We needed to completely plan our backyard from scratch. We built an ADU in 2021 and it took up a lot of space. Since we wanted to spend more time in the space and wanted it to be beautiful but uncluttered, we knew we needed help. We were referred to Kim and it was the perfect referral! She took our limited space and mapped out a plan that was perfect and incorporated everything we needed and wanted. Her process is pretty amazing; she spent a few hours with us in the backyard, asking questions and taking notes. When we were unsure about something, she'd make suggestions and help us reach a decision. She contacted us when she got to her office and we had a Zoom meeting where we reviewed a lot of details of the plan. That was a few hour process and we were exhausted when we got done but that same day we received from her a complete plan incorporating all the hardscape, landscaping, and plants, as well as a materials list. We were amazed! Her pricing is very reasonable and we felt we got much more value than what she charged. What's more, some of our design needed to change over the next few months as we were implementing the plan and Kim quickly responded to all of our questions and challenges with great suggestions. Kim is definitely someone we will recommend without hesitation to anyone looking for interesting, beautiful landscape design quickly and at a reasonable price. read more

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She is a terrible designer and presents generic plans that anyone can find on the Internet as her own. There is zero effort, originality, or effort put into the work. And on top of that she charges premium prices. You are better off using Google, AI, or anything else for free. Your result will be the same as if you paid hundreds or thousands of dollars to this useless designer. read more

I have worked with Kim on two medium size projects. She is very easy to work, upfront and extremely fast! Kim did an amazing job at incorporating my style with her expertise/good design practices to elevate my space at a very reasonable cost. My advice: collect pictures of what you like and don't like. It really helps with making the process go faster. Good luck! read more

We worked with Kim on a complete backyard remodel, including both hardscape and landscape. She was a joy to work with. Her expertise in design and plant choices was invaluable. She also helped us find an appropriate contractor for our job. I highly recommend her. Sandy read more

Really appreciate your quick responses. You suggestions are great and you take time to explain the details. You are always reachable and very easy to work with as well. read more

Kim is great! Great resource on all things yard and garden. Very responsive and helpful. Strongly recommend Kim for yard project design/ knowledge questions. read more

We couldn't be happier with Kim's design and guidance on our front and back yard makeovers. Her process is fast, interactive, and thorough. She listened carefully to our sometimes conflicting requests and came up with a plan and design that exceeded our expectations and even highest hopes. During the construction phase of our project, she responded to a few follow-up questions we had as we made a few additions to the design (we had discussed these as "optional" in our planning with Kim, and ended up putting all our optional items in after all!) We asked for low-water, bird-friendly plants, including some native plants, while also creating separate living spaces in the back yard. Everything from the layout to the plant selection was easy, and wonderful. Kim incorporated some of our favorite plants and recommended several others that met our needs and have proven to be beautiful! Neighbors have been impressed, and we couldn't be happier. Our lawn before was nice, but now we feel like we have a bit of an oasis! We went from occasionally using our back yard to being outside almost any time we're home--it really is an extension of our home now rather than just a lawn and patio. Plus, the bird watching is fantastic! read more

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We were thoroughly pleased with the landscape design Kim created for us. (We've worked with a landscape designer in the past -- relandscaping 2 different properties -- but they have since retired.) We decided to go with KL Designs after reading reviews and viewing photos of her work online. Kim was excellent in gathering information about our needs for the yard and replacing our very old deck, and reflecting them in the initial design. We loved the way she went about choosing plants. After our initial meeting, she assembled a document of various lower-water plants/shrubs/trees with pictures in various seasons, including notes about sizing or other attributes of interest. From that, we chose or nixed plants (sometimes noting what it was we liked/disliked). With that information and feedback about the initial design, she came up with a "final" design that we still tweaked. Even after we had the "final" design, she incorporated changes for us and regenerated the design and plant lists. We found the resource list she provided as very helpful. It listed landscape contractors, nurseries, material suppliers, and more. After we hired our landscape contractor, we found that two of our existing trees had to be removed. We emailed Kim with our thoughts on what to replace them with, and she was quick to review our changes and respond. (There were a few times we've needed to email her about minor things, and she always got back to us quickly -- even when she was out of town.) Summarizing, we found Kim to be: * very professional * easy to work with * good at listening to our wants/needs * helpful in her method of choosing plants * sensitive to how the landscape changes through the seasons * knowledgeable about low-water and drought tolerant landscaping * flexible and prompt with design changes * reasonably priced read more

