What to expect in Drift’s designs
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Softscaping is Drift’s core design service, with natural materials and permeable paths favored for hardscaping wherever possible. Designs include a plant list with recommended sizes based on experience with growth rate and establishment needs. For example, if a 4” pot catches up to a 3 gallon plant within 12 months, we take the economical route. Designs are scaled so that you can see the amount of space a fully grown plant will take up, and your plant list contains quantities for purchase.
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It’s one thing to draw a path on a plan, and it’s another to provide details on how much of what materials are needed to install the path. Drift offers the latter, and considers how the overall design materials work together with each other, the plant palette, and existing structures.
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Landscapes provide places of reprieve, interest, play, a setting for community, and add beauty to a home. They can also be built in a way that restores soil health, benefits native wildlife, attracts birds, reduces water runoff and the need for heavy irrigation. Your family’s habits, hopes, and concerns are heard before a concept is created.
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One way to bring seasons into your life is through perennial gardening. Texas native an adapted perennials and self-seeding plants really put on a show, with something of interest year-round. Drift’s gardens are built around seasonal interest, with successive blooms in growth season and interest for people and pollinators year round.
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Native and adapted plants do well because they want to be here! They also work for you by helping to control erosion, reduce watering needs once established, and bringing pollinators and critters for added garden interest. There is a myth circulating, though, that they’re no maintenance or xeric gardens. If you plant a garden full of native plants, you will still be a gardener. Seasonal consulting in spring and fall gives you a plan for maintaining and thoughtfully adding to your space. I aim for 70% native typically, with the confidence to design 100% native as well.
I garden and live in central Austin, but started my gardening journey in the country. I’ve lived on the Edward’s Plateau and Blackland Prairie, with and without deer! For the past seven years, I’ve been turning my entire city yard into a seasonal, layered garden. With a background in fine art photography, a degree in education, and over a decade designing, installing, and tending to my own gardens, I blend intuitive beauty with practical planning. (Marrying a farm kid didn’t hurt, either!) I love working with people who want to interact with their gardens, but feel overwhelmed by the process of realizing the potential of their outdoor space.
My planting style grew from two influences: the English cottage gardens illustrated in my childhood picture books and many years living in Washington state, and the naturalistic perennial plantings championed by Piet Oudolf. I found a new rhythm of gardening in Texas when I learned about my own soil’s prairie history and blended both approaches to plant design.
When not gardening, I love biking around Austin with my family, trail walking, and film photography.
Jen is a member of TNLA , landscape certified by Native Plant Society of Texas , and a G3 certified Watershed Wise Landscape Professional | Photo by Brio Photography