Our People

The Garden Angels Landscape Design & Consulting:
we know how to bring the right people together

elizabeth powers

Elizabeth Powers

Principal DESIGNER

As the driving force behind The Garden Angels, founding Principal Elizabeth Powers has turned a lifelong passion for nature and creativity into the central Willamette Valley’s most successful and innovative landscape design & consulting firm. Inspired by the classic gardens in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the temperate lushness of Oregon’s natural environment, Elizabeth’s body of work is enunciated by an exacting attention to detail. Like a great piece of music, her gardens emote curiosity, harmony, and the playful stuff of memories.  Each place is an opus in rhythm, dynamic range, percussion, intonation, and color highlights; groundwork of our daily lives. As they say, “Life began in a garden” and, like a great conductor, Powers devotes every effort to the art & ensemble of garden making.

Powers brings creative and technical skills to the drawing table: an artist from childhood with undergraduate work in music performance, she leveraged her resourceful nature in the study of landscape design at the University of Oregon. Elizabeth launched her design practice, The Garden Angels, in 1994.

As a technician, Powers is a specialist in sustainable landscape applications, grading & drainage, ornamental & native plant species applications, and riparian & natural area restoration. Applying her background in cultural landscape history, her designs engage old-world landscape gardening methods, in the effort to reduce fossil fuel use and dependency upon landscape contracting. She is keenly concerned with creating human connection and stewardship with the land, scaled to the smallest of suburban footprints. Powers has been instrumental in the establishment and development of the Lord & Schryver Conservancy, a local cultural historic preservation and cultural organization, with her love of history, local vernacular and garden architecture.

Powers sums it up: “Today, new climate realities are driving all of our design products. I’m hopeful that our grounded designs help cultivate a healthier future for us and Earth. Every day we are developing new creative vision and sensible construction applications which challenge the conventional model of residential landscaping.”

Elizabeth is an educator and enjoys opportunities to lecture on a variety of garden and sustainability topics. She has been active as a volunteer in the Willamette Valley, working to preserve and restore historically significant gardens, natural areas, and cultural spaces. She recently retired from Chemeketa Community College, where she served for over 2 decades as adjunct professor, sharing her knowledge with the next generation of landscape designers, horticulturists, contractors and business professionals. She continues to guide The Garden Angels, changing our local environs and outdoor spaces, one garden at a time.

  • Retired Professor of Landscape Architecture, Chemeketa Community College, Adjunct
  • Retired Certified Professional in Erosion & Sediment Control (CPESC)
  • Retired LEED Green Associate - US Green Building Council
  • Construction Project Manager-Landscape Construction Professional LCP 14025
  • Certified Landscape Professional - BackyardHabitats.org, Portland Audubon & Columbia Land Trust
  • 2023 Winner - Women in the Green Industry Award
  • Co-Founder The Lord & Schryver Conservancy
  • Certified Business - Marion County Oregon Earthwise Program
  • Member - National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP)
  • Member - Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD)
  • Member - Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN)
  • Member - Oregon Landscape Contractors Association (OLCA)
  • Over 2000+ designed and 600+ built projects in the Pacific Northwest (from the smallest of backyards to large scale sites- including planting 77,000+ trees & shrubs in one 58-acre habitat restoration project, now a beautiful forest on South Salem's Brown Island.)

Powers is married, a grandmother, and when she is not gardening, still enjoys making music on her lovely grand piano.

 

 

Drew Walker

Andrew Walker

pRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT - Designer

 

Bio-Ecological Systems Engineering & 3D Products development.

Andrew Walker is an Oregon transplant, originally from the foothills of Northern California, working as The Garden Angels’ 3D production specialist. He has received two Bachelor’s Degrees in both Psychology and Ecological Engineering from OSU and has interests in philosophy, cognitive science, and green architecture. Previously, Andrew worked at the OPEnS environmental sensing laboratory on the OSU campus, and also spent many years as a barista where he developed a passion for coffee and conversation.

It is Andrew’s hope that he may further develop his environmental design skills from his talented and passionate team at The Garden Angels. Andrew would like to return to school one day to pursue either Controlled Environmental Systems or Green Architecture so that he may create sustainable housing and production systems. He shares the belief that the most awe inspiring and efficient designs can be achieved with proper integration of both human and ecological systems.

keith Stanley

Keith Stanley

Production Designer

Having grown up on the coast of California this Angel traveled to Oregon to pursue a degree in Landscape Architecture while minoring in Planning and Public Policy at the University of Oregon.

Keith has always enjoyed the outdoors and the endless knowledge that we can learn from the natural landscape surrounding us all. He strives for the eventuality that one day we can peacefully coexist with our natural environment by implementing smart design philosophies and practices.

It is a privilege to have Keith as a member of The Garden Angels team! He’s helping us change the world one garden at a time.  With his skills and curiosity for all things landscape architecture, he’s helping us reshape the world around us for the better!

tunda thomas

Tunda Thomas

Accounting Angel

It’s Heavenly having Tunda Thomas on our Team! She earned her Accounting Degree at University of Anchorage Alaska, and has been working in the accounting field for over 30 years.  She is shy about her tremendous skills, but brings great experience to the table for our small firm. She has worked in high-level accounting for the silicon manufacturing, commercial print, precision machining, and the construction industries.

She works with us part time and keeps track of all the numbers and reports.

We don’t fly without her!

Heaven & Earth Landscape Construction
Heaven Earth Landscape Construction

The Garden Angels are very happy to introduce our most hard-working souls yet! We’ve dusted off our construction license (LCB 7243 retired, now issued as LCB 100330.) This new division specializies in “the smaller” projects for our select loyal clientele. True guardians of The Garden Angels’ design intentions, our trusty installation team is ready to build!   Whether it’s building a custom garden trellis or pergola, a masonry stone patio, gravel pathway, concrete retaining wall, or a fresh new enhancement planting–our installation team is ready to book projects for our design clients. Always thinking about maximum livability and lowest impact on the environment, these Angels are keen to install our garden designs with the greatest of care, for the best value and materials possible.

We've removed images of individuals in our construction workforce in efforts to protect their privacy. When you meet these Angels you will see their lovely faces!

So, look for our hardest-working Angels flying in the field --- and on the ground!

Our landscape construction work is a bit of Heaven & Earth!

"Mr. Fancy"

Construction Manager

"Chavito"

Landscape Foreman

"Tocayo"

Landscape Technician