What is a landscape design plan and how do I find a landscape designer?
Shelly Ann Abbott
And, the answer is…Meet our Sonoran Gardens Landscape Designers!
Sonoran Gardens works with the best landscape designers in Southern Arizona. Each month, I will blog about one of them to help our readers get to know them a little better. I am sure you will find a designer that suits your style and compliments your vision.
This month allow me introduce you to Shelly Ann Abbott:
Shelly Ann Abbott, MLA, is a multiple award winning landscape designer and Master of Landscape Architecture. She has won the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s Xeriscape Contest for 2010 and 2011 in the professional landscape category and is a 2011 ALCA landscape design award winner. Shelly graduated with Honors and a Design Excellence Award from the University of Arizona, and is held in esteem by the community for her high standards in residential landscape design and ethics for the community and the environment.
As a native Tucsonan, Shelly has a long-time understanding of the various microclimates and which plants have the potential to thrive and look fabulous in this hot arid climate. The desert is a place of uncommon beauty, but it can also be quite challenging to landscape. By using a large and varied plant palette that she has made her signature mark in the landscape design field, she has been able to instill her ethic of water conservation and appropriateness of place for Southern Arizona while creating exciting outdoor areas with colorful landscapes that contain year-round interest that help support local wildlife.
“I find that my clients take great pleasure in desert gardens that are breathtakingly colorful and interesting and that contain components that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Daytime temperatures in the desert quickly plummet after the sun goes down, especially in the summer. This is the special time when homeowners want to get outdoors and enjoy their landscape after dark. I love designing night lighting that allows homeowners to enjoy the excitement of their gardens at night too. I have a deep appreciation for landscapes that function as outdoor living spaces with outdoor kitchens, fireplaces and water features which become such great places to gather around and welcome friends and family to spend time”.
Shelly conducts residential landscape design workshops at The University of Arizona as adjunct lecturer in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, CALA. She regularly teaches classes at Tohono Chul Park on landscape lighting, cultural and historical landscapes throughout the world as they relate to Tucson, and designing gardens that attract native desert pollinators.
Shelly lives in the Tucson area with her husband, Brian, two girls and numerous animals.
Some examples of Shelly’s work:
