"If you can't always tell what I've done, that's fine. I want my gardens to connect seamlessly with surrounding plant communities, to look as if they're meant to be."

"I aim to be frugal with design and materials, stripping away ornament and focusing on what's essential and logical for each location—seeing how little I can do for the greatest impact."

"My designs are often fractured, not based on any simple point or perspective. They respond to complexity onsite and work with it to make my landscape harmonize with the bigger picture."

"I do everything possible to enter with humility and not overpower what's already there. It's already better than anything I could do. At the same time, in these wide-open places, you need a big paintbrush, big ideas, so scale-wise, the design harmonizes with what lies beyond."

Join Trainor along with Ive Haugelund of Shades of Green Landscape Architecture to hear more. Order his book from Amazon here.

This article was originally published on May 14, 2013 on our sister site, Dwell on Design.