A born and raised Austinite, Erin grew up surrounded by Texas native plants. This love of nature took her to Colorado where she got her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2015. Now, with an awakened interest in landscape design, she’s found her way back to Austin and to Native Edge’s door. After working as our customer concierge for close to 2 years, she has recently been promoted to Jr. Designer. Her local area knowledge, as well as her customer service and writing experience all make her a valuable new addition to the team. If you can’t find her volunteering at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center you may find her outside collecting bugs for her pet mantis, “Chimichurri”.
These homeowners came to us with a solid foundation to go on, but wanted the space to be more practical for their lifestyle while still being a little eclectic. They had just completed a recent landscape job with a previous firm, but wanted to add some important finishing touches to fully encompass what they had… Read More »Brentwood Beauty
These homeowners came to us with the desire to turn their basic grass lawn into a fun hangout space. In the new design, they wanted a large patio, a gathering place for a fire pit, native plantings, outdoor lighting, and a grassy area to accommodate yard games and the family dog all while addressing some… Read More »South Austin Suburban Sanctuary
Located in downtown Georgetown, this family transformed their front yard into a wildflower wonderland! They envisioned a welcoming entrance with seating and native landscaping to host both guests and pollinators on their property. They wanted to ditch their grass yard in favor of colorful native plants that would create a charming scene for friends and… Read More »Georgetown Wildflower Wonderland
The reasons in which plants benefit from rainwater are vast and at times complicated, to the point where one could write a dissertation on the subject. Seemingly, the basics are simple, but if you are the curious type this article may leave you with more questions than answers. Hopefully, not too many questions. Nonetheless,… Read More »Why Do Plants Prefer Rainwater?
Sticky weed, sticky willy, bedstraw, or velcro plant as it’s otherwise lovingly referred to is actually called Galium aparine. “Galium comes from the Greek word ‘gala’ or milk referring to some species of Galium ability to curdle milk” and aparine, also derived from Greek, means “to seize” or “cling”. (1) Both qualities make sticky weed a surprisingly useful and menacing plant. Sticky weed is native to vast… Read More »Sticky Weed Worry
If you’ve ever traveled up North you may have noticed a significant difference in the style of trees you typically find there compared to down here in the lone star state. Conifers are very popular in colder and higher elevations due to their resiliency to those extreme conditions.However, not all conifer species have adapted to… Read More »Our top 5 Texas Conifers
Plants are living things, and just as we grow throughout our lives, so do they. Aside from the rewarding experience of watching your yard begin to flourish, planting immature plants is a cheaper and more effective way to acclimate your plants to their surroundings. However, this should come with the understanding that your landscape may look more barren than you were hoping for during the initial stages, and… Read More »Time Is Money
This couple had just built a new house on the outskirts of Austin and were in need of some new landscaping to go with it. For their large slopped yard they wanted limestone boulders to break up the space and keep it natural while a flagstone patio and fire pit could be the fun focal point to the design.
Concrete is a material landscape architects are all too familiar with. Highways are built with it, downtown depends on it, even features that don’t have concrete as the main focal point will often use it somewhere for structural support. However, I want to talk about concrete and its aesthetic achievements. Long past are the days when a concrete patio was just… Read More »Our Top Ten Concrete Finishes
This past month as I was skimming through the vast catalogues of pinterest boards and landscape portfolios I came across a simple, but wonderfully executed, blog called Drawn to Garden by Erin Lau. After looking through her website I felt compelled to try out my artistic chops and create a perspective drawing (shown below) following the guide she laid out in her blog… Read More »Putting Practice Into Perspective
