Growing up in Prince Edward County in rural Ontario has profoundly influenced my personality, my philosophy and my work. I spent much of my childhood playing in farm fields, fencerows, and forests and I became fascinated with these environments as I got older. I began to learn and closely observe their rhythms, moods, and characters. This curiosity and love of wild places is what inevitably led me to study landscape architecture at the University of Guelph.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree With Distinction from the University of Guelph in 2014. Over the course of my four years at Guelph, and one semester studying abroad in Oxford, I developed a passion for exploring the culturally and ecologically enriching capacity of landscape architecture. I found that a particular niche within the profession - landscape design based on richly layered, naturalistic planting - created landscapes that, while obviously designed, had the same character, atmosphere, and dynamism of the wild places of my childhood.

I began studying the leading proponents of this design movement, most notably Piet Oudolf, whose planting on New York's famous High Line park was a revelation for me as a student. This process of discovery introduced me to contemporaries of Oudolf's like Dan Pearson, James Hitchmough, Nigel Dunnett, Sarah Price, Tom Stuart-Smith, and Adam Woodruff among others. I've since visited gardens designed by these leading practitioners all over England, the US, and Europe, attended conferences and lectures, and continued the learn and develop the expertise that now informs my work.

Wild by Design is guided not only by my passion for plants and naturalistic planting design, but also by the desire to create gardens and landscapes that provide people with the same simple delights and pleasures as the wild rural landscapes of Prince Edward County provided for me.

Associations and Memberships

Affiliate Member - Ontario Association of Landscape Architects

Professional Member - Ecological Landscape Alliance

Member - North American Native Plant Society

Member - North American Rock Garden Plant Society

Member - Toronto Botanical Garden