About PbD

Pruning by Design is a small women owned limited liability company, a landscape design firm with a team of pruning specialists and garden health professionals, working in metro DC, MD and VA. We provide expert fine hand pruning for your shrubs and small ornamental trees.  We provide full service residential landscape design and architecture : master plans, plantings and hardscapes plans; installation management and construction supervision.  We offer garden health consultations and monitoring for landscape health care and IPM (integrated pest management).

Contact Us

Adele Medina O’Dowd & Annika Haksar, principals
pruningbydesign@gmail.com | (202) 255-0728

Team PbD

Adele Medina O’Dowd

|  principal of Pruning by Design, landscape designer, pruning expert  |  Adele is an ISA Certified Arborist, studied Integrated Pest Management practices and is a Landscape Designer. She has been designing and working in gardens professionally since 2007 and before that as a web site and interactive designer for museums. She received a certificate in Landscape Design in 2009 from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1988 from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2009, Adele was a featured speaker at the Chesapeake Conservation Landscape Council’s annual conference. Adele is a runner, ceramic artist, and loves gardening at night. Proud MAW member.

Adele Medina O’Dowd  |  MA-6137A, ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified

Annika Haksar

|  principal of Pruning by Design, planting designer, pruning expert |  Annika is an ISA Certified Arborist and studied Integrated Pest Management practices. A Swedish native, she came to the DC area after obtaining a PhD in Economics  with a focus on the environment, to work at the World Bank. Wanting more time for her family as her children grew, Annika pursued a life-long interest in gardening by learning the fine art of hand pruning. When she is not working, Annika enjoys cooking local, organic and healthy meals for her family and is a ceramic artist.

Annika Haksar | MA-6313A

Gitte Kolind

|  Pbd pruning expert  |  Gitte is a native of Denmark. She grew up playing for infinite hours at her uncle’s plant nursery. These early experiences of rose fields, seed bins, and plant propagation left enduring impressions. A ceramic artist, many of Gitte’s sculptures are inspired by trees and their seedpods. She loves ceramics, yoga, and river walks.

Cole Norton

|  Pbd pruning expert  |  Cole is a ceramic artist and teacher. He is a lifelong gardener with a passion for permaculture. Some of his interests are hiking, food preservation and traditional folk crafts.

Wendy Schleicher

|  Pbd pruning expert  |  Wendy spent years as a book designer for an art museum but is turning a new leaf and bringing her focus into the garden for landscape design and garden care. She has a wild backyard vegetable garden where she experiments.