I never thought our outdoor spaces could look so beautiful. Ingrid and team overhauled all of our…read moreoutdoor spaces after a remodel that killed much of our plants and dried out our soil. From the get-go, Ingrid was on top of everything and responsive to this major project. She was excellent at providing a vision, trouble shooting for unexpected problems and providing amazing results. I can't say there weren't unforeseen complications at times like with any other project but I found her reasonable and professional. My outdoor spaces speak for themselves from her late autumn work to seeing our first spring bloom.

Ingrid was great to work with. She has deep knowledge of plants, design, and how to combine it all…read moreto maintain a beautiful and interesting landscape year-round. I had a decent sketch of what I wanted to do when we connected. She picked it up seamlessly, provided a ton of great and creative ideas, and was very easy to work with, including providing clear options for different budget levels. She was flexible and was always ready to adapt if needed with creativity and expertise. Great communication, great crew, and great results.

I own a landscape company in Cali and have done several jobs for Molly. Her and her team are the…read moremost professional and creative design team I've worked with in the many years I've been in this business. Her vision for spaces is unmatched. I recommend her to all my clients looking to transform their yards into their dream spaces.

We loved working with Molly, and she came up with some great ideas for our backyard. She proposed…read moresome structural and architectural changes that we loved and were happy to have our contractor implement. Unfortunately when it came to implementing the landscape plan we now find ourselves on our own. ORCA's contractor referral ghosted us and ORCA wasn't able to connect us with anyone else to help bring their vision to life. Now I'm back to looking at Yelp / Craigslist / personal referrals to get the landscaping done, and many of the people I'm finding would prefer to work with their own plan. I know we'll get some value out of our plans from ORCA, but it now seems like we may pay someone else for overlapping work.

Sonia was a great, prompt communicator, and she was incredibly thorough in figuring out our yard…read moreand the kinds of plants and trees we liked before coming up with her beautiful plan. Along the way, she introduced us to a bunch of plants I love that I would have never known about, and was great at incorporating our tweaks and ideas as we finalized everything. When the plan was set, she connected us with a talented landscaper who got everything planted to Sonia's specifications and installed all the irrigation and hardscaping. Redesigning a yard can feel overwhelming (so many decisions!), but Sonia made it easy, and I'm over the moon about the way our yard turned out.

Sonia was amazing to work with. I'm so happy with how my landscaping design worked out. She worked…read moreseamlessly with the landscaper and plant supply stores so I didn't have to do anything. Felt super easy! Would definitely work with her again.

Fiddlehead Gardens did excellent work. I needed a gardener and met Racheal Perry while she was…read moreworking in the garden at a friend's house in SF. She was doing a great job there so I asked her to come and give me an estimate at my house close by. She got in touch with me a few days later to set up an appointment. I hate to do gardening work and had gotten very lazy and needed a lot of help. I have a backyard deck with two very large planter boxes full of dying and out-of-control plant growth. I also have two planter boxes lining my driveway that needed a new irrigation system and a lot of clearing out done as well. Racheal arrived at the initial appointment on time. She is very pleasant and has a lot of experience and knowledge. She obviously loves what she does. I received a fairly priced written estimate by mail within a week. And Racheal came up with a smart way to do the irrigation system in the front of my house that solved a big watering headache. I was very pleased. A couple of weeks later Racheal and Cate came to my house and did a fantastic job. They were on time, hard working, polite and fun to talk to and did all the work as expected (which took a full 8 hours). There was a lot to do and afterwords my deck/yard and front planter boxes looked great. They hauled away a big truck full of plant debris - good riddance! I am very much looking forward to entertaining and hanging out on the deck during the summer. And knowing that Fiddlehead will be doing monthly maintenance, I know my deck will be in good shape. I am also looking forward to seeing the new plants grow. Thanks Racheal and Cate!

I can't say enough good things about Racheal and Fiddlehead Gardens. She took our modest-sized…read morefront planter beds (and our modest budget) and crafted a plan that turned them from an eyesore into a tidy and easily maintained space. She was also the only one (!) of the landscape architects or gardeners I called who assured me that she herself planned to work onsite throughout the entire job, supervising her staff and attending the fine pruning of our unruly apple tree personally. Her attention to detail also deserves a mention: the irrigation system she designed is a marvel, with miniature sprayers positioned perfectly for the various plantings. She even took it upon herself to tidy up our overgrown agapanthus, despite it technically not being part of the work order. A five-star experience from beginning to end.

Leigh is incredibly talented and we couldn't be happier with the work she did…read more We'd been unhappy with our yard for many years--it's an odd-shaped space on a slope, with numerous challenges (strong wind, freeway noise, too much concrete). We were seeking ideas for how to make it into a sanctuary--or just improve it so we actually enjoyed spending time outdoors. We'd consulted with 2 landscape designers previously, but weren't happy with what we heard (no compelling ideas unless we were going to spend enough money to buy a second house). Leigh came over for an initial consultation and literally within minutes, she had a vision for what we could do that was super exciting and within our budget. She came up with clever ideas to block wind and noise, replace the concrete in our yard with a row of pretty trees and bushes, and maximize the part of our yard that was most private to give us that sanctuary. Leigh chose beautiful plants for our yard and was careful to check with us each step of the way to ensure everything was in line with our tastes. The crew she worked with were fast, professional, extremely detail-oriented, and committed to high-quality work. We feel so lucky to have the backyard space we have now--we're outdoors all the time and love it. Thank you, Leigh!

