Like most of the design team at English Gardens Landscape Company, Carolyn works on landscape design and holiday decorating.

This holiday season, she’s a member of the team working with the Royal Oak Downtown Development Authority to decorate the downtown area.

She explains the project: “For 2016, in addition to lighting trees, we added a really cool color-changing orbital that hangs from tree branches. “They look really awesome. And Royal Oak is the first city in Michigan to have this product.”

Her favorite project this spring was working with Landscape Manager Jim Morris at a co-op in downtown Detroit that consisted of two different courtyards. “One courtyard had a waterfall that turned out really great,” she explains. “There were lots of plants we used and I can’t wait to see how it looks as it matures.”

Carolyn describes her landscape style as natural, with lots of color. “I try to pick different plants that bloom for a long time throughout the entire season.”

“I’ve always loved being outside and getting my hands dirty in the garden,” Carolyn explains. “When I was growing up I was always helping with yard work. In high school, I realized that I should make a career out of it.”

She received an associate’s degree in Landscape Design from Oakland Community College, and has been a Landscape Designer and Holiday Decorator with English Gardens for three years.

“I really enjoy working with my co-workers. I have worked with literally everyone at some point in every department in the Landscape Company.

That teamwork has paid off. Carolyn won her first landscape design award from a project she worked on with Stephanie VanHaverbeck last year as an associate designer.

“I’ve worked closely with all the other designers as I was going to school and have learned a lot from their experience,” she says. “I really appreciate all the knowledge they have shared with me!”