At Dream Greener Lawn & Landscape, landscape design isn’t just about what looks good on paper — it’s about creating outdoor spaces that feel right for your lifestyle and deliver long-term beauty and value. That’s where Shawn McDonough comes in.
As our Lead Landscape Designer and Project Manager, Shawn brings together technical drafting skills, construction expertise, and deep plant knowledge to deliver designs that are both visually striking and thoughtfully functional. A graduate of the Landscape Contracting Design/Build Program at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Shawn has been recognized with the Glenn L. Steyrs Award for Academic Excellence and Best in Computer-Aided Design. His roots run deep in Pittsburgh, where you’ll often find him hiking or biking local trails when he’s not designing residential landscapes across the region.
In this Q&A, Shawn shares his approach to landscape design — including how he balances aesthetics with functionality and plans for all four seasons.
How do you balance aesthetics with functionality in your landscape designs?
At Dream Greener Lawn & Landscape, we believe great landscape design is a fusion of art and science — where visual beauty is thoughtfully integrated with real-life functionality. Our designs aim to be more than just attractive; they must also enhance how you live, play, and move through your outdoor space.
That balance begins with listening. We take the time to understand how you and your family use your yard — whether it’s a front lawn that needs to welcome guests with clean lines and low-maintenance planting beds, or a backyard that doubles as a retreat, a playground, and an entertainment zone. Every element, from the shape of a garden bed to the placement of a patio, is driven by your day-to-day needs as much as by aesthetics.
Landscape design is a unique art form, using living materials that require water, nutrients, sunlight, and seasonal care. That’s why our work also leans heavily on science. In the Pittsburgh region, we contend with specific challenges like heavy clay soil, deer browsing, and road salt from long winters. Understanding these conditions is critical. It allows us to carefully select resilient plant material — like salt-tolerant evergreens or deer-resistant perennials — that not only survive but thrive in this climate.
Our plant palette is both filtered and refined: we’re not simply picking pretty flowers, we’re choosing specimens that serve a purpose and look beautiful doing it. This strategic selection ensures your landscape stays lush and appealing with minimal rework or replacements.
Functionality also extends to spatial awareness and flow. How much lawn do you need for kids or pets? Do you regularly walk between the driveway and backyard? Do you entertain outdoors in the evening shade or morning sun? Human traffic and lifestyle patterns shape our designs just as much as horticultural factors. We take all of this into account — carving out logical pathways, orienting patios to catch ideal light, using tough turfgrass for high-use zones, and placing beds where they won’t create unnecessary maintenance headaches.
A curved bed may be designed for visual grace, but it might also follow a natural slope to solve a drainage challenge. A hedge might offer privacy, but we’ll make sure it also frames your view beautifully from indoors. In every case, aesthetics and utility aren’t competing forces — they’re partners in a landscape that feels just as good to use as it does to look at.
How do you incorporate seasonal changes into your designs to ensure year-round appeal?
How do you incorporate seasonal changes into your designs to ensure year-round appeal?In the Pittsburgh area, it’s easy to design a garden that looks incredible in June — but real landscape artistry means creating a space that offers beauty, structure, and interest through every season. At Dream Greener, we believe a well-designed landscape should evolve throughout the year, offering something to admire and enjoy in every moment.
That’s why we design with diversity and long-term performance in mind. In our four-season climate, planning for year-round appeal means choosing a plant palette that offers more than just a few weeks of flowers. We intentionally select a variety of plants that stagger their bloom times and offer additional visual value through characteristics like foliage, bark texture, fruiting, form, and color changes.
Spring brings a sense of renewal with flowering dogwoods, redbuds, tulips, and early-blooming viburnums. In summer, the landscape bursts into fullness with bold perennials, layered textures, and the movement of ornamental grasses in the breeze. Come fall, the palette shifts to rich hues—serviceberries, maples, and black gums put on a fiery show, while late-bloomers like sedum and goldenrod hold strong. In winter, the scene transforms again. Seed heads, berries, and striking silhouettes take the spotlight, along with structural elements like evergreens and the dramatic bark of paperbark maple or river birch.
We also integrate winter-interest plants such as hellebores and red twig dogwoods, as well as evergreens for backbone and color continuity. It’s not just about what’s blooming — it’s about what’s performing. A well-placed plant can shine for its branching habit, foliage texture, or even the subtle sparkle of frost on ornamental seed pods.
Beyond plant material, seasonal planning extends to the hardscape and lighting. A cozy fire pit or heated patio space helps extend your enjoyment into the cooler months. Strategic lighting highlights key features and textures, ensuring your landscape remains captivating even after the sun sets early in winter.
Ultimately, we treat each property like a dynamic, living canvas. By combining diverse plant forms and seasonal standouts with thoughtful infrastructure and lighting, we ensure your landscape doesn’t just survive the off-season — it thrives. With Dream Greener’s approach, your outdoor space becomes a year-round experience, offering beauty, interest, and connection to nature in every season.
Ready to Design the Outdoor Space You’ve Been Dreaming Of?
At Dream Greener Lawn & Landscape, we turn your ideas into a practical, beautiful reality. From patios and plantings to full-scale backyard transformations, our design process starts with listening — and ends with a space that fits your lifestyle and enhances your property value. Learn more about our landscape design in the Pittsburgh area here.
Fill out our contact form today to schedule your Dream Meeting and start your custom landscape design journey with Shawn and the Dream Greener team. And if you have questions you’d like to see answered here, drop us an email and let us know that too!
