Karen was highly recommended to us by our neighbors who were impressed by her professionalism, on time performance and satisfaction with the results. Our wants were to improve our curb appeal, drainage and water usage.
Karen developed plans with us through a iterative process based on design alternatives which were costed out, resulting in a final plan and budget.
We relied on her good judgement to finalize our decisions.

Results: Work was done on time and within budget. The workers were polite, skilled, and unobtrusive and lead by a very competent foreman. They cleaned up thoroughly at the end of each day.
Karen came by many times to inspect and oversee results and to seek our input regarding any interesting plant choices and their placement in our yard.
Now that the job is done, Karen comes by to inspect the plants and revise the watering schedule.
We really love our new garden and the neighbors say our curb appeal is great!!
We highly recommend her.

Karen, Omar and their team did a great job on our landscaping project. We continue to get compliments from friends, neighbors, and passersby who have stopped to ask for Karen??????s contact information! Our project was fairly large in scale and involved the following elements:

- new driveway (pavers)
- new irrigation, lighting and planting in front and backyards
- used brick entry steps, path and porch in the front yard
- used brick patio with wood pergola in backyard
- new kitchen entrance with landing, extended overhang and stairs to backyard
- new electric driveway gate
- wood trashcan enclosure

The project took about 3 months and actually finished slightly ahead of schedule.

Our situation was a bit unusual because, before meeting Karen, we had already developed a preliminary design plan with another garden designer who moved out of state before we could start the project. Since both my husband and I work full time, we knew we needed a project manager to coordinate all the different vendors and elements of the project. Karen helped us refine the design plan and she identified vendors for the specialized parts of the project (e.g., new electric driveway gate, new gas line for BBQ).

Karen provided detailed budgets and schedules which we really appreciated given the scope of our project. When we had changes, she sent us change orders to track the modifications to the budget and timeline.

In addition to her skill in managing the overall project, Karen is a very talented designer. She has relationships with nurseries that carry unique plants and she introduced us to a lot of new plant varieties that have quickly become our favorites. We are very visual people, so Karen brought over sample rocks and bricks and worked with us to map out path layouts before they were ??????set in stone.?????? Karen also provided us with catalogs and websites to review lighting fixtures, ga

I enjoy working in my yard but when I loss 3 pine trees to the bark beetle, I knew I needed help. Without the trees, my yard went from a lovely shady area around the pool to a hot blazing inferno in the summer. What remained were very old and somewhat neglected plants that didn??????t look bad with the pine trees but now needed some serious rethinking. Plus, the trees' roots had pushed on some low brick walls that needed to be repaired and I needed a new lawn.

I contacted Karen Miller because of the positive reviews she had online. And it??????s true, she really did transform an old, broken down yard into a truly beautiful spot. I had interviewed other landscapers but they only saw ??????their?????? vision and didn??????t really hear what I wanted. Karen was the exception. She listened and worked with me to make my yard spectacular. She understood my budget and worked with me so there were no surprises.

I have had several people over to my home and they always comment on how gorgeous and peaceful they feel in my yard. Because of her background as a photographer, her grasp of plant colors and outdoor lighting is exceptional. At night, when I gaze at my illuminated yard, I am rewarded over and over again at how lovely it looks. I??????m afraid if my husband and I had done the lighting without Karen, we probably would have made it look like an airport runway!

Finally, because I like to do the upkeep myself, she took the time to teach me how to take care of the new plants, a critical step to keeping your yard looking great!

Give her a call if you want the yard you always dreamed of. She does make wishes come true.

I am writing this review five months after Karen finished landscaping our back yard, and I am as enthusiastic now as I was when it was brand new (keep in mind this is after the damaging California freeze). Though the garden has evolved as well as taken some hits due to the unlikely weather, most of it is thriving and beautiful even in January, which is a testament to Karen fabulous plant choices and combinations.

Our backyard makeover was challenging, to say the least. It is on three levels, and required brickwork, railroad tie walls and planters, stairs, decomposed granite area, containers, irrigation, electrical as well an artistic eye to pull it all together with the existing elements. Karen met that challenge beautifully by first creating a groundplan and budget based on our initial consultation, followed by a comprehensive plant meeting, and then went to work bringing the whole vision to life. She brought in Jesse, the king of tree trimmers, who elegantly and seemingly effortlessly shaped a massive and sad looking sycamore tree as well as sculpted the rest of our trees. He and his men also set up an irrigation system and did the planting. Omar and his men did a marvelous job on the brick paths and stairs, railroad tie planters as well as stuccoed an old ugly retaining wall. All of Karen??s loyal subcontractors were real pros, passionate about their jobs, hardworking, paying attention to detail, as well as inconspicuous and self-sufficient. In fact, when the garden was finished, my husband and I were so happy and impressed we had a wrap party for Karen and her collaborators to celebrate everyone??s work and our beautiful garden.

On the artistic side of this makeover, Karen really impressed me with her great eye for composition, essentially painting the garden with color through her plant choices (She is a professional photographer as well, which explains

It was my great pleasure to employ Karen Miller for my backyard landscape project. I had no less than four landscapers look at my space over the spring and summer, and those were just the ones that returned my calls and made it to our meeting! That's not to say that they were on time, professional, or organized... just that they were breathing! I specifically expressed my vision to each one, only to be disappointed as they returned with a plan to make my yard look something like a supermarket or service station parking lot.... not that there's anything wrong with that, it just is not what I was looking for.

When I vented my frustrations to friends, they would reply, That's just how contractors are. I felt like my expectations were too high, and I was almost ready to give up and simply settle... Thank goodness, that's when I met Karen!

What a delight to find someone so professional and organized! She was busy with many jobs at the time, as she was obviously in high demand. But she took the time she needed to construct a proposal that was very detailed and incorporated all of my visions beyond my wildest dreams. She was worth the wait, and worth every penny! She worked within my budget and had great suggestions on ways I could afford my personal paradise. In the end, I decided to splurge on lighting after all.... the second best decision I made in the entire process (the first was trusting her implicitly)! With her background in photography, she masterfully placed each fixture to highlight the various focal points she created throughout the yard. It blows me away! Now my yard is a place I enjoy day and night!

Obviously, I can't say enough great things about her. She is honest, professional, returned every phone call or email, answered every question, was thorough, personally involved in the whole process, started and finished on time and stayed within my budge