We had a great experience working with Kim on the soft-scape design for our front and backyard. We really liked the fact that she was flexible in accommodating our specific needs. We had a scaled plan of the landscape on hard paper and decent amount of planting done in the backyard in the prior season; we wanted to use the existing plan in the CAD design and start the new design with what we already had. Kim was able to take what we had and build from there on. Kim surveyed our property, prepared the plan scaffold and collaboratively worked with us virtually to prepare the final vegetation plan all in the course of the same day. I cannot say how useful it was to provide input on plant choices while she was preparing the design for us. Though Kim set the direction, she made sure we were happy with the plant choices or made changes as needed. She is pretty knowledgeable will all kinds of plants and planting styles. Her pace of work was also quite fast. In the end, we had a solid plan for the plantings at a cost that we could justify. Can't wait to bring the plan to reality! read more

Loved working with Kim to design our dream backyard. I previously tried YardZen and was extremely disappointed. My friend referred Kim and I'm so glad he did! Kim was extremely knowledgeable, helpful, punctual, and creative. We did a virtual appointment and in less than a few hours we had the backyard of our dreams with a play area, entertaining area, and gardening section. I would highly recommend Kim and we will definitely be using her services when we redesign the front yard. read more

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Kim helped us redesign our front and backyards which had a lot of haphazard trees / plants. She managed to help us keep the existing plants we liked and refresh our yards with new plants / trees and some hardscape. We were impressed by Kim's deep knowledge of all plants and her efficiency with the entire process. Although she's booked far in advance, Kim is able to get the whole design done in one day and her rates are very reasonable. Thank you Kim! read more

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We used Kim with KL Design to design a complete conversion of our front yard with a large area of lawn to a drought-tolerant landscape. The tricky part was that we now live on the East Coast and the entire engagement had to be done remotely. We were amazed at how easy this was. Kim is so knowledgeable and incredibly detail-oriented that she directed us though all the steps with ease. For anyone who loves technical software, she is a wizard. We had a Zoom meeting where she designed the plan as we watched her manipulate the CAD program and draw the design by inputting placement of the plants, mulch, rock and pavers. Then she had the idea of putting a sitting area under a tree. We had an idea of a few plants we wanted but no way did we have the knowledge of the drought-tolerant plant world to intelligently choose the mixture of plants that would be required and would look pleasing together. She would flip from the CAD program to another screen to show us photos of her recommendations for plants and then create the plant list we would need. I think the whole process took about 90 minutes and we came away the following: PFDs of the demo plan and landscape plan DWG file from CAD (we took it to UPS and they printed out a large scale plan for a few dollars) Spreadsheet plant list Spreadsheet list to give to the county for the water rebate Notes for watering Resource List of contractors the county also provides (We went with Total Landscape and they were fantastic. We have a review for them too.) I still marvel at how this was all done remotely. Kim is a true professional and the yard turned out beautifully. read more

Kim does a lot of great designs. I have completed a-lot of her work and the plans are always so easy to read and her plant selection is great. Defiantly one of the best designers in the san Jose area. read more

We are so happy having Kim design our front yard and backyard landscape! She's super knowledgeable, professional and efficient. We wanted to replace lawn with drought tolerate landscape. At the beginning, we had no idea what to plant and how it looks like. She provided several overall options and a long list of plants options. She answered many questions with patience eventually we had a good picture. She measured our yard thoroughly and drew the landscape plan with all plants, lights and other related. She made changes for us when we changed something. After the project started, she answered plants replacement questions quickly when some of the plants were not available. We are also happy with landscape company she recommended. The whole project went very well. I'd strongly recommend her to others. read more

Kim is efficient, to the point, direct and KNOWS HER STUFF. You will end up with a cohesive landscape where every tree is in a location where it fits in appropriately with the trees around it and gets the right amount of sunlight and nutrition. Kim is very efficient with her time and yours. If you have done your homework and have a general idea of what you want (which you should, because it is your yard that is being designed) then your entire landscape design will be done in 3-4 hours tops. May be even less. The pricing is also very very reasonable. Highly recommended! read more

