When a Bainbridge Island client approached her about working on the home they were building to reflect their lifelong passion for art and environmental sustainability, Hoda Sheikh, founder and owner of Lotus landscapes & Arboriculture, took up the challenge of creating a landscape and outdoor living space that could live up to the legacy. Where many designers might have planted an expanse of lawn, and paved over areas, or dug up indigenous plants, Hoda looked at the property not as a blank canvas, but one where the natural landscape had already begun to paint the picture.

This presentation will explore how the future of sustainable outdoor living will focus on the protection of natural resources over the creation of artificial spaces. Using the Legacy House as a case story, Hoda will take you through the process she uses in intentional landscape design, digging deep into several of her innovative solutions on this shoreline project, including how she and her team protected old growth trees and their root systems from construction stress, reused old plants, transplanted and acclimated plant materials and introduced new ones; enhanced on-site ecosystems, made best use of xeriscapes for water conservation and shoreline restoration; and smartly utilized rainwater collection and natural fertilizers.