Colleen Miko, owner of the Pacific Northwest’s Colleen’s, a Landscape Design Company, has one of her garden designs featured in the current issue of Organic Gardening Magazine. In the interest of full disclosure I’m glad to say that Colleen also happens to be my cousin through a couple of fortunate marriage links in the family. She’s received well-deserved regional notice for her landscape work, but this is her first national print exposure. (Edit, May 19: Anyone with access to cable might have seen her on TV earlier, when she was the finalist in HGTV’s Landscaper’s Challenge program.)

Rah Colleen!

Here’s a peek at one of the spaces in her design. I like how the gently symmetrical plantings helps focus attention on the water feature. In other gardens, fountains and other focal points sometimes feel too small for the spaces they’re allotted. But Colleen’s strategy here gives greater visual weight to the burbling water and the area around it. The whiff of symmetry also brings visual calm that complements the calming sound of water. I’d love to spend some time in this space on a warm afternoon with a glass of Northwest riesling.

Pick up the June/July issue and see more of her work!

And be sure to pop over to Colleen’s website, where you’ll find other examples of her designs, as well as instructions on how to build this fun birdhouse with a green roof.