Creating and constructing a boutique hotel garden experience in the Houston Heights.

McDugald Steele Marks a Milestone in Houston Landscape Architecture

A helpful guide for selecting the best landscape architecture firm for your garden project.

While the aftermath of cold weather in a garden can be disheartening, many plants have a remarkable ability to bounce back with the right care. Here's a guide to post-snow and freeze plant recovery.

You might have heard some misconceptions about planting in the summer heat, but we believe that with the proper plant selection, bed preparation, and garden management, you can enhance your garden's beauty any time of the year. Below are a few simple tips to ensure your summer planting is successful.

The new landscape design of the unique 2 1/2 acre site was conceived as a part of a larger transformation of the home inspired by the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens. We worked in collaboration with the architect and interior designer to create gardens integrally tied to the home's architecture. A strong axis was created through the site from the front pond to the series of 'outdoor' rooms extending into the native planting beyond.

The pool was repositioned back into the garden to allow for the creation of a new raised courtyard, expressive of the English Country Garden style. This elevated garden terraces down to the pool and out to the lawn beyond. Close to the house are a series of outdoor rooms connected by curvilinear reclaimed cobblestone pathways often flanked by clipped and loosely relaxed plantings. Specimen trees were planted to call attention to different sections of the garden.

The goal was for the home to appear as if it had always been there. To soften the rough limestone exterior and to knit the home into the landscape, climbing vines were added to soften the connection to the lush plant masses on the ground plane.

Rustic timber gates reinforce the countryside theme while flowering star jasmine vines encapsulate the fencing resulting in a natural clipped hedge aesthetic.