Rock Paper Clippers

I’m pretty clueless when it comes to landscaping and gardening — I grew up in SF so its never been something I have been exposed to. Now that I live in the burbs, we have a house that was in some seriously need of landscaping help. And we don’t have a single flat area that is perfectly square with consistent conditions that was a blank canvas that I could easily copy what I saw online. No, we have multiple areas, some shady, some super sunny, some covered by huge pines, some covered by oaks, some completely exposed, some hilly, some flat, etc. So needless to say we needed a plan to figure out a cohesive look and also the right type of plants for the different zones on our property. Its pretty unlikely that I could have a ton of research and figured it out on my own because not only would it take a lifetime but it would require a ton of trial and error that would be so discouraging.
Enter Kathy, she is an expert on all things landscaping. I was amazed at her level of knowledge on plants, hardscaping, and irrigation. She put together a detailed plan and helped with the installation process as well to make sure the actual landscaper didn’t miss out on some of the finer details. The best thing is that with some «designers» they can be disorganized and slow to respond back, Kathy is the exact opposite. She is super organized, has everything laid out in easy to comprehend documents, and is super prompt to respond to communications.
I would say its an investment because her expertise is not cheap, but if you want to have a landscaping plan that is not only going to look good but also be sustainable (aka, not die in a few months because the plants were inappropriate for the conditions, etc), I highly recommend you at least get a consultation from her. Also she makes sure the landscapers don’t do anything that doesn’t make sense, like in our case, not putting enough water emitters by larger plantings, which is something I wouldn’t have caught on my own.

Wow. I just had my first meeting with Kathy and I don’t think I’ve ever learned so much in a one hour period! She is just such a wealth of information from both a design and a maintenance standpoint. Plus she was both complimentary of the good stuff and very honest about things that needed to improve which I really appreciated. I truly feel like my garden is now in good hands. If you think your «gardeners» are taking care of things for you… think again… and hire Kathy!

Kathy helped us to transform our front and back gardens into beautiful outdoor spaces. We had moved into a house with «dated» landscaping and Kathy’s vision helped us to make some simple changes to update the feel of the spaces without completely overhauling some of the existing features and structures. She is a great resource of plants and materials and I appreciated that she presented us with many different visuals along the way to help us decide which direction to take. We could have worked with our gardener to simply replace some plants but we would not have been happy with the outcome. Kathy can see the «big picture» and she made a plan to make each of the spaces come together for a really finished look.

Our back yard was in need of some serious direction and focus and we are just not ‘green thumbed’ no matter how many times we’ve tried. Kathy came in and pointed out suggestions and ideas that we would have never thought about (nor would know how to execute). She was very understanding and conscientious of our limited budget so I was not pressured, thankfully, because part of the reason we put off making improvements was thinking a nicer yard was going to cost a ton. The garden design part was actually fun-​she asked what type of plants/​colors I am drawn to and then made suggestions of similar plants/​trees that would work with that and determined the perfect placement considering the sun/​shade etc (as well as how to block out a neighbor’s unsightly building from our view) and created a whole theme, with lots of textures and color, which I love. Now my yard has focus and is finally pretty! Good bye, eyesore back yard and bring on the back yard bbq parties!

Kathy was great to work with in re-​landscaping our front yard. She listened carefully to our preferences and incorporated all of them into the final plan. When we had no idea what we wanted, she came up with suggestions that fit our tastes. Kathy is a great resource for plant suggestions as well as how to care for them. She is willing to work through any issues until they are solved satisfactorily. We are thrilled with our front yard and have gotten many compliments from neighbors and passers-​by.