Kelly Marshall Garden Design

My wife and I had an exceptional experience with Kelly! After finding out about her services on
, we reached out and started correspondence with her as we needed professional help with a California Native-​themed + water friendly front yard.
Within a week or two, we were able to arrange a time for Kelly to visit and sketch up the plans onsite. I can’t stress how great our meeting with Kelly went. First of all, she made the trip to South SF all the way from Clayton (foothills of Mt. Diablo) — not a short trip by any means. Second, she really exhibited her encyclopedic knowledge of plant species and aesthetics in drawing up a highly-​detailed landscape plan complete with irrigation/​care tips. Finally, she was a true professional and genuinely nice person to boot. She was extremely open and communicative with us – making sure the design incorporated themes, colors, and plant types we liked as well as being kid-​friendly. Kelly was also great in working within our budget in terms of her services.
Again, I can’t recommend Kelly enough. I already randomly gave her contact info to another family looking for a similar service and I’m sure they’ll be pleased with the outcome.

I noted Kelly’s interest in native California plants online, and gave her a call. Our problem front yard is thin clay over limestone, with alkaline water, and blasted by the sun most of the day! She helped us switch to a spectacular, low maintenance and low water native garden that is the talk of our neighborhood. In a short visit she outlined everything we needed to do to get the job done ourselves, writing schematics and specifics to end up with a professional, lasting result, just as we requested. We did all but the pressure valve installation. Some of the plants were difficult to locate, but with persistence we found a supplier in SF, and are extremely pleased with Kelly’s expertise, vision and helpfulness.

I found Kelly on the internet while searching for options to replace our front yard lawn with water conserving and low maintenance one. She was very helpful in discussing the plants with me and my wife. She ordered the plants and also showed up for plant placement. Our project was done in Sept 2013 and is starting to look good as plants grow.
I agree with Jonathan about the total cost but that is not because of Kelly’s fee or plant cost. Taking the old lawn and redoing everything is lot of expensive work because we hired a contractor who did all in two days. For the backyard, I decided to do it on my own or with minimum help and will save lots of money.
In closing, Kelly is great, she knows her trade very well. Very friendly and helpful.
I would recommend Kelly Marshall.

I met Kelly at a class put on by the Contra Costa Water District. CCWD’s goal is, of course, to reduce water consumption. One way they do that is to promote replacing lawns with gardens. Kelly was one of the presenters and is a garden designer. (Landscape Architect is the closest category on Unilocal I could find. I can’t say if that and garden designer are the same or a little different.) I didn’t really want to do the work myself, so meeting her at the class was perfect.
She clearly knows her stuff. She spits out scientific plant names on a whim, but is happy to dumb it down for brown thumbs like me. I had her design my lawn-​replacing garden (front and back). She worked with me and other members of the household, navigating our conflicting goals of a cheap and beautiful garden with aplomb. The new garden hasn’t had a chance to fill in, but I’m happy with the result thus far.
The only negative is that she was unrealistically optimistic about how much it would cost. We were way over budget, and not because I added a bunch of stuff. The fact is, my original budget wasn’t realistic. It would’ve been nice to have known that upfront, but then I don’t fault Kelly. She designs. She doesn’t install, so she’s not usually around to see the final tally. Besides… I had a feeling I wouldn’t meet my budgetary goal. When does that ever happen?
Kelly is good. I’m sure you’ll trust her from the moment you talk with her.