FEATURED · A three-oak garden on Blackland clay
2024 · Preston Hollow
A three-oak garden on Blackland clay
A southern-axis terrace drawn under three mature live oaks; planting weighted to Gulf muhly and inland sea oats.
RICHARDSON, TX · DESIGN & BUILD · 20+ YEARS IN DFW
Landscapes rooted in the place they're built.
Residential design and construction across Dallas/Fort Worth, anchored in the soils, species, and climate of north-central Texas.
PLACE · THE GROUND WE WORK
Dallas sits at the seam of two distinct ecosystems — the Blackland Prairie to the east, the Cross Timbers to the west — stitched together by alkaline clay soils and the climate of USDA zone 8a through 8b. We design inside this place, not onto it. Live oak, post oak, eastern red cedar, and the grama grasses teach us what survives here; Lueders limestone and pea gravel are the hardscape the region was already making of itself before we arrived.
DESIGN
Where the project starts. Drawings, materials, plants vetted against the 2021 freeze record — the full picture before any dirt moves.
FEATURED · Three-oak garden, Highland Park
BUILD
Where the ground takes shape. Limestone, mortar, irrigation, planting — executed by one Principal with named collaborators on record.
FEATURED · Limestone terrace, Preston Hollow
PORTFOLIO · SELECTED WORK
Houses, gardens, rooms outside.
FEATURED · A courtyard in Lueders limestone
2023 · Highland Park
A courtyard in Lueders limestone
A mid-century restoration on a narrow lot; mortar chemistry revised post-Uri; planting anchored to Texas mountain laurel.
FEATURED · A Cross Timbers garden on sandy loam
2024 · Prosper
A Cross Timbers garden on sandy loam
Post-oak canopy and sideoats grama on Woodbine sandstone; irrigation manifold relocated under a south-facing eave at rough-in.
FEATURED · A post-Uri rebuild on a 1952 lot
2022 · University Park
A post-Uri rebuild on a 1952 lot
A full replant and manifold relocation after the 2021 freeze, specifying escarpment live oak where the borderline palms had failed.
FEATURED · A rear garden answering a modernist house
2023 · Lakewood
A rear garden answering a modernist house
Pennsylvania bluestone against Lueders, a canopy of southern live oak, ground plane held low under the kitchen sightline.
FEATURED · A corner lot at the Blackland–Cross Timbers seam
2024 · Frisco
A corner lot at the Blackland–Cross Timbers seam
A planting palette sized to the soil transition, not an HOA specimen plan; irrigation zoned across two distinct ecoregions.
PROCESS · SIX PHASES
From first conversation to finished garden.
01
First Conversation
What you’re trying to make; what the land will allow. One of the three Principals — Jeffery Riddle, Hayden Davenport, or Tyler Bigham — takes this call directly.
02
Site & Story
Where you are in DFW, what lives there already, what the post-Uri ground told us, how the microclimate behaves across the calendar year.
03
Design
Drawings, samples, the full picture before any dirt moves. Plant choices vetted against the 2021 freeze record; irrigation planned for zone 8a–8b with freeze-event protection detailed here, not retrofitted later.
04
Plans & Permits
Engineering, permitting, credentialed sign-off. License numbers on record. [OPERATOR: specific TCEQ LI, TMCNP, TNLA credentials per Principal.]
05
Build
Construction under one Principal with [OPERATOR: named collaborators per D-15] on record. Resilience decisions — freeze-hardened irrigation manifolds, sheltered microclimate placements — executed in this phase, not discovered during it.
06
Handoff & Warranty
A garden that’s yours, terms in writing. Plant performance reviewed at one-year and three-year marks; post-Uri resilience data flows back into the next project’s Site & Story phase.
RESILIENCE · POST-URI PRACTICE
In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri changed how we build.
We rebuilt our planting lists, moved our irrigation manifolds, and changed how we spec stone and mortar. Resilience is a build decision now, not a warranty claim afterward.
PLANTS
What we stopped specifying, what we now specify, and what we watch for in the first freeze window.
Queen palms and Japanese pittosporum off the working list; escarpment live oak (Quercus fusiformis) and eastern red cedar carry the evergreen register where borderline specimens failed in February 2021.
IRRIGATION
Where we moved valves and manifolds after Uri, how we insulate and drain for freeze events, how we stage restart in spring.
Manifolds relocated under south-facing eaves instead of exposed garage walls; brass-body autofills with drain ports replace plastic-body economy fittings; every low run carries a dead-man clearout.
MATERIALS
Which stone, mortar, and fixture selections we changed — what failed visibly in Uri and what proved resilient.
Lueders limestone at structural thickness; a lime-rich Type N mortar named on the detail rather than left to the trade default; IP66-rated pool-deck electrical instead of wrapped standard sillcocks.
PROCESS
How we sequence build stages to carry freeze-readiness through construction, and how we document for future freeze events.
Site & Story freeze-exposure notes drive manifold siting; the foreman runs a weekly resilience checklist signed off before the next phase; one-year and three-year walkthroughs feed observations forward.
FIELD NOTES · RECENT WRITING
What we're reading in the ground this season.
FIELD NOTE · A note on the February 2021 freeze, five years on
RESILIENCE · FEBRUARY 2026
A note on the February 2021 freeze, five years on
By Jeffery Riddle
FIELD NOTE · Specifying limestone on Blackland Prairie sites
PLACE · NOVEMBER 2025
Specifying limestone on Blackland Prairie sites
By Hayden Davenport
FIELD NOTE · Why we plant after we pave
PRACTICE · SEPTEMBER 2025
Why we plant after we pave
By Tyler Bigham
CLIENT REFLECTIONS
“The courtyard holds shade from the live oaks through late August, and the Lueders limestone still reads the warm tone it read the day we moved in. After Uri we lost half the old garden. The new one has held since.”
Margaret K. · Preston Hollow · 2024
More client reflections →BEGIN A PROJECT
Start with a conversation.
You'll speak with Jeffery, Hayden, or Tyler — the three Principals. Expect a real conversation, not an intake form triaged to a sales team. Typical duration: thirty to forty-five minutes.