Beau’s Forever Bloom

excelsior, MN

Completed 2024

This memorial garden is a tribute to a beloved son, friend, and brother who tragically passed away from a fatal overdose. The garden is intended to be a serene and uplifting space where friends and family can come to reflect and remember him. This garden’s purpose is to celebrate Beau’s life and personality, offering comfort and peace without focusing heavily on the aspect of loss.

The “Beau” structure is the same height as Beau when he had passed – a visual reminder of him.

The steel skateboard can be moved around the garden, as though it was the one he used to ride.

3D rendering of backyard garden with fire pit seating, lawn, flowering trees, hydrangeas and water feature - Mom's Design Build

Gas fire pit with white Adirondack chairs on a stone patio at dusk, with lawn and hydrangeas in Excelsior, MN - Mom's Design Build

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3D rendering of a memorial garden with a water feature, rust letters, white hydrangeas and lavender - Mom's Design Build

Rusted steel letter sculpture beside a bubbling boulder fountain, river stones and shrubs in a landscaped garden - Mom's Design Build

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Property Serviced by Mom’s Fine Gardening

Behind the Design

Design Notes

Before

A sloped side yard with one important maple tree — and a mother who wanted a place to remember her son Beau, a space that would celebrate who he was rather than dwell on his loss.

The Idea

Build the garden around his spirit. Corten steel sculptures carry the raw, artistic feel of the graffiti art he loved; the “Beau” structure stands exactly his height; and a basalt fountain holds little bird-bath bowls where friends still leave the tiny objects he collected.

After

The firepit lights with the flip of a switch in the front corner of the yard, close enough to wave neighbors up as they pass. The fountain fills itself. The maple he used to climb still stands at the center of it all — and from the front porch, his mother can see the whole garden bloom.

The Brief

—A beautiful space for friends and family to remember Beau
—Features that capture who he was
—Protect the maple tree that mattered to him
—Warm and welcoming, yet private

Materials & Craft

Corten steel sculptures
Basalt column water feature
Natural stone patio
Stacked bluestone retaining wall
Switch-lit gas firepit

Sculpture at his scale

Every sculpture is corten steel for a raw, artsy character — including a movable metal skateboard that drifts around the garden, and a “Beau” structure built to his exact height.

A fountain for tiny things

The basalt water feature doubles as a resting place for remembrance: bird-bath bowls hold the small objects his friends leave, and one of its stones doubles as a seat.

The front-corner firepit

Placed deliberately where the neighborhood walks by, so gathering happens naturally — switch-lit, effortless, always ready.

Care that runs itself

The fountain auto-fills from the irrigation system and the natural stone patio blends into the existing bluestone wall — a memorial that never becomes a chore.

The hard part

Designing remembrance without heaviness — a garden that honors a life while staying uplifting. And doing it around a protected maple, on a small sloped lot, under hardcover restrictions that turned the fountain path into a diamond stone border set flush in the grass.