This artful patio garden provides a sunny outdoor perch for residents in a dense and hilly city. We worked within limited space to create a refuge that drew inspiration from the seasonal cycle of the stately Persian Walnut tree in the owner’s front yard.

K. Dakin Design won the 2018 CARE award from the Custom Builder and Remodeler Council of Denver for the reimagination of the landscape around this classic organic-modernist home designed by Rocky Mountain architect Charles Haertling.

This second home outside of Sebastopol, CA is perched on a ridge with sweeping views of Bodega Bay. The stunning scale of this environment also provides challenges to creating the feeling of shelter - making the house a home.

Rock walls and flagstone patio create a sheltered outdoor living room in this lush fairy garden. A window-well view is transformed into a painterly scene backed by a stone wall that extends into the rest of the garden.

This terraced flower garden in Boulder was designed to convey the blooming liveliness of a traditional English garden for the climate of Colorado. Flowers take center stage

The Boiler House in Denver's Clayton neighborhood is a piece of history—7,500 square feet of industrial memory designed by Temple Hoyne Buell in 1942. Three coal-fired boilers once sent steam heat to the Denver Army Medical Depot. The original smokestack, coal silo, and fly-ash building remain—not as relics they tolerate, but elements they celebrate.

The owners of this modern home in Denver, Colorado wanted beautiful, drought tolerant native plants in a xeriscape front yard combined with a backyard garden perfect for entertaining.

Dakin designed beds and sourced a greenhouse so elegant that vegetable production ended up taking center stage, showcasing beauty and abundance.

This garden of gray greens and hot-colored blossoms incorporates a sculptural fountain as well as a green roof prairie that melds with dramatic views of the syncline mountain beyond. Excess bluestone paving was turned on its side to create an undulating, sculptural rain garden planted with moisture-loving plants.

This garden mirrored the rugged landscape of the site, located in the rain shadow of Long’s Peak.

This garden for a Midcentury home includes a berm that wraps around the house, screening the front of the home from the street and serving as seating for an amphitheater in the back.

K. Dakin Design transformed this shaded walkway into a lush fern garden inspired by the renowned 20th Century California landscape architect Thomas Church. This project demonstrates how small spaces can become the highlight of the garden.

This home garden included ground-level design as well as an award-winning green roof. This design turned storm water runoff on a site prone to flooding in heavy rains into an opportunity for natural water features.

Some gardens are measured in seasons. This one is measured in eons. On a hillside in south Boulder, two geologists built a contemporary home designed by Dodd Architects. But the real story is about the rocks. For her PhD, she studied stones that are 4.5 billion years old. For years, she carried those rocks in five-gallon buckets, learning their secrets. She even kept the dust.

Some gardens begin with a vision. This one began with love. A grandmother in Boulder dreamed of a place where her granddaughter could step into another world—one just down the stairs, where fairy tales weren't just read, but lived.

The design speaks in curves—wide concrete edging lines the turf in sweeping gestures echoing 1950s optimism. Mass plantings create rhythm: pussytoes carpeting the ground, platinum sage in silvery sweeps. This is sanctuary for a busy professional—a garden that doesn't demand attention but rewards every moment you give it.