Organic Gardening Professionals in Albany, CA

“My garden had good bones but the plants were all wrong. I wanted a garden that looked natural but well-kept, a tough aesthetic to pull off. I wanted lots of birds and butterflies. Mariposa Gardening has taken care of my garden for a few years now. The principal, Andrea Hurd, started by editing the original sorry collection of misplaced plants, replacing the losers with absolute winners. I now have a beautiful variety of textures, colors, shapes and sizes. Something is in bloom in all seasons. We are overrun with birds and, in season, with butterflies. Her maintenance crews have done a great job of keeping her work looking good. The trees are elegantly pruned; each one displays that gold standard "looks like it grew that way" look. Any special request that I make is quickly taken care of. Sometimes I get treats, in the form of new flowers or vegetable starts (I love foraging in my own back yard). In short I am completely happy with Mariposa Gardening and Design.”

“Rafat was a pleasure to work with and is not only very knowledgeable but has wonderful taste in design. We are delighted with our garden.”

“Sarah Ray and her design build firm are nothing short of exceptional. Sarah and her crew restored our trust in the home service industry after experiencing a botched home interior addition & remodel seven years ago. Our experience with Sarah now sets the gold standard for any home service provider we hire in the future. We spent a month carefully interviewing 6 landscape designers, architects, and design-build firms. Sarah was always the front runner and knew the second we hired her that we initiated a great partnership and were embarking on an awesome ride! And it was, on every front. Sarah is not only a talented visionary, designer and expert in her field, but a great listener, collaborator and partner. We have a large flat backyard (about 5000 sq. ft.) that was overgrown and neglected. We had ideas of the style and design elements that we liked, but it was overwhelming to think of how to get there! Having Sarah shepherd us through the design to build process was a privilege and an experience I will always treasure. She is extremely approachable, upbeat, patient, and easy to work with. She was very open to listening to our ideas and iterating on design options together. We also hired Sarah to build/implement our master design plan. A full design-build firm appealed to us because of the seamless and efficient implementation of the design. Sarah is also very available throughout the build process and was onsite nearly every day, as was her foreman. Sarah also met us countless times at various suppliers so that we could carefully select our materials. Her build crew is talented and very hard working. They started at 7:30am and worked for 7-8 hours/day, sweltering hot conditions or not. We really appreciated the undivided attention and the integrity and all-around work ethic displayed by Sarah and her crew. You will also find Sarah to be very transparent. Her billing system is the most logical and straight forward approach I have experienced in the home service industry. The invoice is directly tied to our contracted line items whereby charges reflect only percentages completed on a weekly basis. All change orders were at my request, and were only represented in the invoice if we agreed to it prior. There were no hidden costs or surprises. So, aside from my change orders, the project cost aligned with the signed contracted budget. Sarah created a gorgeous garden space that is everything we ever dreamed of and much more. Our family is looking forward to enjoying this beautiful extension of our home, our new found sanctuary, for years to come. Sarah Ray Design comes highly recommended for any size project. Thanks a million, Sarah!”

“I am a Landscape Contractor and have installed many of John's designs. His plans are detailed and easy to follow. He is one of the few Landscape Architects that designs to a budget. The client will know the construction costs prior to receiving my written proposal. I enjoy working with John and his staff. Very professional and talented One of the best custom residential Landscape Architectural firms in the East Bay.”

“We hired Rani to design our yard a year and a half ago and have been so happy with it! (See photos for San Mateo Redwoods.) It's perfect for entertaining, as well as family time. She listened to what we wanted, came back with several designs to show us some options and worked with us to get the perfect planting plans, too. She is very knowledgeable about plants and knew what would work in our shady backyard, and what would do better in the sunny front yard. We thought she did a great job at a reasonable price and have recommended her to many other friends and neighbors.”

“Audrey is great! Creative, knowledgeable and fun. She will work with you to create something unique and lasting. She has done two projects for us and continues to do the on-going maintenance to keep the garden fresh and lively. She cares about soil health, plant growth and is also knowledgable about water systems and the latest in drought irrigation technology.”

“Andrea designed a complete backyard remodel for us that involved extensive grading, hardscape and landscaping. The job turned out even better than expected and we constantly get accolades on the design. She chose the plants beautifully and 5 years out the yard looks better than ever and the plants have maintained and grown in even with restricted water use. I would highly recommend her and we plan to use her services again!”

“We heard about Susan’s work from our son. He had hired her to do the landscaping for his front and back yards and was very pleased with her work. We met with Susan in October of 2011 and found her to be a wonderful, easy going and a comfortable person to be around so we moved forward with asking her to design our front yard. We didn’t have a specific plan in mind but we did want a front yard without have any grass. We wanted a low maintenance yard with drought resistance plants. Beyond that, we weren’t really sure what we wanted. Susan didn’t ask many questions but through conversations with us, she came up with a concept that was fantastic. As an example my husband mentioned that as a child he remembered homes that had front porches and neighbors sat on their porches and watched the world go by. I mentioned I liked places that were serene. From those conversations, Susan came up with a beautiful design that had a front porch and a fountain. We had never considered either of those items but were tremendously pleased with the idea. We didn’t change a thing in Susan’s final design and we couldn’t be more pleased. We love our front yard and neighbors have stopped by to admire Susan’s work As the work began, Susan frequently checked in with the landscape owner and crew to ensure they were following through with her design. When the landscape owner went on vacation, Susan was here daily to check on the crew. Susan was very fast to respond to questions or concerns we had and she was available to assist us with picking out the pavers for our driveway as well as the tiles for the walkway leading to the front door. She was extremely patient as we took forever to make a decision I would highly recommend Susan to anyone looking for a landscape architect. She is extremely easy to work with; has a lot of patience and comes up with beautiful designs incorporating childhood memories and lifestyle choices. When we are ready to start on our backyard Susan will definitely be the person we hire to work on a design for that.”

“Monica Perrone was wonderful to work with. She helped our group from start to finish in achieving our landscape goals. Monica drew out samples and explained in detail what our thoughts would look like in reality. She made knowledgeable suggestions of what types of plants would work best for our project and the reasons for these ideas. The plan even detailed the projection of long term water use needed for the area and the plants. Our project looks beautiful and we are very happy with the end result, all thanks to Monica Perrone's expertise.”

“David was amazing to work with! He was easy going and very open to our ideas for our small yard. He never made us feel like our wants were too much and worked with us to include all of our wishlist. He was able to design the whole property, and was very knowledgeable with the plants he recommended. We got the final copies of the plans in a timely manner and he was overall a pleasure to work with. He really made us feel like our small space was important to him!”