FOR THOMAS BRAME, LANDSCAPE DESIGN ISN’T JUST A CAREER—IT’S A PASSION. Only someone who truly loves this work would describe the incorporation of various plants, trees, flowers and shrubs as playful and symphonic.
That passion is characteristic of each project bearing the Brame Landscape Architecture name, like a signature. It drives Brame’s vision, his knowledge and—crucially—the relationships he builds with the clients who hire him and with other contractors and tradesmen in the industry.
“I’m a people person, and I really enjoy the personal relationships I get to create in residential landscape architecture,” he says. “It’s an honor to work with my clients on a garden project or renovation that they’ve been thinking about for a long time and help bring that vision to life. I don’t take that for granted, and I nurture those relationships even after the project has been completed. I also love the camaraderie and collaboration I have with other skilled trades professionals. Many of the contractors I work with are friends, and we have a lot of experience working together and stories from different projects we’ve collaborated on. It’s a privilege, and I never forget that.”
During his time studying landscape architecture at the University of Georgia, Brame trained through summer apprenticeships under Charlie McRaven and Eric Bolton, two central Virginia craftsmen specializing in traditional stone masonry, timber framing and blacksmithing. That combination of academic and hands-on training has greatly influenced the way he tackles the unique characteristics of each project. “I believe that all of that experience helps me think through details in my designs and how materials will work together in a particular scheme. To me, simple but well-executed patterns or details are what I am striving for in in my work,” he says. “I also learned early how to manage a high volume of projects, which ultimately taught me that design is a process. It’s important to understand what phase of the process a project is in and help it progress to the current phase goal so you can pivot to another. At each point, there’s a different priority, but the ultimate objective is a completed project that the client is absolutely in love with. You’re also working with a team, and you want to give them what they need when they need it so that they can do their portion. That’s been key in learning to move between multiple projects at one time.”
Brame holds his lessons dearly, placing a high value on the mentorship and guidance he’s had over the course of his career, both in design and business. “I think experience and learning has made me better and sharpened my design eye over time as I’ve continued in my career. I’ve taken experience from many places: my garden design studies in Japan; my time working in Annapolis, Maryland, and around the Chesapeake Bay area; and the many mentors and artisans I’ve worked for and with,” he says. “I strive first to create gardens that reflect the personalities of the owners and, second, to achieve a sense of mystery and wonder without feeling contrived. To achieve this, I continue to study and push myself to design and think outside my comfort zone so I can bring something unique and special to my clients.”
Here is where Brame’s passionate love for the actual work comes into play, as he delves into the various components of design that, when complete, create a stunningly beautiful outdoor space. “I create the bones of a garden using hardscape materials and well-placed evergreen plants to build the frame,” he explains. “Over this scaffolding, I like to be playful with deciduous shrubs, trees and perennials that come together to create a symphony that will be dynamic throughout the seasons. Plant texture and foliage are just as important as flowers, and the contrast between fine-textured and bolder plants give a garden depth and carry the planting theme.”
Clearly, Brame cares about details—right down to his desire to give each of his clients a completely personal design. “I try to incorporate a surprising element to each project that’s unique to that specific garden,” he says. “I approach each job as a journey with my client and want that journey to be something special for them. Through this collaboration, I like to incorporate subtle details into the gardens that I share with clients as we develop the design together. Those elements can become something they delight in pointing out to guests or keep as their own secret.”
As much as design drives the project, each must overcome the innate challenges of the particular site. And while some may need little work before the actual installation process, there are others that require a deeper level of attention. “In designing for a new house, finding the best site location and doing any major sitework is the first project need,” Brame explains. “I have learned, especially on larger projects, to let the process and the site inform things, and I’m very attentive to many things when I first visit a site.”
Steep sites, Brame says, often require the artful use of walls to maximize the space while preventing erosion. Likewise, grading is crucial for many projects to shape and level the land, control the flow of water, and improve the look and function of a property. Trees often also effect the design when the client wishes to preserve them, as it can require scaling back work around the root zone of the tree and protecting it during construction. Additionally, Atlanta enforces lot coverage rules, only allowing paved or developed spaces on a certain percentage of a property. This can change the design, especially in more restrictive neighborhoods or zoning districts.
As mundane and unexciting as sitework may seem, Brame calls it magic. “I put a lot of thought into how a space will be used and how best to make it comfortable for the client. I study the incline of a walkway, the number of steps needed in a landscape, how much to slope a lawn or whether to use terraced walls to soften the look of a site,” he says. “At the same time, we want to control rainwater and direct it in a way that it doesn’t harm the house or diminish the site or garden. Surprisingly, a lot of math is behind a good garden plan, but one of the benefits of my training is knowing how to manage grading, drainage and other elements of site engineering with a designer’s eye and executing them in a beautiful way.”
Brame’s career, while built on the grounded elements that become a finished garden, is more than the sum of its tangible parts. It’s the culmination of years of learning and experience, of nurtured passion for his work and of strong relationships given room to take root. In the end, that balance of artistry, technical precision and personal connection is what defines Brame’s work. Each landscape becomes more than an outdoor space—it becomes an extension of the people who live there, thoughtfully designed to evolve, mature and tell a story long after the final installation. *
Liesel Schmidt lives in Navarre, Florida, and works as a freelance writer for local and regional magazines. She is also a web content writer and book editor. Follow her on X at @laswrites or download her novels, Coming Home to You, The Secret of Us and Life Without You, at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
