Lavender
Lavandula × intermedia 'Provence'
Silver all year, purple and humming with bees all summer. Wants sun, sharp drainage and to be left alone.
Now booking fall planting · Asheville
Gardens that belong to the foothills.
Landscape design and build for Asheville, Hendersonville and Black Mountain. One studio from the first sketch to the season it fills in, planted to thrive on less water every year after.
- NC Lic. #9105491
- 16 years in the foothills
560+Gardens designed & built
4.9Average Google rating
139Reviews from neighbors
16Years in Buncombe County
This season
What we're doing in the garden right now.
Foothill gardens run on a calendar. Here's what each season is for, and the best time to get on ours.
March – May
Spring is for color and a clean start.
The garden wakes up fast out here. We get irrigation ready before the first hot week and put in the plants that carry color through July.
- Restart and tune every drip zone, emitter by emitter
- Three inches of fresh mulch before the heat arrives
- Plant summer bloomers: salvia, lavender, penstemon
- Clean up frost damage and shape shrubs by hand
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
June – August
Summer is for evenings outside.
Nobody wants to install a lawn in July. Summer is when we light gardens, build shade and get yards ready for fire season.
- Low-voltage lighting installs and warm-white upgrades
- Controllers reprogrammed for heat waves: deep, infrequent water
- Pergolas, shade sails and patio extensions
- Defensible-space cleanup on the first five feet around the house
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
September – November
Fall is the best time to plant.
Warm soil, cool air and winter rain on the way. Plants put in now root all winter and take off in April, using a fraction of the water.
- Natives and shrubs planted while the soil is still warm
- Lawn-to-garden conversions, timed for the rains
- Aerate and overseed the lawn you're keeping
- Spring bulbs in the ground by Thanksgiving
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
December – February
Winter is for building.
Plants are asleep, so it's the right time for patios, walls and paths, and for designing what goes in come spring.
- Patios, retaining walls and paths while beds are dormant
- Drainage fixes: we watch where the first big storm goes
- Bare-root roses and fruit trees
- Design season: get on the spring install calendar early
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Services
Everything outside the back door.
Design, build and care under one license, with one crew that knows your yard. Tap any service to start a quote.
Landscape design
Site walk, measured base plan, hand-drawn concepts and a full planting plan you can build at once or in phases.
Get a quotePatios & hardscape
Pavers, flagstone, concrete and decomposed granite, laid on a compacted base that won't heave in our clay soil.
Get a quotePlanting & sod
Amended soil, plants sized for where they'll be in five years, and sod rolled onto graded, firmed ground.
Get a quoteDrip & irrigation
Zoned drip for beds, matched rotors for turf and a weather-smart controller you can run from your phone.
Get a quoteOutdoor lighting
Warm low-voltage LED path, tree and step lights on a timer, so the garden glows on its own every evening.
Get a quoteDrought-tolerant yards
Lawn conversions and water-wise gardens built on Carolina native plants that thrive on less.
Get a quoteRetaining walls
Block and natural stone walls with drain rock and fabric behind them, engineered when the height calls for it.
Get a quoteSeasonal maintenance
Monthly or quarterly visits: hand pruning, drip checks, mulch top-ups and a controller reset each season.
Get a quoteThe design-build journey
From a sketch on trace to the summer it fills in.
Four stages, one studio, one foreman. Tap a stage to see what you get at each step.
01Concept sketch · drawn by hand on site
Concept sketch
Daniel walks the site with you, then draws two or three directions by hand. Cheap to change, quick to decide.
Weeks 1–23D plan
The chosen idea becomes a measured plan and a 3D model you can walk through, with every plant and material named.
Weeks 3–5Build
Our own crew: grading, drainage, base rock, hardscape, irrigation, lighting, then planting. Same foreman, first day to last.
2–6 weeks on siteGrow-in
We tune the drip, replace anything that sulks and come back at 30, 90 and 365 days. Year two is when it really shows.
The first year
BeforeAfter
Before & after
A front yard that finally drains.
This Biltmore Forest lawn died every August, the sprinklers watered the sidewalk, and every storm ran toward the garage. We regraded, rebuilt the irrigation and gave the beds their own drip zone.
- Where
- Biltmore Forest, Asheville
- On site
- 9 working days
- Scope
- Regrade, drip + rotors, sod, boulder beds
- HOA
- Plans submitted & approved by us
More recent gardens
Tap a photo to see it larger.
Drought-tolerant palette
Plants that shrug off a foothill summer.
Six workhorses we plant again and again from 1,000 feet at Lake Lure to 2,200 feet in Brevard. Filter by what matters in your yard.
6 of 6 plants
Rosemary
Salvia rosmarinus
Upright as a low hedge or trailing over a wall. Winter flowers feed bees when nothing else is blooming.
Parry's agave
Agave parryi
Sculptural, frost hardy to the teens and happy on summer rain alone once settled. Placed away from paths.
Echeveria
Echeveria species
Jewel-box rosettes for pots, steps and edges. Frost tender here, so we tuck them under eaves or in containers.
Ornamental grasses
We favor natives: Muhlenbergia rigens, Carex
Movement and backlight in every border. Cut back once a year in late winter and that's the whole job.
Ornamental allium
Allium species
Spring globes that deer and gophers leave alone. Planted in fall, they come back bigger every year.