Kim came out and created a plan to redesign our front yard at a cost that was quite reasonable. Highly recommend her! We were able to get it all done in one day at our home. Only downside was having to book a time months in advance. read more

Kim was amazing. She came over for an on site discussion on the big picture and then later that day provided a Zoom session to do the detailed design work. Kim gives you a plan with all the details you need and was great at communicating. We are looking forward to the project execution now that we have a beautiful and detailed plan. read more

I LOVE my New Front Yard! When I made the decision to convert my front yard to California natives and drought-resistant plants I started researching to find someone who could help me design a beautiful new space that would give the impression of an English cottage garden. When I saw Kim Leichner's website and her portfolio, I had a feeling she would be a good person to help me realize this idea. Kim was awesome to work with! She came over to the house and immediately started coming up with really nice ideas. She was so easy to work with and very patient. We sat down together and reviewed plants that could work in the yard. She really listened to me and tailored the design to plants that appealed to me. There are different textures, colors and layers to the garden that make it eye-catching and exciting. I decided to go all out with redoing my walkway and driveway with stamped concrete since the landscaper I chose specialized in that (Greg Serrano Landscape). I can't tell you how much I love to just sit and stare at my beautiful new yard. It's like having a new house! Thank you, Kim, for helping me to create my dream garden! read more

KL Designs - Landscape Architects or Designers Near Me

Kim responded quickly and made a landscape design for my project really fast. She was very knowledgeable about plants and about what I needed to do to apply for a landscape rebate for my lawn conversion. read more

Kim was wonderful to consult and work with. She pointed out several spots for improvement in our initial consultation call and sent over useful links right after it, pointing us to directions where exactly we need professional advice. We would have loved to work with Kim but the schedules didn't work out this time. Look forward to the next opportunity! read more

My wife's review got filtered for some reason. Here i'm posting on behalf of her. Our project was done in 2017 summer time and the plants all look very good today! Kim is truly amazing. She started our project with a great consultation and she heard our needs and preferences. Then she presented a beautiful and thoughtful plan. She responded to my questions after installation and after everything was done, she came out and did a walk through with me and let me know what I need to do to keep my yard live. She has deep knowledge about plants and their irrigation needs. She is very professional and would be a great designer for you if she is available! read more

Kim is an exceptional, knowledgeable, and creative designer. She cares about understanding the people and animals that will interact with a space and designing for function and utility, as well as beauty. She takes the time to educate her clients on plants, irrigation, and everything else that goes into a plan. I appreciate that she also shares creative opportunities for how to create charm, whimsy, and uniqueness to personalize a space and its ambiance. Kim's calendar fills up in advance, so don't hesitate to book her! read more

My husband and I hired Kim a couple of years ago to help create a drought tolerant landscape in both our front and back yards that had a balance between form and function. I wanted something that looked lush rather than desert like. Now my yard looks more like an English garden where there are many layers and something is always blooming. There is a mixture of native and exotic plants as well as some edibles. My yard attracts a variety of bees, birds, and butterflies. Last year I even got Monarch butterflies. Kim really listens and gives you just what you are looking for. The best part is that it takes very little water to maintain the yard. Kim is extremely knowledgeable in beautiful drought tolerant and native landscapes! read more

IMPRESSED!! I'm not even a client in her area and Kim directed me to look at other landscaping designers in my area. Even for a non paying client, Kim spent so much time responding to my questions and even sent me a detailed list of plants with descriptions and pictures that I can consider myself. Her clients in the South Bay are very lucky to have her knowledge and expertise! read more

I live outside of the area that KL Designs services. However in her response to my request for a quote, she gave me so many helpful hints and suggestions. This was so helpful and appreciated. I can tell she truly loves what she does. read more

Exceptional knowledge, customer service and, in a time in the Bay Area when everyone is out for themselves, Kim displays selflessness and compassion beyond any expectations I had. I could not have been more impressed with our conversation and her extensive recommendations. Kim works from the heart with doing the right thing for you and the environment at the forefront of her approach. I am ever thankful for her advice and recommend her without hesitation to anyone looking for an honest, wise, and personable professional with which to work. read more

