Vertical Gardens Services in Oakland, CA

“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!”

“Working with Yaniv was an excellent experience for me. We did many projects together, mainly hardscape (backyard design) and every time my clients were amazed with the renderings!! I really appreciate his time and effort to design within the client's budget. I highly recommend Yaniv and his team.”

“Ferdi Castillo is an amazing talent with landscape design, who also happens to be kind, warm and funny too. A delight to work with and I couldn't be happier with the finished product. Our home has a very difficult site, a huge elevation gain/drop, limited space, just a weird, bizarre site. What he created surpassed anything I could ever come up with and he was very flexible with our limited budget. We now are using our space so much more efficiently than ever before. He is so easy to talk to and work with, we were sad when our project ended with him. I would absolutely recommend him. Friends of ours, neighbors, etc. come over and notice our big changes and ask who the genius is behind it: Ferdi Castillo. Hire him, your yard (and family) will thank you!”

“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.”

“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!”

“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.”

“Sue Miller of Miller Landscape Architecture took our weedy, uneven, unusable backyard and transformed it into a beautiful terraced garden perfect for relaxing and entertaining. She patiently listened to our thoughts and concerns, and designed and developed a plan that reflects our lifestyle. We now have expansive outdoor living space that fully suits our needs, including native plant gardens, lawn, horseshoe pit play area, deck/pergola, multiple flights of custom cut flagstone stairs, and a flagstone patio. We benefitted from Sue's design talent and construction experience, as well as her ease in working with contractors. She kept us updated throughout a multi-phased construction process, while providing suggestions and soliciting our input. We highly recommend working with Miller Landscape Architecture.”

“This past summer we hired Landsystems Landscapes to design a backyard retreat for our family. We wanted a space that would be both beautiful and functional, a place for us to entertain our family and friends, but also serve as a private oasis to escape for some peace and quiet. Landsystems were exactly the right people for our job. Not only are they landscape architects, but they’re also contractors. So we knew that if we liked their design ideas we could also hire them to complete the construction too. At first, I worried that hiring landscape designers meant hiring other people’s own personal styles, choices and ideas. I also worried we would be giving up input as to the direction things would go or what we wanted for our space. However, with Landsystems Landscape this was never the case. From their detailed online project questionnaire to multiple design meetings at our house to gain a better understanding of our wants, needs, likes and dislikes Landsystems Landscapes has made the whole design process a collaborative effort that has been both enjoyable and educational. We have felt guided and informed throughout the entire process, never pushed or strayed away from our own likes and the things most important to us. They made sure that we understood each step and felt comfortable and confident with each choice and decision we made. Every person from the Landsystems’ team was professional, respectful, reliable and knowledgeable. In addition, the Landsystems’ personnel made us feel important and valued. They took the time to listen, explain and answer any and all questions we had, even if we asked the same question before or maybe needed a little more explanation or information before feeling completely confident and comfortable with our decision. Of course, a huge factor in our project was budget…everyone has one and everyone is trying to stick to it! Budget was something that we discussed with Landsystems early on in the design process. It was a constant topic and reference point that helped guide our decisions. Landsystems worked very closely with us to stay within our budget without compromising the beautiful design they had created for our backyard. By the end we knew exactly what work was going to be done, how much it was going to cost us and what the final product was going to look like. We were so pleased with Landsystems Landscapes that after the completion of the design process we hired them to implement their creative vision and construct our new backyard. Demolition began a couple weeks ago and we couldn’t be happier with the company, crew and workmanship.”

“Luis and his team are top notch professionals who focus on quality. I have had the good fortune to work with him on several projects to improve my home and backyard in San Francisco. The first was a fairly complicated deck rebuild followed by my request to build a series of planters from an architect's drawings. They did such a great job on those I asked them to replace all my exterior siding and even add a window which looks marvelous. I can't recommend Form and Function Landscapes enough. My experience with Luis is he has always been fair and honest. I know I can trust him and his team of landscapers, carpenters, plumbers and electricians to do a good job.”

“We worked with Keith this last winter to redo essentially all of the yard space for our suburban home. This included front (yard, walkways, driveway), back (yard, patio), sides (planter boxes, walkways). We're very happy with not just the results, but the experience of working with Keith. Our house is an Eichler, so we were looking for a modern aesthetic in the design phase. Both Keith and designer Charlie Loy worked on preliminary design iterations. We worked with Keith directly as the design finalized, through the inevitable tradeoffs between features & budget. Through the build process, Keith was creative, flexible, and unflappable in making design and build adjustments due to complications (tree overhang required fire put to move, which meant the layout of some key benches and walls had to move, Keith worked out a new design immediately) and opportunities (turning some reclaimed boulders and river rocks into a water-less water feature). Budget and schedule: Our budget was around $100K, and we were able to stick pretty close to it, by changing some design elements so that the final design was at budget. Once we were in the build phase, both budget and schedule went without a hitch. Of course there were delays, but Keith and Cesar, his foreman, kept us informed, and worked around delays (inspections, parts not showing up) as much as they could. The whole crew was professional and thoughtful throughout the process -remember when we had those big storms in Nov /Dec - they made sure that even tho the yard was a muddy mess, we had clear access to the house. In the end, we're very very happy, and I would whole-heartedly recommend Keith Willig. Our new landscaping is not only beautiful, its 10X more usable! Keith & co were able to unlock parts of the property that we didn't even think about, and make them great.”