The Hone & Garden Landscapes team’s extensive horticultural expertise is a key factor that sets their design work apart. Unlike other teams that merely specify plants on a plan, this team comprehends the growth patterns, performance in North Carolina’s clay soils, responses to the region’s humid summers and occasional hard freezes, and interactions with neighboring plantings as a composition matures. Consequently, the landscapes they design not only appear aesthetically pleasing at installation but also evolve into more beautiful and functional over the years and decades.

Every project begins with an on-site consultation where Christopher evaluates the property’s conditions — sun and shade patterns, soil type, existing plantings, drainage, and the home’s architectural character. From there, he develops a design concept that is reviewed and refined with the client before installation begins. The process is collaborative: clients are involved in key decisions, from plant selection to material choices, and Christopher’s crew works with him on-site throughout installation to ensure the design is executed as intended.

Christopher’s expertise spans the full range of Home & Garden Landscapes’ work: privacy screening and mature tree installation, estate-scale planting design, elegant hardscape design, swimming pool surrounds, and intimate garden rooms. He has particular depth in projects where plant selection is critical to long-term success — including evergreen screening with hollies and arborvitaes, cold-hardy palms, Japanese maples, and large-caliper specimen trees. He also leads the firm’s historic landscape restoration work, which draws on his specialization in historic preservation.

Christopher approaches outdoor space as living architecture — where every planting, grade change, material choice, and sightline serves both beauty and long-term purpose. He begins with the land itself: its light patterns, soil conditions, drainage, and relationship to the home’s architecture. Most landscape designers work from templates; Christopher works from the site. His combined training in landscape architecture and interior architecture means he understands how an outdoor space is experienced, not just how it looks in a plan.

Christopher Vann is Design Director at Home & Garden Landscapes and one of the most credentialed landscape designers in the Triangle region. He holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from NC State University and a Master of Interior Architecture with a specialization in historic preservation. His training spans architecture, landscape history, and hands-on project work across Europe and the United States — a breadth of knowledge that shapes every project he leads.