Here's a sneak peek of an outdoor living space in Kirkland that we photographed this morning. Thanks to John Granen and his assistant Ben...

It’s been a busy and exciting Spring and Summer at SEI. We’ve been working on many interesting projects — from tiny back yards in Capital Hill, Green Lake and Montlake designed to maximize outdoor living, to a spectacular terrace garden high above Second Avenue in downtown Seattle, to a landscape for a traditional Japanese Tea House. Our website will soon be updated with some new projects as well. Here’s a sneak peek at the Second Avenue Terrace garden.

Here’s an outdoor living space we finished last year in Kirkland. I like how the mix of materials, colors and patterns make the space visually interesting and give it a lot of energy. The space looks great all year round and appears much bigger than it is. In fact, there are just a few plants – the columnar Aspen, evergreen Jasmine, and Creeping Jenny and Hops vine in the steel planter. The plants peaking over the top of the fence are borrowed landscape thanks to the neighbo

Recently, I was getting ready to leave a job site when the client came out and said her 5 year old son had something for me. I went inside and he gave me a ‘work order’ with a few things he wanted included in the garden. He let me know that he definitely didn’t want a chalkboard outside as he and his little sister already had one inside. However, he was adamant that we include a hot tub and soccer field in the plan. The picture at the bottom of his work order is a hot tub. W

We completed this entry courtyard last fall. I love its simple, graphic design. It will look fantastic every day of the year, offers a different experience when you enter and leave the courtyard, and is easy to maintain. The main feature is the basalt column and its polished, mirror-like top. Conceptually, I envisioned this as a tree that had fallen over in the forest and requires you to walk around it. It’s placement was carefully considered to greet visitors and to direct t

Here’s another picture of the "Contemporary Color" project that will posting on our website soon. This garden’s lounging area was featured last year in Seattle Magazine . Thanks to Alex Crook for the great images.

We’re updating our website soon with a new garden. Here’s a teaser. This garden overcomes many of the challenges we address when designing in-city gardens, challenges like: Sloping sites Maximizing small, disconnected outdoor spaces Creating multiples usable spaces within a small area Screening neighbors and creating privacy Creating visually rich gardens and outdoor living spaces that look great all year long – even in the dead of winter

Every year, we install one to two balcony, terrace or deck gardens where we can only access the space by going through our client’s home. We go to great lengths to protect our client’s home and property. Here is a project where we installed floor, wall and furniture protection before beginning work. See the broom and dust pan? We were constantly sweeping up. The client has a steel floor, so any small piece of renegade grit could scratch it. The finished space is gorgeous and

One of my favorite aspects of design is creating elements that have multiple functions. Here are a few pictures of a guardrail right after Marc finished the installation. The guard rail is made from galvanized panels of bar grate. In addition to being a needed guardrail for the concrete wall, the panels are also trellises for vines that will soon be planted at the bottom of the concrete wall — and for edibles (like string beans and tomatoes) that will be planted on the insid

Shortly after we finished installing this Mid-Century Madison Park backyard, the owner bought her dream house across the street and moved! The new owners promised they would not tear down the Mid-Century house, but a year later it’s gone. Sadly, these pictures are the only reminder of the great outdoor spaces we created…

One of my favorite elements that we designed and installed last year is this ring gate. It is fabricated from different diameters of aluminum rings that are welded together. To get the pattern of the design just right, Shane and Nelson cut PVC pipe rings and then made a mock-frame for the gate. We screwed the frame to a sheet of plywood and then started arranging the rings until we were happy with the layout. Next, we spray painted all the rings in place on the plywood — whic

At this beginning of the summer, a retired client in North Beach called and said she wanted to finish her garden. "What is she talking about?,” I thought to myself. We installed her front garden 4 years ago, so I knew that she wasn’t talking about that. Her side yards are narrow pass-through spaces that seemed fine to me. In her small back yard she already had a nice deck that was surrounded with bamboo which provided good privacy and ambiance. I scheduled a time to meet Conn