Ajuga reptans

This is a mat-forming plant, offering wonderful dense ground cover with nice color. The dark green leaves with highlights of purple to bronze form a nice background to the blue/purple spike flowers, which bloom in spring. From the same family as the wild bugle, this plant is very versatile and is suitable for ground cover in the shade beneath trees or shrubs, as well as being part of a flower border fully exposed to the sun.

Ajuga reptans groundcover

Ornamental Grass

I use all types and varieties of ornamental grass in my projects, but am particularly fond of Little Bunny, a wonderful plant. 
This is a small grass growing to around a foot tall with a spread of between one and two feet. The light, airy flower plumes appear between August and October and are whitish green in color. This grass variety requires very little maintenance, has few, if any, pest issues and is highly adaptable, being used in rock gardens, borders and a wide variety of other landscape features.  

Ornamental grass in front of custom stone bench

Acer Palmatum or Japanese Maple

Acer palmatum

Japanese Maples are wonderful ornamental trees, their leaf shape and color, plus their branch structure, adding so much to the landscape. These plants are so valuable to my own landscaping that I can’t say enough good things about them. 
These maples at first look somewhat delicate, but are in fact very hardy, with little susceptibility to insect pests or air pollutants. The Japanese Maple is a deciduous shrub or small tree, which can resemble an upside down pyramid when young, transforming into a more domed shape when mature. It comes in very diverse and striking varieties, the leaves varying from what is seen as a typical Maple, to a more lace-like leaf shape. The foliage can be anywhere from light green to a deep rich burgundy and individual plants can either be the low growing, weeping version or a shaded tree reaching up to twenty feet or more.

Japanese Maple in front of Basalt Fountain