Private Estate
Case · 01 — 2025
Hollow Hill Estate
Bainbridge Island, WA
Three acres of stepped olive terraces and reflecting pools.
Vol. 01 / Living ArchitectureSeattle · Bainbridge · Puget SoundEst. 2025
A landscape studio
Gardens thatrememberthe land.
Salterra is a small studio of landscape architects, horticulturists and stonemasons. We design considered outdoor places — meadows, courtyards, kitchen gardens — that age with grace and root deeper with every season.
Featured · 01
Hollow Hill Estate
127
Gardens planted
01
Year of practice
38
Native species
01
Quiet philosophy
Fig. 02 — Propagation, our own nursery, Spring
The studio
We work slowly, with soil, stone and the seasons.
Salterra was founded by a third-generation gardener and an architect who met in a hedge nursery outside Florence. Our practice today brings together horticulturists, masons, designers and ecologists — a small studio that treats every site as a living, ongoing collaboration with its place.
We do not chase trends. We plant for the climate fifty years from now. Every garden we build is documented, returned to, pruned, and remembered — because the most beautiful landscapes are the ones that have been cared for the longest.
- 01Pillar
Native first
Plants that belong to the place, requiring less of it.
- 02Pillar
Built to weather
Stone, steel and timber detailed to age beautifully.
- 03Pillar
Tended for years
We return — to prune, to learn, to listen to the garden.
Selected work
Three gardens,
one quiet idea.
Services
Four ways
we practice.
- I.
Master plans
Long-range plans for estates, farms and institutions — from siting and circulation to planting and water.
- Site analysis
- Topography
- Drainage
- Phasing
- II.
Garden design
Considered residential gardens — entry courts, kitchen gardens, terraces and meadows — designed to be lived in.
- Concept
- Planting
- Hardscape
- Lighting
- III.
Restoration
Reviving exhausted land with native species, healthy soil biology and ecological corridors.
- Soil
- Natives
- Water
- Habitat
- IV.
Stewardship
Ongoing care, pruning, and seasonal editing. Most of our gardens stay with us for many years.
- Pruning
- Seasonal
- Reporting
- Renewal
The process
A long, quiet
conversation.
Every Salterra project moves through four stages. We do not rush them, and we do not skip them. A great garden has the patience of its makers built into it.
- 011 — 4 weeks
Listening
We walk the site, often more than once. We listen to the wind, the water, the soil — and to you. No drawing begins before this.
- 026 — 12 weeks
Drawing
Hand-drawn studies become measured plans. Planting palettes, materials, and a phasing strategy emerge together.
- 031 season
Making
Our stonemasons and growers build the garden. Plants are sourced from local nurseries and our own propagation beds.
- 04ongoing
Tending
We return seasonally — pruning, editing, replanting. Most gardens stay with us for ten years or more.
“A garden is the slowest of the performing arts. Salterra plant for the audience that hasn't arrived yet.”
The journal
Notes from
the field.
Field notesMay · 2026
On planting for a climate we don't yet know
Selecting trees for a garden today means choosing for the weather of 2070. A note on the species we are reaching for.
Read entry
StudioApril · 2026
Why we draw by hand, still
Our designers begin every project with graphite on tracing paper. There is something about the wrist that a cursor cannot replace.
Read entry
Plant of the monthMarch · 2026
Stipa gigantea — the giant feather grass
A six-foot grass that catches the wind and the light. Our notes on siting, soil, and the company it likes to keep.
Read entryBegin a garden
Tell us about
your land.
We accept a small number of new commissions each year. Share a few details about your site and we will be in touch within a week.
- Studio
- 123 Placeholder Ave
Seattle, WA 98101 - Correspondence
- hello@example.com
+1 (206) 000-0000 - Hours
- Tue — Sat
by appointment