hi, I’m Caleb.

I make gardens, chase ephemerals, and grow a lot of woodland plants in pots. I’m a landscape architect, design educator and communicator. I’ve worked with designers, architects, landscape architects and engineers to envision and realize gardens across the United States and Caribbean.

My first memory of a plant-based experience is the blooming of a hyacinth. I don’t remember planting it. I guess I shoved the bulb into a wooden raised bed out front of our rented house? I do remember the eastern morning, 5 months later, when it broke open - stinky and white. I still love hyacinths. Any bulb, honestly.

Only a few years later, I started writing about plants. I used Microsoft Publisher [sophisticated, I know] to pull together text and photos for The Garden Chronicle. I still have a few print copies of the first 3 issues. Not long after that, I started writing for a couple of regional gardening publications. After that - people can’t get me to shut up.

I wanted to write, but journalism and the print industry didn’t seem too promising in 2009. My parents thought a job with “architect” in the name sounded respectable - so off I went to train as a landscape architect. 5 years of design school changed me. I learned how to think like a designer. I learned the technical skills necessary to practice as a landscape architect.

Since then, I’ve lived in a few different landscapes. I started by working for a design-build firm on Sanibel and Captiva in south Florida. Then I worked for 3 years for P. Allen Smith & Associates - we designed fine gardens and estates throughout the southern US. After PASA, I worked for ASA Engineering in Chattanooga, TN. I took my tests and became a registered landscape architect. 

In 2020, I started working with Coastal Vista Design. I’m currently a licensed landscape architect and project manager for CVD focusing on planting design for the Gulf Coast and beyond. My studio, Coastal Vista Design, creates gardens and public spaces - mostly (but not only) on Sanibel and Captiva Islands. I teach design communication, planting design, professional practice, and theory of landscape architecture at University of Oregon and Florida International University. My writing is frequently published in Horticulture, The American Gardener, and Land8. 

I live at the south end of the Willamette Valley in Eugene, Oregon. You can check on what I’m up to on Instagram @mossmanchronicles - or click on over to notes from the verge to see what I’ve been thinking about lately.