Dakin brings over 20 years of experience in landscape architecture to each venture. Her practice hinges on the understanding that each project has a unique context, both human and ecological. For Dakin, the design process is a collaboration between landscape architect, client and site: both a discipline and an art.

Welcome to Karla’s home and garden. An avid gardener as well as a landscape architect, Karla maintains her own space as an ongoing design inquiry. The garden contains perennial and annual food crops, trees, ground covers, flowers and ornamentals. Karla prioritizes native and climate-appropriate plants as well as pollinator host plants. She believes that one of the chief pleasures of cultivated landscapes is their harvest: fruits, vegetables and flowers. The multiple ecosystems present in this garden represent various exposures onsite: sun to shade, dry to wet. Her design creates space that bring pleasure year round: incorporating a crevice garden, a “creamsicle” garden, and a gravel garden with rotating sculptures centered around a 100-year old apple tree.

After building her dream garden, Karla was able to extend her design principles into a small living space above her garage. She researched her favorite architects' own studios and homes, knowing that, like her, they would have the space and funding constraints that lead to ingenious design solutions. She was inspired by the home of Peter Zumthor, Augustus Saint-Gauden's studio in New Hampshire with its magnificent northern exposure and a museum in Yaounde, Cameroon. Local building codes dictated that she include a small deck, which gave her the opportunity to research and explore tropical & Mediterranean edibles like dwarf papayas, dwarf bananas, passionfruit, lemons and figs that stay outside in the summer and come inside in the winter.

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