This new home was built in an older, upcoming neighborhood near uptown Charlotte. The homeowners, who recently relocated from CA, met with me before putting an offer on the home, as they wanted to make sure the yard had potential to become a garden. Several challenges were immediately evident: the small front yard had drainage issues from street run-off, the backyard was transversed by an unsightly drainage ditch that ran parallel to the house, the side yard was only 5 feet wide and the homeowners wanted a path with plantings on both sides, and the soil was inferior. The clients wanted no turf except for an area in the very back of the backyard, so we set about to create an appropriate matrix planting of ornamental grasses, shrubs, perennials and specimen trees that spoke to the style of the home and grounded it into the landscape. The drainage ditch became a beautiful dry creek bed with a stone slab bridge. Wildlife-friendly plants attract beneficial insects and hummingbirds.