Swap the lawn, keep the water.
Drag to your lawn size for a rough idea of what a water-wise garden saves each year.
24,000gallons saved a year, about 600 bathtubs
Rough estimate: a foothill lawn takes about 28 gallons per square foot each season; a mature water-wise planting takes about a third of that.
Daniel WhitfieldFounder & lead designer
About the studio
Named for the oaks we design around.
Daniel Whitfield grew up in Candler, spent his twenties on a commercial landscape crew and opened Oakmere in 2010 with a truck, a trailer and a sketchbook. The name comes from the white oaks that anchor so many yards out here. The first thing he does on any site is work out which trees to protect.
Sixteen years and 560-plus gardens later, he still draws every concept by hand, and the foreman who builds your patio is the same one who comes back for the one-year walk-through.
“A good garden should look better in year three than on install day. If it doesn't, we planted it wrong.”
Daniel Whitfield, founder
- NC Lic. #9105491Licensed landscape contractor
- Insured & bondedLiability and workers' comp
- 1-year plant guaranteeOn every install we irrigate
- 2-year hardscape warrantyPatios, walls and paths
Reviews
Neighbors who'd hire us again.
Sample reviews written for this demo
★★★★★1 week ago
“Daniel's hand sketches sold us before the 3D plan even arrived. The backyard went from a dead lawn and a cracked slab to a patio we use every single night.”
ESErin S.Hendersonville · Landscape design
★★★★★3 weeks ago
“Our water bill dropped by almost half the first summer after the lawn conversion. It looks better than the lawn ever did.”
MRMike R.Asheville · Drought-tolerant yard
★★★★★1 month ago
“Retaining wall on a steep lot. They dug it out, put in drain rock and a pipe, and it hasn't moved through two wet winters.”
PKPaul K.Black Mountain · Retaining walls
★★★★★1 month ago
“The lighting is magic. Warm, not blinding, and it comes on by itself.”
SLSandra L.Weaverville · Outdoor lighting
★★★★★2 months ago
“Crew showed up at seven every morning and swept the street every afternoon. Our HOA paperwork was handled before we even asked.”
THTina H.Biltmore Forest · Patios & hardscape
★★★★★2 months ago
“They saved our old oak. Every other bid wanted to trench straight through the roots. Daniel routed the irrigation around the drip line and it's never looked healthier.”
RMRobert M.Candler · Landscape design
★★★★★2 weeks ago
“Monthly maintenance is the best money we spend. They catch a broken drip line before the plants even notice.”
GWGrace W.Hendersonville · Seasonal maintenance
★★★★★1 month ago
“Fall planting was the right call. Everything rooted in over the winter and took off in April.”
JTJason T.Rescue · Planting & sod
★★★★☆6 weeks ago
“Flagstone patio and a DG path out to the fire pit. Solid, level and exactly what the plan showed. Took a week longer than quoted because of rain, but they kept us posted daily.”
LPLaura P.Brevard · Patios & hardscape
★★★★★2 months ago
“We walked through a 3D model before a single shovel hit the ground. Zero surprises.”
KDKen D.Asheville · Design-build
★★★★★3 months ago
“Deer used to eat everything we planted. Two years in, nothing on Daniel's plant list has been touched.”
MGMaria G.Black Mountain · Planting
★★★★★4 months ago
“The new controller has a map with every zone labeled. For the first time I actually understand my own yard.”
ABAndrew B.Weaverville · Drip & irrigation
Service area
Rooted in Asheville.
From the lake shore in Hendersonville up to Brevard, we plant for each elevation: frost pockets, clay, granite and all.
- Asheville
- Biltmore Forest
- Hendersonville
- Black Mountain
- Candler
- Weaverville
- Rescue
- Brevard
Mon–Sat, 7 AM – 5 PM. Site visits most weekdays and Saturday mornings.
What does a backyard project usually cost?
Most of our full backyard design-builds land between $35,000 and $120,000, mostly depending on how much hardscape is involved. Front-yard refreshes start around $12,000. The design fee is credited back when we build the plan.
How long does it take from first call to finished yard?
Design takes three to five weeks, including revisions. Building takes two to six weeks on site depending on size. We'll give you a week-by-week schedule before we start.
Can I hire you for design only?
Yes. You get a measured plan set, planting plan and materials list you can build yourself or bid out. Many clients start that way and have us build a phase later.
Will drought-tolerant mean rocks and cactus?
No. Our water-wise gardens are full and soft: lavender, salvias, grasses, natives and a little turf where kids and dogs actually play. They just get by on a fraction of the water.
Do you handle permits and HOA approvals?
Yes. We prepare and submit architectural review packages for Biltmore Forest and other HOAs, and walls that need engineering or permits get both. That's built into the schedule.
Do you guarantee plants?
Plants on an irrigation system we install or maintain are guaranteed for a full year. Patios, walls and paths carry a two-year workmanship warranty.
Get started
Let's walk your yard.
Book a free site visit. Daniel or a lead designer comes out, listens, looks at sun, soil and slope, and follows up with a written proposal.
- Site visitAbout an hour, free, no pressure
- ProposalDesign scope and fee within a week
- Concept sketchHand-drawn options in two weeks
The best time to plant was last fall. The next best is this one.
Book a free site visit now and we'll have a concept sketch in your hands within two weeks.