Since 2014 I have been involved off-and-on in some form of garden design and floral art, including photography, sculpting, building, and actual landscaping. Using my background in social work and passion for gardening, I have managed or contributed to community garden planning, design, and implementation at rehab centers, residential facilities, private residences, and public spaces in PA, KY, and WV.
As of 2025 I have begun taking commissions for design projects although I must be selective because I’m currently working independently/alone. While I can sculpt and plant and paint and build a few things like raised beds, there are other projects that I would need a team for, and I have to refer out. Here are some particularly artistic images of the work I’ve done over the years. I regret not keeping a formal portfolio of some of the things I’ve created, but when you have something you love doing like this, the love is in the doing, not in photographing it.
An old image from the very first community garden I helped plan at a residential facility in Kentucky. The adults with SPMI who lived there wanted a planter that was too heavy to be stolen or blow off the porch, and wanted a flower that “looked like roses.” We chose moss rose, or Portulaca, a vigorous annual that blooms from April until November. It was a big hit that year along with all the raised beds and community spaces we created. I’m surprised I still had this picture from so long ago.A close-up shot of a Darwin tulip. I have licensed this image a couple times.This was a crevice garden bowl composed only of Sedums and close relatives in its 6th year. I was asked to prune, divide, and keep it tidy every fall. It was such a meditative little project.A quail hutch I custom built in Pennsylvania located in shade garden among conifers I also designed and maintained.A polymer fairy garden sculpture I created for a friend, based on PJ Harvey song titles.A tabletop dry house for cactus plants that at the time (2017) could be built for under $100 plus labor. I sold several of these. Nowadays it would be at least double that.Cracked Buddha head repaired with metallic polymer clay. I had a client ask for 6 of these, but the white one was my favorite.These tall nodding allium were placed in a community garden walkway and one of the employees told me that they got more comments than anything else because of how they were placed. I still have the relatives of these plants which I imported from Europe a long time ago.Somebody wanted a square metal plaque painted in Zinnia colors to hang in the garden, done entirely in dots. This was the proof-of-concept that I created for myself, not weather proof. The final one I sold was 2 feet square and completely weather proof.A neat shot of a weed growing on my porch at sunrise.A shot of pigeon peas at various stages of ripeness. A seed catalog used this image.
Frog on the Porch 