always very neat and tidy.  Seeing these pansies in early spring  was wonderful after the grey winter.

Dear Homeowner, I want to design your landscape. I see so much potential in your house to have an amazing garden. Please call me.

This is Spot. He greeted folks at the Home & Garden Show, but did not get the notice he deserved. However he now lives at home with us, and I think this summer will move outside.

Espalier Asian Pear trees on a client’s property.  Love the edging and rocks.

Japanese Maples in large wooden planters at a client’s home. The scale of the trees is amazing,

A formal garden on a client’s property.

This was my best meal of 2011 from the Drake in Toronto. Fried Chicken on an Herb Belgium waffle covered in a cherry compote. Hands down best food!

This is our garden shed at home. I added the Caryopteris, Snow Fairy (foreground) in 2010 and it has really taken off in 2011 (photo from  late summer).

This design deserves a whole post on its own, designing for dogs.  This is a dog run we did for a client. This pathway was designed specifically for the dogs to run through the landscape without ruining the plantings.