How to Choose a Landscape Designer in Newport, RI
Updated: 7 hours ago
Here, the pool, the stone, the wood and the garden are one idea. What I would look for in the person who draws it, and builds it.
On this island, a landscape is never one thing. The pool sits inside a stone terrace, the terrace meets a pergola, and the pergola looks out over gardens that have to live with salt wind. If you are choosing someone to design your property in Newport, Middletown or Portsmouth, the real question is whether all of it will be drawn as one idea and built as one project.
Start on the land
A good design begins on the land, not at a desk. I walk a property several times before I draw it: where the water goes after a storm, where the ledge sits under the lawn, which trees are worth keeping, where the wind comes through in February. The drawing that comes out of those walks should show water, stone, wood and planting together on one plan, so you can see how the pieces meet before anything is built.
Ask who will build it
Plans are half the work. The other half is who stands on the site every day while the plan becomes a place. On many projects a pool company digs the pool, a stone crew arrives later, a carpenter builds the pergola and a nursery plants last. Each can be excellent. What gets lost is the seam between them: the step where the coping meets the patio, the drain that has to pass under the wall, the tree whose roots will one day reach the pool shell.
Here, the same team draws the property and builds it. I draw the plan and I am on site with our crew while it is built, so when a boulder turns out bigger than expected, or the ledge is not where the survey said, the design adjusts on the spot rather than in a change order. I started as a gardener at sixteen and learned stone walls by building them. Building is how I learned to design.
Building is how I learned to design.
Design for the coast
On the coast, every gap in coordination shows. Salt air is hard on materials picked from a catalog, thin soil over ledge dries out fast, and much of the shoreline falls under the Coastal Resources Management Council. Look for a designer who plans within those setbacks from the first sketch, chooses native and regional stone and coastal-grade wood and hardware, and puts the water to work in the garden rather than piping it toward the shore.
Questions worth asking
Whoever you talk to, a few questions will tell you most of what you need to know. Who will be on site every day, and did that person help draw the plan? Where will the water go, from the roof, the terrace and the pool? Who is responsible where the pool, the stone and the planting all meet? And what guarantee comes with the finished work?
A little about our work
Our gardens have earned two Silver Awards from the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association, several Newport Flower Show honors including a People's Choice Award, and the 2026 Preservation Society of Newport County Laurel Award for Horticulture, for the rain garden at Marble House. Every installation is backed by a lifetime workmanship guarantee. We work across Aquidneck Island, Jamestown, Little Compton and Southeastern Massachusetts. More about the studio. Or see our landscape design work.
Beginning your project
The best time to start designing is the fall or winter before the season you want to enjoy your yard. Call me at 401-619-1607 or request a consultation.
Comments