At the Upstate Chapter’s monthly meeting in April 2025, Cheryl Brown—residential landscape architect and co-owner of Earth Design—walked us through the layered process of transforming a home landscape into a thriving, functional space rooted in native plant communities.
Cheryl outlined the design process from vision-setting to site analysis, sketching, and eventual installation. Her talk emphasized how understanding sun, slope, soil, and water flow leads to better-informed plant choices—choices that can adapt over time. She stressed the value of layered plantings and the use of local native species, with allowances for cultivars where appropriate. Along the way, she showed real-life examples from her design portfolio, highlighting how thoughtful hardscaping and phased planting can transform even the smallest, most degraded yards.
Her presentation also tackled practical challenges—like sourcing native plants, preparing a site with weeds or kudzu, and managing client expectations during the slow evolution of a living landscape. Cheryl closed by encouraging attendees to use available resources, from consultations to local nurseries to SCNPS plant lists, and to see native gardens as an ongoing, rewarding journey rather than a one-time project.
