Small works — SWALE

A new cedar garden gate with simple steel hardware standing half open onto a gravel path.

GATE · ALDER CANYON · 42 IN · CEDAR · 2026

Side gate, cedar and steel

Built to replace a gate that had dropped an inch on its hinges. Same opening, heavier hardware, no latch to hunt for in the dark.

Three newly built cedar planter boxes filled and planted with herbs, sawdust still on the patio.

PLANTERS · MESA COURT · 3 BOXES · CEDAR · 2026

Three herb boxes on a patio

Cut and assembled on the patio in a morning, filled the same afternoon. Height set so the cook of the house can reach across without stepping off the paving.

A flagstone path being set into decomposed granite with a rubber mallet and level beside the last stone.

PATH · QUAIL RIDGE · 38 LF · FLAGSTONE · 2025

Flagstone path to the back door

Set in decomposed granite rather than mortar so the line can be adjusted after the first winter. It moved twice, which is normal.

An opened irrigation valve box being rewired, hands with wire nuts and the manifold visible.

IRRIGATION · BARRANCA VISTA · 4 ZONES · REWIRE · 2025

Valve box rebuilt and labelled

Four zones that had been spliced together over the years. Rewired to the manifold, each valve labelled, and the schedule written on the inside of the lid.

A steel wire trellis grid on a garage wall with a young passionvine started up one wire.

TRELLIS · SUMAC FLAT · 8 × 10 FT · STEEL WIRE · 2026

Wire trellis on a garage wall

Stainless wire on stand-offs so the vine has air behind it and the stucco stays dry. One passionvine started on the left wire.

Low garden path lights glowing at dusk along a gravel walk in warm pools of light.

LIGHTING · TULE WASH · 9 FIXTURES · 12 V · 2025

Path lights along the gravel walk

Nine fixtures, all below knee height, aimed at the ground rather than out at the garden. Enough to walk by and not enough to look at.