Design by nature renovated my backyard. Before pics posted, here we are 3 years later Updated photos. TLC and time brings beauty. read more

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Let us start by saying that our new yard is amazing beyond any of our expectations and we could not be happier! Merrill was referred to us by my sister who works for a paving stone company because she'd seen some of Merrill's work at her sites and knew she would be a fit for our needs. We wanted to take out all of our turf (more than 1,000 sq. ft. in the front and back yard) and replace it with California natives and drought tolerant plant varieties. This type of work happens to be Merrill's forte and passion! She worked with our budget, helped us secure our home owner's association approval and our county's turf removal rebate with her detailed plans, and gave us a gorgeous yard that will only get better with time! She even specially designed a desert habitat for our pet tortoise! We were also grateful for her patience while we worked out issues on our end (like having the county inspectors pre-approve and post-inspect the work) and was able to schedule her crew around our needs. After the project was finished she met with us and took the time to review all of the plant care and maintenance and even provided us with helpful tools and eco-friendly products to keep our yard looking its best. We feel very lucky to have met such an enthusiastic landscape designer! If we are ever in need of landscape deisgn in the future we will definitely be calling on her talents once again! read more

Design by Nature Studio - Our "desert habitat" for our pet tortoise. - Landscape Architects or Designers Near Me - Los Angeles, California

I waited a little while before writing the review to let the plants take root and also to be sure that the joy and excitement I felt when the work was completed was not simply relief that it was indeed done. This makes it seem as though the project took a long time, but the destruction-construction team worked really well and did a fantastic job. I just hadn't realized how much there was to do, when we to rip out everything except mature - almost all fruit trees & make a new yard Of course it is in the same place as before, but otherwise unrecognizable. Merrill listened to what we asked for, what we knew to ask for, and gave us so much more. Every time I look outside or walk anywhere in the yard including the once blah driveway, it makes me grin. We have a patch of grass for lounging and otherwise everything is either edible or native and not water-needy. Flowers and fruit started blooming within days, and we are promised a cycle to flowers as the seasons change. The praise for Merrill has to extend to the crew she contracted. Friendly, helpful, hard-working and really careful about their work. I recommend her and the crew without any hesitation. They were all outstanding. read more

We had just moved into our new home & although the inside was coming together the outside was far from it. We found Design by Nature Studio through a recommendation because we needed the lawn mowed & continued the relationship into a bigger plan. My husband and I met with Merrill, talked through what we were looking for, likes/dislikes & she came up with a complete & thoughtful design. Once she designed a plan, from what I recall, we had no major revisions because she had taken the time to gauge what we'd enjoy. The project recently wrapped up and it's looking amazing! Merrill and her team installed & arranged irrigation, lighting, planting, concrete - they did it all. The front of the house started before the back & it's amazing to see how much growth there has been with proper care. I don't have a green thumb and if this was left to me we'd have a very very sad outdoor space. Merrill did a great job managing our expectations with transparent pricing and a clear understanding of what commitment we were making. We couldn't be happier. read more

Merrill was the fifth or sixth landscape designer I interviewed a few years ago when I got serious about renovating my backyard. I had briefly worked with one other landscape designer, but after the third or fourth mention of a "bosque of trees" in my front yard, I knew I needed to keep looking. What the hell is a bosque, anyway?? I'm so glad I did because I eventually met Merrill. Merrill and I talked for a long time at our first meeting. When I said something about wanting very little or even no lawn, I remember Merrill rolled her eyes in exasperation and said something about what a water waster lawns are. I knew I had met my landscape designer! I also like to grow as many plants as possible from seed and Merrill completely supported my efforts and has been a terrific resource for websites that specialize in unusual plant seeds. Merrill understood and interpreted my vision perfectly. I bought my home in 2004 and lived with my miserable backyard for seven years. Now that the backyard is hardscaped and landscaped, I spend much more time outside enjoying it. My dreadful eyesore is now my personal sanctuary where I relax and unwind. It's my private paradise. Thank you, Mel!! read more

I wrote a review about 3 months after Merrill and her crew finished our yard, which for some reason is not posted here, so this will be both my initial review and an update. I am currently sitting on my front patio surrounded by a sumptuous garden. Our vegies and fruit are abundant, and the decorative parts of the yard, including a minuscule strip along the driveway are flourishing. We are encased in color, and during the six months since they finished their work, we enjoy the changing beauty every time we look or go outside. The crew was fantastic, hard working, friendly, and painstaking with detailed work when that was called for. Adjustments and changes were done cheerfully. From the initial cleanup until they were finished took quite a while but we were constantly impressed with how much they were able to accomplish each day, and we were quite comfortable having them in our yard. Merrill promised and delivered a beautiful yard with natives and drought-resilient plants predominating, space devoted to food-bearing plants, and small patches of grass for playing on. All irrigated appropriately and now, half a year and two and a half seasons later I couldn't be more pleased. read more

Merrill and her team were great. We really appreciated the attention to detail on our project. Everything from the curves of the borders to the selection of plants was well thought out and executed with great care. Our yard looks great now and we can't wait for all of the plants to fully mature when it will all be spectacular. read more