KL Designs delivers! It is now three year's later, and the trees she suggested are getting bigger and bearing a few fruit, as she said they would. A couple of plants have expired, but the remainder are thriving and and covering the wood chips quite a bit now. Maintenance has been minimal. I am still very very pleased. Absolutely fully deserving of five stars. This is from two years ago: The design she offered was easy for a contractors to understand. It is now a year later, and it looks absolutely beautiful. The flowers Kim selected are very resilient, they bloom for long times, and alternate over the seasons. The colors fit in well with the home as well. The water usage has also been very low, which Kim did by selecting plants suited to the Bay Area climate. She also took into account neighbor's trees that affect the acidity of the soil, to be sure the plants close to there are compatible with those trees. Truly outstanding work, the results are wonderful. Kim is also very responsive, and answers questions with lots of useful information. Highly recommended. read more

My husband and I are very particular in our tastes and requirements. What further complicates things is we have a small budget with our big dreams. I've probably researched/interviewed three dozen plus designers in two years. I've also spent years trying to educate myself in the hope of maybe designing our own space. Here were our requirements all of which Kim exceeded: - someone who understood our desire to go native, but still give us a lush yard . - someone willing to work within our budget. On the first consult, she made a recommendation to change our pergola that will saves us thousands. After that, it felt like she'd paid for all of her design fees!! - someone knowledgeable who could give us low water, low maintenance plants that could handle the microclimates all over our yard - a visionary who could see into the future for us and give us a staged plan since we have playstructures that will be going in the next five years. -extremely knowledgeable. She steered us away from plants that would have ultimately been problematic and she knew every plant we brought her. My husband says she knows her SHIZZLE! Kim's design is low - water and low - maintenance, lush and colorful that is full of edibles, natives, and bird and bee attractants. It has whimsy and innovative structures and paths. It's the yard of my dreams. She's also fun to work with and I am thrilled we found her. I can't recommend her highly enough. Call her - you'll be glad you did!! read more

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We highly recommend Kim. We worked with her in Spring 2015 to come up with a low-water, no-grass design with full irrigation for a bare, 1 acre backyard in San Jose. This was a significant challenge due to the large amount of open space. Kim is a no-nonsense partner, with a background in landscape design and construction and has tremendous horticultural knowledge. Her price was more than fair and you can tell that she loves her job and has an artist's mentality about the project. In terms of execution, she took on a project others were intimidated by, did exactly what she said she would do, challenged us during the design phase with "homework" to make sure we really thought about what we wanted, and delivered plans our contractor could work with. We had a separate contractor install the yard in Fall 2015 and now that the yard has had a chance to take root, we can see that Kim did a masterful job choosing low-water plants that stagger their blooms, create themes in different parts of the yard, and are really just gorgeous. Our backyard is completely transformed and we want to thank Kim for doing such a great job designing. read more

We hired Kim and couldn't be more happy with the final product. She was incredibly knowledgeable on all the plants that we liked. Kim quickly understood our vision and gave us great advice on things that we didn't even think about. It felt like she genuinely wanted to help us out together a design that our family would enjoy now and into the future. I did a lot of research on landscape designers and many of them either didn't know their plants and/or they were going to charge a ridiculous amount of money for the designs. We are so happy with Kim's design and I trust you will too! read more

I found Kim through a referral from a friend who had used her. She's personable, knowledgeable, and very reasonably priced. I had interviewed 3 different designers and liked her the best. I so glad that I choose her and really enjoyed working with her. Kim knows her plants inside and out. I loved how after talking with me about my yard, and our needs, she presented me with a list of plants, and photos of them, so that I could look through them all and say which ones I liked and which I didn't. We just finished executing the plan and it looks fabulous. We're applying for the city of San Jose Lawn Replacement Water rebate, and everything was so easy and smooth thanks to Kim's design and plant list. I can't wait to see how it all looks a year from now once it's grown in. read more

I found Kim through Houzz, and after getting a bid from her and a few other designers, I went with Kim as she spent a lot of time providing me with guidance, even supplying me with a good list of resources whether I was going to go with her or not (who knew there was such a concept as a fine gardener???) Once I awarded her the bid, I found her to be responsive, considerate of budgets, creative, and willing the spend the time required to research costs, alternatives, and even dealing with the city when there was a question on set back rules. I would happily recommend her to anyone out there looking for a landscape designer. read more

