An upscale development in Seabrook designed with “new urbanism” in mind has a Sequim connection.

Greg Haskins, owner of Wildwood Nursery, 270 S. Ninth Ave., has been the landscape manager for the Seabrook Land Company, a pedestrian-friendly, village-type development of 220 homes about a mile north of Pacific City.

Since 2004, Haskins has designed the project’s landscaping and selected plant materials native to the Northwest that thrive in the often windy, cool and rainy coastal area.

Haskins said the development emphasizes front porches, alleyways, pocket parks and the ability to walk to amenities.

In 2010, Haskins oversaw the landscaping of the company’s “ultimate beach house,” which ended up being featured in a five-page spread in the October edition of Coastal Living magazine. And although Haskins moved to Sequim about a year ago to establish his own landscaping business, he remains closely involved with Seabrook on a new combination project with the company and Sunset magazine. In its July issue, the magazine announced an upcoming article on the “Ideal Town,”featuring two brand new homes in the development that have “the best ideas in home and garden design” by promoting community and sustainability.

“My involvement was to do all the design and choose plant materials,” Haskins said. “Because Seabrook’s standard is 70 percent Northwest materials, I’ve incorporated native conifers, really cool wind-swept shore pines, rain gardens with western red cedar, wetland grasses and vine maples. They’re ‘imagining’ the owner wanting a Japanese garden, so I’m including a variety of Japanese pines and cedars. Sunset is always is after edibles in the landscape, so I selected blueberries, thornless blackberries, white currants, hops and lavender to represent Sequim.”

A ‘big splash’

Haskins said Seabrook and Sunset favor “big splash” plants, so he included rocket ligularia with its bright yellow spikes, large serrated leaves and mahogany stems.

“It forced me to bring in more show-stopper stuff,” Haskins said of the opportunity to appear in a feature to be published in Sunset this fall. “I like the blacks, silvers, whites and yellows — whites and yellows are very eye-catching.”

Haskins said the “Ideal Town” project will feature well over 70 different varieties of his plants, shrubs and trees. Other project design elements Haskins worked with include a greenhouse for hydroponically grown tomatoes and a Mediterranean herb garden. The magazine will have a photo shoot on the site on July 20.

To see some of Haskins’ local work, visit a drought-tolerant rock garden in the Water Reuse Demonstration Park he designed in conjunction with Joe Holtrop of the Clallam Conservation District.

Although Wildwood Nursery is predominantly a wholesale nursery, Haskins said he’s glad to provide free consultations for people, assessing their preferences, their budget and what their land can handle. He then arranges the plants much as they might look in the customer’s yard, streamlining the design process by not drawing out a formal design.

“I try to give people a road map to work on over time. They don’t have to do everything at once.”

Call Wildwood Nursery at 565-6478 and watch for Haskins’ designs in a fall issue of Sunset.