Landscape/garden designer with wide range of skills
We have finally decided that it’s time to update and improve our small front and back garden in Albany. We would like to do some new plants, a new patio, possibly in flagstone, and would also like to consider upgrading or extending our deck. Lots of overwhelming choices here so we're thinking that we need a landscape designer who can help us put this all together so it looks good but also functions well. Anyone have any designers they’d recommend? Thanks!
Sep 16, 2024
Parent Replies
We love our landscape designer, Marco Marchesini. He's designed and planted our front and back yards and installed fencing and a small deck. He's extremely pleasant to work with and continues to maintain our garden.
https://marcosgoodgardens.com/
marcosgoodgardens [at] comcast.net
Hello!
Exactly a year ago, we had our front and back yards completely redone (what had been grass and shrubs were replaced by low-water, native, and pollinator-friendly grasses and plants and we could NOT be happier. Literally every time we sit in our new patio space, we marvel at the transformation and all of the bees, butterflies and birds who come to visit our yard).
To get to that place, we worked with landscape designer Angela Tamblin of Angela Tamblin Landscape Design. She listened well, collaborated with us, and came up with options for us to chose, based upon our budget and needs. The process was fun (I’m a big olant nerd) but also took time and thought, as it’s a big investment and we wanted it to be “just right”.
I recommend her without reservation!
I have the perfect person for you! Sita Rupe is a landscape contractor with a strong design background. She redesigned my front yard, which earned me a spot on the 2024 Waterwise Garden Tour as one of the featured homes. (510) 205-2846 www dot SitaRupe dot com
I'd recommend Nina Mullen of Mullein Designs. She did my whole front yard and consulted on part of my backyard. She is knowledgeable about both plants and their care, as well as a variety of different types of hardscaping options. She's great to work with.
https://www.mulleindesigns.com/
I'd highly recommend Mullein Designs who redesigned our yard last year.
We aren't really garden people so we didn't have a strong vision of what we wanted our garden to look like, so we decided to go with a landscape designer rather than try to figure it out ourselves. We scheduled an initial consultation, and I was so pleased with the first meeting that I didn't evaluate any other vendors.
Reasons why the process was great:
- Expertise in and love of plants. Nina and her team are experts on both plants and the local area - what would grow well in the area and which plants might be better for our taste.
- Easy process. We filled out one questionnaire that included questions about our style, preferences, etc. and had a couple of meetings to discuss how we use the space and the types of plants we like...and that was it. The team came back with two different designs that fit exactly what we were looking for in terms of look and feel and budget. They have landscape contractors that they partner with - you can choose your own landscape contractor, but we went with their recommendation. We continued to use their services during the installation portion of the project, and it was great to have them involved and seeing the vision through to the end.
- Proactive and detail-oriented. There were a ton of things we never considered (hose storage, trash/recycling bin storage, etc.) that they proactively asked us about and worked with us on.
- Wonderful people. The entire team at Mullein Designs was a pleasure to work with.
I can't recommend them enough. We are so happy with our yard and can't wait to enjoy it for many years to come.
Yes! Yes! We worked with the most WONDERFUL design team: https://www.mulleindesigns.com
We called about five companies initially and had the best pre-project phone call with them after which they sent us a list of properties they had designed and encouraged us to drive around and look at some examples of their work during the consideration process. We came to realize that each property was really unique and they clearly had taken feedback and the space into consideration in the design - instead of just doing the same old thing everywhere.
After we chose them, we had multiple meetings about how the space would be used, where the light would hit, what we really wanted, which was so helpful because I know NOTHING about plants!
We love our front garden and we use our back garden ALL THE TIME now for entertaining or just sitting outside to have lunch during the week. It really is a peaceful respite and we used to never go out there!
I can't recommend Nina and Lesley at Mullein more highly. Please do message me if you want to chat about them.