My wife and I hired Design by Nature to completely redo our relatively small garden area in the entryway to our Townhouse in Pacific Palisades. The job involved full design and build services including soil testing and analysis, new plant material, drip irrigation, plumbing, hardscapes, lighting, a trellis, seating area and planted pots. Our experience with Merrill, the principal behind Design By Nature Inc., and the Design by Nature team was excellent. Merrill and her team were professional, knowledgeable, detail oriented and thorough throughout the timeline of the project. Our ideas were considered carefully and incorporated into the final designs and we are extremely happy with the final outcome which we have enjoyed each day since completion. We have not often provided these types of consumer reviews, but in this case we are more than happy to do so as our overall experience was excellent. High quality professional services such as these do not come cheap and I am sure we could have spent less and gotten less from another designer. Based on our experience, we feel confident that you will be happy with both the services of Design by Nature and the final results of their work. We would like to close with a suggestion that helped us. Pay close attention to the ongoing maintenance of the garden since, like a car, a garden requires regular ongoing care. Merrill offered us advice early on and continues to help us avoid pitfalls as her team returns periodically to verify everything is in tip top shape and growing as planned. All in all, a great experience! read more

This is the first review I have ever written for Yelp or anywhere but the circumstances are extraordinary enough that I really wanted to write this. We came to need landscaping when seven (yes seven!) of our fully mature and cherished trees had to be removed from our property. (Long story.) Peeling paint was revealed and a LOT of brown dirt. It was painful to drive by and admit it was our home. We took our problem to Merrill and Design by Nature Landscape Studio and she took it from there. She created a design that incorporated our needs and wishes and then took it a step further with her own ideas, many of which we incorporated. Coordinating with our painting crew, Merrill had the hardscape installed within two weeks. While painting and hardscape was underway, Merrill began advising us on the plants. She had them tagged in nurseries throughout Southern California so that on installation day, in time with the irrigation becoming operative, plants were going in the ground. We wanted mature plants and trees and Merrill made it her business to find them. The crews were great. The follow up was great. She even got the property user friendly and serviceable for a wedding shower that came in the middle of it all. Through everything Merrill was up beat and knowledgeable. The project was created with a sensitivity to budget AND it came in on budget. We are sorry this all happened to us but thrilled we found Merrill. We love our new garden! read more

I have waited two years to post this review, to make sure that my assessment of Merrill and her services is as honest, fair, and unemotional as possible. In late 2016 and early 2017, Merrill and her team completely overhauled the front and backyards of my home. When it comes to plants and landscaping design, Merrill more than earns a 5-star rating. I have had several industry experts (biology graduate students, ecology graduate students, other landscape designers, nature preservation experts, etc.) visit our home over the past two years, and every single one, unprompted, has heaped praise on the plants Merrill selected, how she arranged them, and the flow of our outdoor spaces. If you are looking to have someone design your yard, and California natives/drought tolerant plants are important to you, look no further than Merrill. You will not be disappointed. I wish that I could end my review there, and leave Merrill and her company with a 5-star review. Unfortunately, I just cannot do so in good conscience. Although Merrill shines in design and plant knowledge, she is severely lacking in business acumen. At varying times, Merrill: 1) Failed to communicate with us about the status of our project for 2 - 5 weeks at a time, despite being reached out to by myself or my husband repeatedly, leaving our property in complete disarray. 2) Misjudged the cost of replacing our garage with a carport by $15,000. 3) Had a high employee turnover rate - including a former foreman who reached out to us when our project had completely stalled out to share with us behind-the-scenes horror stories (his professionalism is another matter entirely - that said, the fact that Merrill chose to hire him in the first place, and then fired him mid-project, is not a resounding endorsement of her judgment either). 4) When confronted about the total lack of progress on our property, and asked for a firm timeline of completion or else us taking our business elsewhere, threatened to put a lien on our home. Was our project eventually completed to my satisfaction? At the time, yes. Two years later, I have concerns: 1) Merrill's team bolted the irrigation to the side of our house, rather than run it underneath our home, per code. A few months ago we had a licensed plumber look at our home, and we had to re-do all of the piping her team had put in to make our home safe and up to code. This cost several hundred dollars. It also means that Merrill either sub-contracted the work to people who did not know the code laws, or else had someone on her team who was unfamiliar with the code laws install the piping. 2a) The irrigation system that Merrill's team installed was intended for a sprinkler system, not a drip line system. As a result, the water pressure running into that system was substantially higher than it should have been, and caused the pipes to noticeably and audibly reverberate throughout our home whenever the irrigation was turned on. 2b) If for some reason she really needed to have a sprinkler system operating a drip line system, her team should have installed a pressure safety valve release to take the pressure down from over 100 psi to 10 psi. This would have solved the reverberation issues. This was another issue that we had to have a license plumber and licensed irrigation specialist fix, and also cost us hundreds of dollars to fix. Is my home incredibly beautiful due to Merrill's vision and knowledge of plants? Yes. Would I ever recommend anyone work with her outside of design? Hell no. read more