Sometimes you can make a big difference with a small space.


Often I get asked, “Does Lotus Designs do smaller projects?”  YES, Lotus Designs proudly does big, little and everything in between.  

This home in Carthage is a good example. The backyard had a very simple, small, deck that was just large enough for a grill and one or two people.  Remodeling the deck, (we keep the old frame and boards where possible), we added a wrap around bench.  The deck was low and the bench greatly expanded the amount of seating capacity.  Also  added, were wide steps that bring you out to a welcoming dining and grill area.  

The yard was very narrow and the homes were close together.  Afternoon sun was also an issue.  By adding some shade trees, Native Red Maples, we added not only shade for the patio, but also eventual summer cooling for the house.  The trees also gave the yard a feeling of privacy and enclosure while still allowing the ability to see the adjacent wooded area behind.  We added lots of amendments to the soil, and the clients choose some colorful annuals to add to the flowering shrub beds. Once the annuals grew in, the transformation was as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  (after photo taken 3 months after installation)

Gratitude/Military Discount/A New Year

I have been blessed by an abundance of work this year!  And in reflection of the past few years when housing and landscape work was a little tougher to come by, I have to thank the several men and women in the military who gave me work and helped me through the recession.

 A few years ago I decided to give 15% off my design fee to those in the armed services and little did I know it would be a gift to us both.  

This multi-level deck and landscape shown here, was such job I designed about a winter ago. Last fall the client gracious sent me photos of what it looks like in the summer color. Thanks Walt and Angel, and thanks to all the others who continue to call.

A 5-minute video about our project at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Southern Pines.

GRANDMA’S FAVORITE STARGAZER LILIES View high resolution

GRANDMA’S FAVORITE STARGAZER LILIES

Seeing Through My Grandmother's Eye's

  • The following is an article that was published recently in the May edition of the Outreach Magazine that I wrote recently about my Grandmother and her love of flowers. Below the article is her picture.
  • Seeing through my Grandmother’s Eyes
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  • You sometimes never know the influence you might have on someone, or they on you.   Looking back over my life, I can see how my grandmother’s vision of a worthwhile life has become my own.
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  • My Grandmother never drove a car or lived in a big house.
  • She worked one year as a schoolteacher before getting married at 20. She was never famous, but in some circles, the name Christine Wolf was well known and respected. If you asked people who knew her, they’d say, “Christine was a cheerful, positive woman and accomplished gardener”.  My maternal Grandmother also, had a strong love for God and family and she made a mean German chocolate cake.  But, boy, she could garden. Like most people of her generation, she grew vegetables to help feed her family, but flowers were her passion.  My grandmother learned early on the joy of nurturing a tiny seed, into something big and beautiful. 
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  • I remember, my grand parents tiny, two bedroom house in Akron. The backyard was a small patch of grass with a picnic table, the rest of the 1 acre lot was a large garden.  The front and sides of the small house had so many flowers that by late June, that it took on the look of a Thomas Kincaid painting.
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  • I can’t remember my grandmother ever saying there was a flower she did not like, but then she was never one to speak ill of anyone. Maybe she added flowers to that belief.  If pressed for favorites she would say the “Double Delight Rose” for its two color blooms and wonderful fragrance and the aromatic Stargazer Lily.
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  • In the late 70’s both of us moved to NC.  My grandmother went to live in mountains, and I followed the horses to Southern Pines.  Whenever I went to visit her, she would take me around her small lot in Clyde and show me all her flowers.  She would take time telling me all their names and history.  I would listen patiently, genuinely admiring the bounty of blossoms, but my mind was more on that moist chocolate cake with the coconut icing I knew was inside.  To my surprise though, just a few years later, I got hit with the bug. The plant bug that is, and in 1987 I became a landscape designer. 
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  • My grandmother enjoyed my new occupation and our times together took on new meaning.  We toured gardens, shared our favorite plants, and poured over new catalogs. She would ask me in detail about the landscapes I was working on, quizzing me on my plant choices. When we ran across a friend or acquaintance she would proudly say, “This is my Granddaughter Gail she designs gardens, she got that from me.” I was proud too.
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  • My grandmother developed macular degeneration in her late 70’s and her eyesight gradually became so bad that she had to move back to Ohio. But shortly before she did, she received her biggest notoriety for her garden talents.  A passing reporter for the Asheville Times was so taken by Grams and her garden that he returned with a photographer.  The following Sunday she was the cover story for the Features page.
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  • In the last year of her life she was no longer able to care for plants.  So I tried to see things through her eyes. I started writing long letters chronicling what flowers were growing in my gardens, and describing what new and exciting plants were on the market.  I figured visitors would read the letters to her, and they did, over and over again, until the next letter came.
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  • In the Asheville Times article my grandmother said, “It doesn’t help to complain and growing things helps me stay cheerful.” When I find myself feeling down I remember that and I get back to the garden and grow. 
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My Grandmother, Christine Wolf with Blue Delphinium View high resolution

My Grandmother, Christine Wolf with Blue Delphinium

Revisiting a CCNC project View high resolution

Revisiting a CCNC project

CCNC landscape and spring notes

I recently had the pleasure of working again in a landscape that I designed 3 years ago. The client wanted to add a few more flowering shrubs to the existing flower border that includes hydrangeas, peonies, Knock Out Roses, as well as a variety of perennials. Though the majority of the plants were doing great, as always, some where overstepping their bonds. A few plants, salvia ‘May Night’ and Hollyhocks, (often a short lived perennial in the South), were languishing.  Interestingly I found different results on Knock Out Roses.  Plants in one bed were largely fine, while others in another seemed to be suffering with lots of stunted growth and dead wood.  The later bed was more exposed, I wondered if the fluctuations in temperature lately had caused a stunting on new growth as it can with annuals planted to early.

The lacebug on azaleas we well controlled here, I was happy to see.  But I have noticed A LOT of lacebug damage already on azaleas this year.  Though I recommend a light hand on using chemicals, this would be the year to knock them back with a systemic pesticide.

Back at CCNC-The house was finished in early fall of 2009 and now just 30 plus months later it is growing healthy and strong.  

Photo shows the left side and part of the back of the house.  The steep sloop was held with lawn and large stone steps repeat the stone used on the house and back wall. 

Lady Banks’ Rose Rendezvous Farm View high resolution

Lady Banks’ Rose Rendezvous Farm

Lady Banks’ Rose for Quick Shade

Arbors are great for dappled shade, but if more shade is needed consider the evergreen Lady Banks’ Rose.  It grows quickly and packs a beautiful display of fragrant blooms in the spring.  Flowers come in white or yellow, but I think the yellow shines the brightest.

Pruning  can be somewhat of a challenge for any arbor vine, but because Lady Banks’ does not die back every year, most people tend to train it up to the top of the arbor and let it rip.  Smaller applications for use, such as along fences or espaliered on a trellis, will yield considerable more pruning time.

Other good perennial choices I like for longer blooming interest are Trumpet vine,  and Fall clematis, (which blooms in late August).  My favorite for big showy flowers is the Mandevilla vine.  Though Mandevilla is largely an annual in NC, it is unmatched for in its duration of bloom set and can be dug up, and stored in a crawl space or garage,for use the following season.