Create the Garden of Your Desires
Design & Installation
Cost is a larger issue these days since the economy has become a challenge for so many. This is what I do in my practice to help you express yourself in the surroundings of your home:
- I spend time with you as my client to find out just what you want so you will be happy with the plan for years to come.
- I ask questions that help you clarify what you want
- I listen to everyone involved to meet as many needs as possible
If you desire a detailed design on paper, I am happy to produce that. If you can visualize what you want easily, I can spend less time on paper
and more time on the implementation of your ideas.
Please go to the different pages to find out more about how I work:
to save you money
help you get what you want
to have serenity, inspiration, beauty and health in your garden
And how sustainability works for you
your plants
your children
your pets
the Bay Area
the planet.
Click on any of the pictures below to see a larger version. Move your mouse over the larger picture to see the slideshow navigation buttons.
Cleanup and transformation for sale of this home
This is a client I have done pruning for in the past few years. This time, to sell the house, they needed a complete cleanup and transformation in some places. (I have learned to do this for myself before I move so I can enjoy it!!
The Japanese Black Pine trees have been thinned and cleaned out, and a new layer of crushed rock to brighten the landscape.
The left side of the house needed some sprucing up, so it was weeded, plants and mulch added.
Same need, along with raising up the bricks and moving some of them to another area for people to step out of their cars.
Fixed bricks, a few plants and space to walk out of a car.
Now, into the backyard.
A new layer of crushed rock after weeding in the back as well, (and we did straighten the pot and prune the plants in it).
The Japanese Black Pine needed to be cleaned out and a lot of dead wood taken out, but not much more because it looked a bit frail. (This was not one of the trees the clients had money to spend for me to prune previously.)
The Junipers also needed trimming, especially to expose the waterfall more.
Close up of waterfall in this lovely Japanese garden.
This Blue Atlas Cedar had gotten wild and much too thick.
Artful pruning!
A small farm in the hills
For more images from this project, please visit the Reuse of Materials section.
A property on the edge of Tilden Park with visions of a very productive food-bearing garden. The front yard of the house will be attended to when the food is growing! But the weeds do have to go, so the whole front yard will be sheet mulched as well as the back.
The right side of the front yard before being mulched.
Lots of potential!!! The south end of the yard. The arbor will have kiwis and grapes growing on it and vegetables underneath it. We just have to create a new garden.
We decided to leave the 2 levels in the yard, and add a retaining wall where railroad ties had been. Fruit trees will grace the upper level with other food growing in between.
Looking towards the other end of this large yard, where the shade is will be a patio, with a path winding from one end to the other, using the bricks in the background
To the left of the gate is where a beautiful and functional compost bin will be built. Since this property is near Tilden Park, we will build it so the raccoons don't get into it. There is a native blackberry being safely saved on the other side of the fence under the trash enclosure.
The pile of house facade and BBQ brick rubble that looks ominous but actually provided us creative solutions for the wall and steps. The sunnier patio is under the arbor in the corner. There will be wisteria growing towards the sun over the arbor from the corner.
The corner patio has been sheet mulched and spread with a layer of sand in preparation for the flagstone that had been there, was lifted up and laid back down again with sand in the cracks to keep down the weeds.
The yard has been sheet mulched with rolls of cardboard from Urban Farmer, an irrigation, etc. supply store. We laid 6 yards of soil over the cardboard and are waiting for a tree company to bring mulch. The concrete pieces and bricks are waiting to be built into a retaining wall between the 2 levels
The mulch arrive. It smells delicious!!
The left side of the front yard with piles of mulch gone to the rest of the yard and this area now has no weeds and looks neat while it waits for rest of backyard to be finished.
The right side of the front yard now mulched. There are bulbs under there so no sheet mulch.
Transformation of a historical nature
Before: This client in Trestle Glen wanted to transform their back yard using California native plants, add irrigation, have consultations about how to garden themselves after we had installed what they wanted. This is the path to the back yard, from the front.
After: We rearranged stones they already had in their yard to create this path that was more artistic and unified.
Before: They wanted a more distinct path through the lawn area.
After: We again used flagstone they already had in other parts of the yard, and bought more when we needed it. We also built a bed by the garage, took out the Calla Lilies and planted them on the side so they could have mostly natives in their back yard.
Before: This is a California Live Oak tree with a not very attractive bed of railroad ties around it. We used what parts of the wood that were not rotted for the patio to level the picnic table to the right.
After: We placed rocks around the oak tree, added natives that can live under an oak that don't want much water so the oak doesn't get much when it's not raining, and built the flagstone path which is hard to see in theis photo due to bright sun, and it all looks much more natural and dignified for the majestic oak.
Before: The picnic table was hard to sit at because of the tilt of the land. Because this property has historical significance, having the steps that went to the train station here (the reason for the name Trestle Glen), it was important to them to keep the railroad tie motif.
