Native gardendesign
Woodland edges, meadows and rain gardens planned from your soil and your light. Every plant on the list has a reason, a size at year five — and a plan for the deer, who read our lists too.
Native gardens · hand-set stone · year-round care — Asheville, N.C.
Built atground level.
We work on our knees, in the understory, with plants that were here before the house. Then we come back every season to keep it that way.
Book a site walk — $240 →Field footage · Pisgah understory, May
Field note 001 · how we start
Most gardens aredrawn from a deck chair.Ours start on our knees.
A soil probe, a wet knee and one question: what does this ground want to grow? Then we plant that — and talk you out of the lawn you'll mow every Saturday for no reason.
- 14 winters in the Blue Ridge
- 320+ gardens built and tended
- 81% native plants by count
@plugs 212 ferns in one afternoon. We count.
@stone Every stone lifted twice: once to try it, once to set it.
@trowel Every hole one hand wider than the pot. Roots notice.
Stone, steps& walls
Local fieldstone, dry-laid by hand. No mortar to crack in a freeze — our walls settle, green over and get better with age.
Fire circles& outdoor rooms
Flagstone floors, low seat walls and a fire pit sized to your people — placed where the evening light actually lands. Marshmallow sticks not included. (They are.)
Weaverville rain garden · same bed
Day one.Year two.
We plant small and close. It looks like a vegetable patch for one summer — then the natives knit together and the mulch disappears.
- Watering stops after the first summer
- Four inches of rain, basement dry
- Bees on it by the second July
Recent ground
Twelve months, six gardens, one crew. Every one of them is still on our care calendar. Drag or scroll →
Pisgah Edge Woodland
Understory planting · 212 plugs
Lantern Path
Stepping stones · lighting
Beaverdam Terrace
Dry-stack walls · 140 ft
Weaverville Rain Garden
Stormwater basin · 38 species
Fern Stair
Stone steps · shade planting
Four visits beforethe first plant.
Walk
Ninety minutes on site with a soil probe. We read water, light and what's already volunteering.
Draw
A hand-drawn plan with every species and why it's there. Two rounds of changes included.
Build
Stone first, soil second, plants last — in the seasons when roots can settle.
Tend
The same crew returns each season and leaves a short note on what changed.
Care that stays.
Native gardens get easier every year — if someone edits them at the right moments. That's us, with the same crew every visit.
Four Seasons
$1,480/yr
- 4 crew visits
- Field note after each
- First call on planting slots
Most gardens pick this
Keeper
$260/mo
- Monthly, March–November
- $300/yr plant replacements
- Stone & path checks
Reset
$420 once
- Half day, two gardeners
- Overgrown bed brought back
- Written plan to keep it
What clients say
“It rained four inches the week they finished. The steps held, the rain garden filled, and the basement stayed dry for the first time in ten years.”
“They talked us out of a wall we didn't need, then built the one we did.”
“Our fire circle is the only room in the house everyone fights over.”
Before we walk
Do you only plant natives?
About 80% by plant count. We'll keep a heritage shrub you love — and never plant anything on North Carolina's invasive list.
When can you start?
Site walks year round. Planting happens March–May and September–November; stone work runs all year unless the ground is frozen.
Where do you work?
Buncombe, Madison, Henderson and Transylvania counties.
What does a garden cost?
Most design-and-build projects land between $12,000 and $45,000. A single meadow or rain garden can start around $6,500.
Walk the landwith us.
Ninety minutes, a soil test and a page of notes you keep either way. $240, credited to your plan if we build.
(555) 0142walk@fernhollow.exampleYard in West Asheville · by appointment