Over the years, Brian’s career has included many diverse opportunities from nurseries and public gardens to home construction and remodeling. The knowledge he gained through these experiences equipped him to open his own company, BL Landscapes. The business only has six employees currently, most of which are Brian’s immediate family members. Though small in number, the quality and scale of their work rivals even the biggest companies in the industry. “Quality without compromise” is their motto, and it’s obviously something they take to heart.
A customer contacted Brian a few years ago with the desire to complete a large landscaping project on her property. “When we start meeting with a new client, we have to take what they want and what their dreams are and we have to fine-tune that until we reach where their dreams and where their budget meets,” says Brian. This particular customer had a lot of big dreams and a large area to work with, which allowed Brian’s imagination to run free. Putting his ideas into a proposal with the expectation to have to downsize for budgetary limitations, he was pleasantly surprised when the client told him to proceed as designed. “What happened is I gave them a big scope for a lot of really imaginative things and she basically just said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Brian added.
The initial phase included the firepit construction, a seating area, roughly an acre of landscaping, pathways and the water feature. Like many projects, this one required some changes to be implemented after construction had begun. The original water feature design, for instance, was changed to flow around the firepit area to create more of an island feel. “We presented [the change] to the client after we had already broken ground and she loved the idea,” says Brian.
The process of selecting plants for the landscape design started with finding the client’s likes and dislikes regarding colors, personal aesthetic preferences and if there are any plants to avoid due to allergies. “We have a pretty vast knowledge about plantings and what works and what doesn’t in our area especially. I will walk through our nursery and kind of pick out everything that I think will work well together. We like to layer things. We like to have different textures and different colors and really try to provide year-round interest. Throughout the year, there are things that are blooming. It never really has any length of time where it gets stagnant or boring,” Brian shares.
With a style described as “eclectic Northwest,” Brian likes to incorporate unique and unexpected plantings that also complement one another. He says, “We like to do a lot of random things that are maybe a little bit out of the ordinary but that work well together.” For this location, he chose a spectrum of beautiful colors, including the greens, reds and golds of the Karl Foerster Feather Reed grass, Japanese Blood grass and Mexican Feather grass. The Japanese and Sunset maples add some height and vibrance to draw the eye upward, while Russian sage, rosemary, and lavender, along with a plethora of other plants, add interest and depth to the lower areas. While BL Landscapes usually offers a year of maintenance services on projects of this size, Brian’s ultimate goal is for the design to require minimal long-term upkeep for the homeowner.
As phase one was being completed, the client approached Brian with the desire to add a vegetable garden. Taking into consideration the local wildlife, he knew the design would have to be deer and rabbit-proof. Sketching out ideas, he came up with a fenced-in, raised-bed garden that is consistent in appearance with the existing features of the property. The client purchased a high-quality shed kit from Wayfair, which Brian’s team constructed and added to the space. The cohesiveness of the addition makes it feel like it was a part of the original design all along.
The project wasn’t without its challenges, however, with the biggest issues being groundwater and rain runoff. The client’s house sits lower on the property so during the initial construction phase, Brian’s team installed a French drain system in an attempt to prevent standing water. After landscaping was added, the water was trapped at the end of the water feature with nowhere to flow. To alleviate this issue, a large section of the garden had to be torn out and a French drain system was extended past the existing landscaping.
Another issue that Brian faced was string algae growth in the water feature. Due to the surface area and the amount of direct sunlight it got each day, the conditions were perfect for the algae to multiply. Brian says, “[It] was something we hadn’t really dealt with before, even after all of these years of doing water features. It was definitely a huge challenge.” He used trial and error to try to find a permanent solution to the problem. The algae was eventually removed by adding an ionizer to the water. “[Ionizer] completely eradicated all the string algae in the system,” says Brian. “It was really nice because it was a totally organic cure for the problem. It didn’t involve any chemicals. [The water feature] just runs and runs all year round, even in the winter, and we have no more problems with the string algae.”
Although the project began four years ago and has been done in phases, the total time BL Landscapes actually spent on the job site is only about five months. With additions over the years like landscape lighting, a playground area, garden expansions and a pathway upgrade from gravel to pavers, the property continues to evolve in beauty and functionality to meet the changing needs of the customer and her family. Customer satisfaction is BL Landscapes’ top priority and even with the unexpected challenges, they were successfully able to make their client’s dream come true.
Brian Linson
Owner of BL Landscapes
Phone: (360) 632–7121
www.bllandscapeswhidbey.com