We worked with Leigh to renovate our entire backyard. It was a huge project, taking the better part…read moreof a year including design and construction. The end result is absolutely beautiful. We love our new backyard and have nothing but praise for Leigh. She worked with us on initial vision and detailed design, choosing materials and plants, figuring out how to deal with unexpected wrinkles that came up, and navigating the sometimes stressful intersection of perspectives between contractors, arborists, and vendors. Great working with you, Leigh. Thanks for helping us with our dream yard!

Sarah Herman designed the new landscaping in my front yard earlier this year. It consisted of…read moredouble rock walls, low-water plants, and irrigation. It was an excellent design whose expert installation was performed by Christian Ehrhorn of Misty Morning Gardens. As one neighbour put it, my new front yard is an asset to the community. It was indeed a job well done.

I just had a landscape design consultation with Sarah at my house in Berkeley. It was soooooo…read morehelpful. She's awesome. She just saved me thousands of dollars and greatly improved the design of my yard. I had such a limited way of seeing the space before Sarah brought her design ideas. I'm really excited about what my back yard can be. She came prepared with images, plant ideas, websites for me to order materials and design ideas. She listened to what I wanted and totally got my style. Then she made some great recommendations. She was incredibly knowledgeable about everything from the type of plants to use to drainage to what types of stone to use for hardscaping. She knew so much about plant varieties - what to grow where and in what conditions. So many possibilities that I hadn't thought of! She also gave me some functional ideas - like how to expand my driveway so that I could fit two cars in it! That is going to make a huge difference so I don't have to park one car on the street anymore. Thank you, Sarah!

I hired Down to Earth Landscaping to address backyard drainage, new irrigation system and provide…read morelandscape design and execution of plantings in June 2026 for a roughly 4,000 sq ft back yard. At this time, I have no reason to believe the irritation and drainage work is under par. The main concern is the lack of attention to the landscape design of plants and the execution of. Very little to no thorough site assessment was performed. Plants were plopped randomly around the yard without regard to sun/shade exposure, proper planting height or distance from other plants at maturation. The overall planting design was pressured and rushed, lacked thought and the end "design" lacked any cohesion or made sense. Plants began to die within the first week due to improper light exposure- too much or too little, and incorrect amount of irrigation to plants that had just been installed the week before. 3 months out, some plants have already grown too large for the space, and others are so far apart they will fail to fill in a space at maturity. Many plants died within the first week. I expressed my concerns about where the plants were placed on the day they arrived on site and when asked Jessica for help with figuring out perhaps some modifications she refused to give her feedback saying I had to make the decisions. I was taken aback and put off when she responded defensively and aggressively to my request as we stood looking at the containers of plants scattered over 4,000 sq ft.; I had incorrectly assumed that some collaborative process at this stage would be the norm. Again it felt like Jess wanted to rush through the process. That day, while Jess stood by and watched with arms folded, a friend and I frantically arranged plants in containers in what we thought might look better, in under 15 minutes as Jess was threatening to charge more for our "delaying" the project. It seemed a little bizarre and unprofessional. I left feeling I had been a bit scammed. After 3 weeks of initial planting, a third of the plants were dying. When I called Jessica to express my concerns I was surprised to be told that I could hire DTE to maintain the garden. She stated irrigation fails or breaks yet did not acknowledge that the irrigation she installed was barely a week old and I assumed she would want to make sure the work she had done was actually working. No accountability was taken for a design that failed to take into consideration basic design principals for both aesthetics and health of plantings. Since then, I have spent considerable time researching each existing plant for light requirements, and size at maturity. I have spent considerable money replacing dead, failing-to-thrive plants and problematically placed plants and slowly redesigning the entire scheme for plant health and aesthetics. Down to Earth Landscaping may work if you are able to design the space yourself: have extensive knowledge of plants, understand your site conditions and needs, with the expertise and acumen of a professional, and are ok with DTE simply executing your plan.

Down to Earth did an incredible job revamping our backyard in Oakland, plus completely updating and…read morefixing a neglected irrigation system. I can't stop looking at our before and after pics -- we went from scraggly patchy grass and meagre plants, to curving garden beds full of plants, fresh sod, lights strung above, and a brand new irrigation system. I wanted a south of France / Napa vibe, and Jesica delivered. Jesica and her crew were easy to communicate with, worked diligently to get the job done, and provided incredible level of service for a reasonable quote. Her crew went above and beyond with the irrigation repairs, and even went out of their way to fix a few boards on my deck that they notice were loose; super attention to detail and quality work.

Miri is priceless. She is extraordinarily knowledgeable about native plants and the creatures that…read moreinhabit native gardens. She takes time to understand the client's needs and what all is involved. She was undaunted by my challenging site in the Oakland hills and her rates are extremely fair.

Cancelled 20 minutes before our schedule appointment because she was tired. I suppose that makes…read moreher honest, but I can't recommend Miri.