I grew up on a ranch in the Flint Hills of Kansas, where the land was my first classroom. Long before I knew words like composition or negative space, I was watching how evening light hit limestone walls, how deer trails carved natural flow through tall grass, and how the horizon framed everything into something quietly beautiful.

That way of seeing never left me.

After a 35-year career and years of designing and building gardens for myself and others, I made a deliberate choice to do this full time. Not as a contractor, but as an artist whose canvas happens to be alive.

Intentional Gardens is a boutique design, build, and maintain practice based in Washington D.C. I work with a small number of clients at a time, by intention. Every project receives my full attention, from the first conversation to the finished garden and through every season that follows.

What makes this practice different is the process. I bring a painter’s eye to every space, drawing on years of studying compositional principles in art and landscape. But before I ever put pencil to paper, I listen. I want to understand how you live, what you value, and what you hope to feel when you step outside. That becomes the foundation everything else is built on.

The result is a garden that is not just functional or beautiful, but unmistakably yours.