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By Joshua Tripp, Landscape Architect, ASLA Last updated: July 2026 Drive the grade from downtown Coeur d'Alene up toward Canfield Mountain or the ridges above Hayden Lake and you can watch landscaping fail in real time: bluegrass lawns burning out on south-facing slopes, ornamental beds shredded by deer, retaining walls leaning after two freeze-thaw winters. Most of it was installed by competent crews. It fails anyway, because it was designed for a Spokane-suburb lot and inst

By Joshua Tripp, Landscape Architect, ASLA Last updated: July 2026 Most homeowners in Bonner and Kootenai counties make the same mistake at the nursery: they pick what looks good in a container in May — ornamental grasses from Oregon, landscape roses bred for the Midwest, non-native shrubs that wilt the first August they skip a watering. Six months later, those plants are either dead or demanding attention every week. The plants that actually belong here — the ones that grew

By Joshua Tripp, Landscape Architect, ASLA — PLACE Landscape Architecture Last updated: July 2026 If you own — or are about to buy — lakefront property in Sandpoint, here is the single most useful thing a landscape architect can tell you: on Lake Pend Oreille, the permit map is the site plan. Wetland boundaries, shoreline setbacks, and encroachment jurisdiction decide where the house sits, where the path to the water goes, what the shoreline looks like, and what your dock can

By Joshua Tripp, Landscape Architect, ASLA — PLACE Landscape ArchitectureLast updated: June 2026 "How long will this take, and what exactly happens along the way?" It's the first question most clients ask, and the honest answer is that a landscape architecture project moves through a defined sequence of phases — each with its own deliverables, decisions, and timeline. Understanding that sequence up front is the best way to keep a project on schedule and on budget, because mos

By Joshua Tripp, Landscape Architect, ASLA — PLACE Landscape ArchitectureLast updated: June 2026 North Idaho's lakes are the reason people build here. Lake Pend Oreille, Lake Coeur d'Alene, Hayden Lake, Priest Lake — waterfront on any of them is among the most valuable, and most heavily regulated, residential ground in the state. Designing the landscape for a lakefront property here is a different discipline from ordinary residential design. The waterline is a regulatory boun