Landscape Consulting and Design

Good design and the right mix of plants can improve home value and make a real difference in quality of life. Even a small lot in an urban setting can be reworked to meet everyday needs: edibles, screening for privacy, or curb appeal. Many homeowners want to tackle overgrown plantings or scale back and simplify to a lower maintenance landscape, others want to get a handle on maintenance (when to prune, how to divide), while others want to make a garden and don't know where to start. As a professional horticultural designer, I work on both residential and commercial properties of all sizes and help find creative and practical solutions.

Here's how it works: we review your goals and budget at an initial meeting and site visit and then, depending on the scope of work, the visit is followed by a written evaluation report with recommended plants, information and resources - all great tools for you to move ahead with confidence and guided support. More complex projects involve concept sketches, design review meetings, nursery tours, final designs, plant lists, and collaboration with landscape professionals during installation. Site work and installation is usually referred to contractors active with the Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association.

Interested?  Let's talk:

Bio 

Charlotte is a freelance garden writer, designer, and public speaker. She studied botany and plant taxonomy at the U.S. National Arboretum, holds certificates in Horticulture and Landscape Design from the USDA Graduate School in Washington, D.C. and completed the Master Gardener program through Virginia Cooperative Extension.

She has been an education consultant to the American Horticultural Society and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, worked in public horticulture as an environmental educator, and was curator of the Pollinator Garden, a display garden designed as an outdoor classroom at the University of Vermont’s Horticulture, Education and Research Center in South Burlington for over ten years.

Her articles on gardening have appeared in The American Gardener magazine, Design New England, Seven Days, Vermont Life, and The Burlington Free Press, and can be found on the Houzz website. 

Through workshops and classes she explores the art of the garden and promotes sustainable landscape design through her talks and projects. To learn more about gardening in the Northeast, follow her on HOUZZ and on the website blog called Garden Journal.

Charlotte gives slide talks throughout the Northeast to garden clubs and the general public and has been a speaker at numerous symposia including the Maine Flower Show, Connecticut Flower Show, Vermont Flower Show, New England Landscape Symposium, Gardener’s Supply, Great Gardens & Landscape Symposium, Cleveland Botanical Garden, and the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Topics include horticulture and design, ecological landscaping, and great public gardens throughout the U.S. and abroad - see a list of subjects on the Talks page.