Beautiful Bones and Purple Stones - Creating Unique Landscapes


Creating Unique Landscapes We specialize in working closely with our clients to design a landscape that reflects their individual style and desires. This means looking at every detail with an artist's eye.

The bones of a garden are the main structural features that define its spaces. Think of them as the skeleton or framework upon which the landscape grows. Bones can include walls, fences, trees, pathways, arbors, patios, hedges, etc. Beginning with the bones, we advise our clients on the layout of their space to maximize its functionality. When the layout is finished, we help select the materials which will define the space's feel, until we have created something harmonious and beautiful. As a result of this process, each design comes out as unique as the customer for whom it was designed.

Please browse our portfolio of photos of selected jobs. Feel free to contact us by phone or e-mail for more information about designing and building a beautiful outdoor space for you. Make sure to click on the "Featured Project" section to see a complete landscape design and installation, from paper to finished product, with rock walls, stone paths, a water feature, and beautiful trees, shrubs and perennials.

As you look through the pictures in our portfolio, ask yourself if these spaces look truly individualistic. All of these landscapes were designed and built within the past few years, and are available for visitation with advanced notice. We like to work on whole landscapes, but are happy to work on small projects or individual pieces of a landscape such as a wall, or just prepare a design and leave the heavy lifting to you.

Beautiful Bones and Purple Stones is a Landscape Design and Build firm located in Portland, Oregon. We bring together the expertise of an educated landscape designer and an experienced landscape contractor. The advantage that this brings to the client are many. Most landscape designers are very knowledgeable about plants, have a good design sense, and hopefully are people persons. This is fine if what you want is someone to create a perennial border or fill the pots on your front steps. What they are missing is a first hand knowledge of how specific landscape elements are actually constructed, such as walls and decks, and the variety of materials that can be used. This is where a landscape contractor, hopefully with masonry and carpentry skills, is the most useful, being able to suggest different details for construction and techniques for implementing custom designs. But the landscape contractor typically will lack the artistic sense of the designer, be less knowledgeable about plants, and be difficult to communicate with. Beautiful Bones and Purple Stones brings together both sides of the equation and allows the client a seemless experience from design to finished product.

Christopher Tinkham the owner and principal holds a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and is a 1998 graduate of the Radcliffe Seminars graduate program in Landscape Design where he was taught by Landscape Architects, Nurserymen, Horticultural experts and Landscape Historians. He has also been working as a landscape contractor since 1994. This combination of experience and education allows him to create landscapes that are both artistic and functional, designed with the specific style and needs of each individual client in mind.

We are licensed by the State of Oregon Landscape Contractors Board License # 7147