How do you want to feel when you pull into your driveway at the end of a long day?
While that may be one of the probing questions a life coach or psychologist asks a client early on, it isn’t a question many landscape architects are known to ask. But Marianne Mumford isn’t your average landscape architect.
Marianne Mumford and Alan Mumford started Landscape Images 37 years ago, and from the very start, the husband-and-wife team have approached each project from a unique angle.
“We are a design, build and maintenance company,” she says. “I would say that the whole complete follow through is what makes it satisfying. You can start from the creation to making sure it’s tended the way you want.”
The initial seeds of any design come from the client’s lifestyle and can vary drastically from project to project, Mumford says.
“I really like the gardens to spin off of the client’s personality, so we don’t push one way or another,” she says. “That’s a huge part of our philosophy – that the garden doesn’t just reflect the style that we like; that it reflects the personality of the client.”
Doctors and finance gurus tend to want orderly lines and clear boundaries, Mumford says, while artistic types are more prone to ask for a garden that grows freely.
“One of my favorite gardens that I’ve worked on over the past three years is really a small garden, but the client Sheelah Black has become one of my very best friends,” Mumford says. “She wanted a swing in her garden. She’s super young at heart, and it’s just totally fun. It’s just a perfect match.”
After working in the design business for nearly four decades, Marianne Mumford says she often finds herself working with generations of clients from the same family.
“What’s fun to me is kind of working with that younger generation, where they’re trusting you to show them the way,” she says. “Their family has trusted us, and it’s interesting to keep going with that philosophy.”
Landscape Images Ltd. 655 Central Ave., 504-734-8380, LandscapeImagesLtd.com
Instagram: @Landscape_Images_Nola
Facebook: @LandscapeImagesLtd
