The Business of Design

Desirée Theriault is an award-winning Red River Métis land designer, Indigenous planner, and Partner at Narratives Inc., a planning, design, and advisory firm specializing in trauma-informed and community-driven approaches to reconciliation and traditional land use planning. Her work centers on storytelling, empathy, and Indigenous methodologies in landscape architecture.

She is Chair of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee of the Manitoba Association of Landscape Architects and serves on the Reconciliation Advisory Committee of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. Desirée has worked alongside families of MMIWG2S on memorial projects, partnered with Nations to build memorials for Survivors of Residential Schools, and collaborated with non-profits to design medicine and teaching gardens. She has also worked closely with Indigenous youth and co-edited Voices of the Land, a collection amplifying Indigenous youth perspectives in design.

Through her leadership at Narratives and across the profession, Desirée emphasizes that design is never neutral, it carries stories, responsibilities, and the power to nurture truth, healing, and resilience.

Frank Bourque

Frank Bourque has been part of the Green Industry for over 26 years. As a business owner, he has built, scaled and sold multiple million-dollar companies. Now, as an industry leading consultant, he coaches and speaks at some of the largest conferences and contractor events throughout the US and Canada. He has been part of the speaker line-up and host of the events such as Hardscape North America, GIE Expo, Landscape Ontario Congress, Landscape & Hardscape Business Success Summit, Home Service Super Summit and many more. Frank is dedicated to helping landscape business owners and their teams to improve growth, efficiency, business systems, profits and their quality of life.

Making the Grade. Elevations, Grading, and Drainage

In landscape design, grading and drainage are the starting point! They are vital components to creating safe and dry outdoor spaces for everyone to enjoy. Effective water management is essential to prevent future problems. The primary objective is to move water away from structures, toward appropriate drainage systems. Proper drainage makes for a dry hardscape and a healthily moist softscape. Every project needs to start with a grading plan!

How do professional landscape designers capture site elevations? What tools do they use to measure grades? How do they identify grading issues and effectively document them as part of the grading plan? Most importantly, how do they design and communicate buildable landscapes? 

Changing the Grade: Retaining Walls

As we shift to smaller lot sizes with larger homes, it has become a function of landscape design to create level outdoor spaces. Adjusting the grades of the site often requires constructing retaining walls. By raising or lowering ground levels, designers can create appealing outdoor spaces that enhance both the aesthetic appeal and practicality of these areas, turning them into welcoming spaces for relaxation and socializing. Unfortunately, many site plans appear with the note beside the retaining wall…“To be Designed by Others.” 

Rural Design Crash Course - Drainage, Septic Systems & Landscaping, Oh My!

For rural landscaping projects, it is important to consider infrastructure on the property as part of any holistic landscape design. Drainage and environmental features are important to consider, along with private onsite services such as wells and septic systems, when considering landscaping projects in rural areas. Increasing requirements for design approvals and processes have necessitated additional design and planning in recent years.