About Owner, designer and general contractor with Queen Anne Gardens in business since 1988, Daniel enjoys helping a few residential clients per month create custom designs. He and his staff oversee, build and maintain select landscape designs. Daniel was the third landscape designer in Washington certified by the international organization Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD). He is the current National Communications Chair and editer of the Designer , APLD's quarterly journal. He has served as president of the Washington Chapter of APLD and is a mentor to fellow designers in the certification process.
Past Issues 20062005
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NEWSFeatured Garden Construction 2008The Stone is Laid into PlaceA gorgeous container, as tall as an adult, acts as the new sentinel greeter.
The first of the treasured pots was put into place at the center of the entry circle and suddenly all the colors in the garden appeared richer.
Distinctive Stonework Installed! JuneThe joinery on the border of the stone hardscape is known as mortise & tenon!
Once the pieces are adjusted into level position, with pegs for proper spacing, The heaviest work was done by machines. The slabs of stone, far beyond The next step in the stone work was to lay in the engraved "transition" stones
Stay tuned for more pictures!
The Stone Has Arrived! April-MayRusty Manchu Caviar Limestone,with pattern-perfect-design! One must just be ready for the unexpected! It is true that the stone arrived in Tacoma, however it is equally true that the Port of Tacoma closed in sympathy of the Trucker's Strike against high fuel costs the day before delivery. Delivery trucks, extra staff and alerts to neighbors hung in the balance with the hope that it was a one day strike! However that just means everything gets pushed off a day and the stone arrived with no Announcing an Exciting Collaboration!Queen Anne Gardens & Yellow Mountain StoneWorks combine talents for the second time to create BEAUTYThe f ounders of Yellow Mountain StoneWorks (YMSW) were the general contractors on the Portland Chinese Garden construction project. Using connections and expertise gained from that project, they began importing stone. Queen Anne Gardens used YMSW's stone for a terrace in Kirkland and when we began to design a local residential project on Queen Anne Hill we knew who could find us the stone and provide us with the engravings we wanted. The stone design plan view for the Queen Anne project is shown below.
The stone has recently been quarried in China and the project will break ground soon. A glimpse of a hardscape detail and raw materials are the first images of an on-going newspage feature. Come back every couple of weeks for more.
The arrangement of slab materials are examined to determine how to best show off the grain and the fossils. Below: A full size template printed on mylar allows precise manufacturing.
Using a digital model, a circular portion of the paving is viewed. It will be labeled and crated to ensure precise installation.
Off the stone schematic shown at the top of this story, which displays the front entry and corner pavilion hardscape, there is a change of elevation. Along the side of the house at the end of the southern sun garden, stairs lead down to the backyard. For the stairs we ordered stone steps from the same section of the quarry to retain a strong consistent and endemic feel for the stone hardscape. |
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The fine detail of the limestone puzzle pieces make this a beautiful project to watch unfold. Mortise and tenon is an ancient construction detail traditionally used in Chinese architecture where wood, typically beams, brackets, struts and framing were made to interlock without glues or fasteners. Our stones are laid as traditional sand set pavers with a fourth inch spacing, however the border displays the mortise and tenon joint as a design flourish. The mortise is a cavity typically cut into wood to receive a tenon or "key".
The central path is honed smooth and displays the rich color of the limestone, while the border is roughened in a lychee finish (referring to the texture of the shell of the lychee fruit), then the square hole (mortise) cut in the joints of the border are filled with a square peg (tenon) we call the key and the key's surface is honed smooth like the central path. 
all the border's square mortise are filled with the tenon-key. The alternating texture of the key and border pavers create the craftsmen flourish that accentuates the beauty of the richly colored central path. We also used the lychee texture on "transition" stones that lead into the garden (shown below). However before we placed the transition stones we needed to move the heavy stone steps.
what any of us would consider lifting, were cautiously removed from the packing crates and cradled into place by the muscle of a front-loader forklift and the guiding hands of our stone workers, to rise as steps from the entry walk to the upper SE terrace. The terrace will be surrounded by a dense border of plants on two sides. There will be the formal entrance by way of this path and an informal entrance through the garden. The terrace will provide a private place in the corner of the front yard where visitors can sit and visit in the garden or the garden owners can escape with a good book on a summer 
day. Here it appears to be a dirt pile and some oversized stones, 
but as it slowly comes together the design begins to show great promise. 
that lead from the formal walkways to the stepping stone paths. The stepping stones allow one to have a relaxed walk through the garden among the plants.
The homeowners chose three words to describe their connection with their garden and we had each word translated into the corresponding Chinese symbol and engraved one 
word onto each of the three transition stones. The symbols engraved on the transition stones from above right, across to the left, respectively, are representations of the words "RESPECT", "HARMONY", and "EARTH". Each of the transition stones was textured with the lychee finish and a small section was given the smooth finish for the engraved symbol. 
extra glitches on a Saturday! The flatbed super truck was deftly unloaded by the all-terrain fork-lift and the stone found its way down to the narrower street below to rest under the old conifer in the garden-in-waiting. Lovingly watched over by the
Fu Dogs (or dragon-dog-lions as the family calls them) the paving awaits their turn in the installation process. Then the art of puzzle-making begins, as each piece is unwrapped and fit into its proper space. There are always a few adjustments to be made on sight, yet because the stone was specially cut and arranged before it was shipped any changes need to be strategic and inventive! 
Stay Tuned! 
them. This year however sends a couple of our gardens into the world of HIGH Fashion! Perhaps even more prestigious we have been spotlighted in the world of Foot Toggery! You may scoff, but it is in the detail shot that the true character of a garden is revealed and we have always claimed that our gardens can be photographed 
en-- a walled garden alley flanked with flower beds leading to a water court featuring a range of water basins on an interlocking plan-- is often thought of as an attempt to regain Eden. Ancient and sacred Egyptian gardens had ponds, papyrus, flowers and vegetables. Design plans for elaborate gardens are represented schematically in ancient tomb drawings. 
