Landscape and Garden Design by Robert Kourik

Over my past 25 years as a gardener/landscaper/designer, I’ve masterminded projects ranging from intimate to enormous; these include edible landscapes and other custom landscape designs, water gardens, stone or brick paths and patios, arbors, habitat gardens, and playgrounds for home and barbecue areas, to name a few. Here’s a short list of some of my areas of particular expertise: 

 

Lavender Gardens

Lavender is truly a remarkable herb, with its delightful fragrance, glorious color, romantic history, medicinal/aromatherapeutic properties and effortless evocation of bygone eras.  After years of researching and working with lavenders in moderate climate zones, I can now design a garden where they bloom nearly every day of the year. Lavender plantings can be scaled to fit your needs, from sweepingly romantic vistas to small intimate herb gardens, from the pleasantly formal to the deliciously playful.

An intimate view of a garden with an emphasis on lavender. In the lower-right foreground is Lavandula ‘Munstead’. Above that, the Spanish lavender (Lavandula ‘Otto Quast’). To the left of the stone, the foliage of a late-blooming lavender – from the group of lavenders called lavandins (Lavandula x intermedia ‘White Spikes’).




California Flower Borders

These space-defining gardens combine attractive and colorful foliage with unrestrained splashes of seasonal color. A properly designed California border takes only a fraction of the effort needed to maintain a traditional English flower border. Plants from the Mediterranean basin, California, South Africa and Australia offer an abundance of options.

Deer-Resistant Gardens

With the careful selection of native and exotic plants (including lavender) you can actually allow deer to be an integral part of your landscape. If desired, I can also design an attractive four-foot-tall double-fence which not only keeps out deer, but avoids the concentration-camp look of typical eight-foot deer fencing. With so few natural predators remaining, the population of deer continues to grow, and deer-resistant gardens are becoming increasingly popular.

Ornamental/Edible Gardens

Such gardens provide fresh food, pleasing textures, fragrance and a wide array of flowers. You’ll be blessed with safe, fresh, and nutritious food — all in an attractive landscape with an abundance of color surrounding your home. My designs include gopher-proof raised beds, as well as plants which attract beneficial insects to prey upon destructive bugs. I also emphasize providing food and habitat for birds, butterflies, and other desirable garden fauna, including (if desired) harmless gopher snakes which “work for free” by combating the wily ground rat.

Eccentric Gardens

Deep inside, all of us have wild, spontaneous, curious and quirky thoughts and dreams. You can reveal and manifest these hidden creative impulses in the form of a unique garden. I’ll help you realize the form and installation of an eccentric landscape. Please note that I don't do windows, either kind.

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