After: We used the railroad ties from in front of the oak tree to build this patio to level the ground. Also bricks that were around the yard for the steps.
Before: Looking towards the back deck, there is only grass there and weeds.
After: Laying flagstone in front of the deck, creating a true path from it to the back patio where the picnic table is, as well as a path to the side of the house that goes to the front yard and street.
3 projects
Natives and drought tolerant plants in each yard, along with irrigation, paths, "stream beds", rocks, Nature!!
The focal point tree was the only plant that had to stay in this rather bare front garden.
Here a native Ribes sanguinium 'Glutinosum' Pink-flowering Currant, stands under the living room window, destined to come into their view from inside but not cover the window to block out light. Around it are shade-tolerant ferns and Heucheras.
Rocks and a change of height in the garden were important to these clients.
We took out the brick walkway between the front walk to the house and the driveway, and laid the bricks in the sidewalk strip in strategic places. We replaced the bricks to the driveway with stepping stones.
They wanted to be able to take care of this themselves so keeping it simple and not too crowded was the answer.
Lucky me, a blank slate!! This is a property owned by Restoration and Development Corp. and designed and built by Levitch Associates, Inc.
Plants are growing, the sidewalk strip is not yet planted (only weeds).
Mulch covers the drip irrigation pipes and keeps moisture in the ground, as well as helping keep the weeds down to a minimum.
This is one of a few plants to work around, having its own micro climate of fairly deep shade, except in the summer when it gets late afternoon sun. This Atlas Cedar was later pruned into a more beautiful shape.
Looking toward the central patio; we brought in soil and compost to build up these planting areas. Those boxes on the side of the house regulate the solar panels on the roof.
Bricks were brought from another job site by the architects. Beautiful reused materials!
Only a few plants to work around, two Camellias - well-established, and a rose bush.
The decomposed granite path as well as the brick patio allow for drainage of water while keeping water on site as it sinks into the earth. This is a very important Bay Friendly feature.
I added a plum tree close to the fence to protect the Camellias from sunburn in the hot west summer sun, as well to give the upper occupants a tree view and privacy when the plum grows taller.
The Heucheras or Coral Bells are doing well under the cedar tree, as is the Mimulus or Sticky Monkey Flower.
The plants have softened the concrete path.
Drought tolerant lavenders, rock rose, and flax. Be sure not to over water these plants, they grow too fast and burn themselves out.
Smokebush in spring bloom with grasses along the drainage waterway.
The white flowers are on a St. Catherine's Lace native buckwheat plant, summer blooming, with native Salvia clevelandii in back of it.
This is the fall beauty of the St Catherine's lace Eriogonum plant.
I got the city of Berkeley to plant these trees in the sidewalk strip. Bricks, varieties of thyme and mulch were added along with drip irrigation.
I registered this garden as a Bay Friendly Garden. Here are three different species of Manzanita, Smokebush, Helianthemum, Libertia, Blue Fescue, all drought tolerant native or Mediterranean plants.
This is on a ridge of the Oakland hills, harsh weather and tough soil. This client was not happy with what another landscaper had done and had let the landscape go. The plants that he didn't like that were worth saving I took to a client in Montclair and filled in the weedy slope below the house.
We only left the Maple trees that had been pruned as harshly as the weather and soil of the landscape, hoping they would one day regain a dignified shape.
We took up the weed cloth that had covered the entire yard and only used it where we made a river of rocks.
Brightening up the front entry with Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem' are in the pots with drought tolerant plants to decorate the base.
Adding dimension to this dry landscape, matching and using some of the rocks that fill the native soil in their sharp golden beauty on the 'banks' of the round river rock stream bed.
The stream bed continues on the other side of the front walkway and down the steps.
The plants have grown in, the mulch has slowly moved into the 'river'. This is what a design/installation looks like couple of years after not being taken care by professional management.
More mulch is needed, pruning the plants, checking on the state of the irrigation. Continuous management of the garden sustains the design, the health of the plants, the longevity of the beauty.
A close-up of the Manzanita at the corner of the yard.
Rosemary can be pruned to show its gnarled bark and trunk, or left like this to be hedge-like, creating a border.
A slope on the side of the house needed more tiers to hold the soil and plants. We brought in more rocks to go with what was already there.
The plants have grown in nicely on both sides of the steps.
Even the service area needs beauty!
A West Berkeley backyard gardener who wanted it all!
The client for this transformed weed-ridden yard design/installation wanted a bit of everything, lawn, patio sitting area, natives/drought tolerant plants, fruit trees, vegetable gardens in half oak wine barrels.
Sod is hardy, needing water only once a week when established.
Bare areas mulched allow plants room to grow while leaving space for future plantings.
peach tree amidst drought tolerant grasses and plants
Vegetables and herbs share the wine barrel, a lemon tree grows in the decorative pot. Ground cover decorates the patio.