It was my lucky day when I selected Kim from the Internet to help me design a water-wise front and backyard to replace my lawn. Before our appointment she helped me with questions and ideas on how to kill the lawn in an environmentally friendly way, and possible rebate programs from my water provider. We spent the day together going over what I liked, and it was by far the most educational day I ever had, when it comes to gardening. She's extremely knowledgeable on plants, and identified everything in my yard even though it's winter and there's no leaves on most. She pointed out issues I didn't even know I had with my trees and shrubs. She worked continuously without a break to measure and design, then let me select the plants I liked from a list she recommended for me, it was fun and everything went perfectly. Before she left she emailed me the final blueprint, list of plants, and provided more knowledge on where to get material, plants, compost, rocks, and suggestions on a drip water system installation. After she left I studied her plan, and I had a few questions that I emailed to her, and she responded right away. I can hardly wait to invite her back for a Japanese garden plan for a section of my yard we didn't review, yet. read more

We found KL designs while looking for help designing and planning an edible landscape for our backyard. Kim was great to work with. She listened to our ideas and needs and helped us make a lot of preliminary decisions. She also created a very comprehensive list of plant options and went over it with us in detail. Her expertise on plants and landscape design is very impressive. Once we narrowed down the plant list, she provided a few different options in design and layout for our backyard and she went over with us to help us make our final decisions. Finally she provided us with a master design, architecture documents, plant list etc. that we could basically hand over to a contractor to start the work and the cost was extremely reasonable. Our backyard turned out great and we are so happy. I highly recommend KL designs. read more

Amazing!! This review is just for Kim's initial help, not for her services (yet :) ). I reached out to her and a few other landscape design firms for consultations and advice for privacy screen plants/general landscaping, and Kim replied within 24 hours with SO many great recommendations. Her response was thorough and lengthy, and she was upfront about her limited availability until later this year which I appreciated. I am super thankful and impressed by her expert and detailed advice on my query about good privacy trees and shrubs. She seems to really know her plants and I will definitely be using the information to help us decide in our research. Thank you Kim, hopefully one day I will become a client, and based on this initial communication and supply of advice I definitely would recommend others to contact her for her services. read more

I had Kim come out and help me design my front yard with drought tolerant plants. The project included pathways, a new front door courtyard, a new driveway and pavers. She was very patient and knowledge about both the appropriate plants and the construction process for the hardscaping and irrigation. She provided a full blueprint to provide to the Contractor, and a plant list/instructions on how to apply for the Santa Clara Country rebate for replacing lawns with drought tolerant plants. I would definitely recommend Kim/KL Design. read more

Kim was great to work with. She took the time to truly understand what we wanted - or thought we wanted - and applied this along with her extensive knowledge to a resultant plan that guided us every step of the way. Thanks, Kim!! read more

Do not recommend. She only works weekends and gave us dates 3 month out. She does a site visit in morning followed by a zoom design session in afternoon. After 3 months of waiting when our day with her finally arrived, we had to deal with her rude and unprofessional behavior. She was overbearing & not open to listening to us and pushing her own ideas. She was rude when I asked if we could begin zoom session 30 minutes past the time she wanted to in the afternoon and refused to accommodate. On hindsight felt like she did it so she can maximize the time and money she can charge us since she took up 1.5-2 hrs talking non stop about aspects that we had indicated were optional ( instead of focusing on the main/ basic elements of the design) and tried pushing us to make a decision on the spot for things we had clearly indicated were optional. She talked over us, would cut us off, and even shouted at me a couple of times during the zoom design session saying " listen, listen, listen", while not really listening to us the whole time. The entire experience was so stressful and disappointing that I do not recommend her to anyone looking for a remotely pleasant experience. read more

KL designs is a great company to go to if you have a yard that needs a perfect design. Kim is super professional and a really nice person to work with. She has a HUGE knowledge of all types of plants,shrubs and trees that will thrive in the environment that you are working with. She is very fast and does wonderful layouts and provides suitable options for any type of yard. Kim is also has a very "green" approach to her concepts. Go with KL designs when you redesign your yard. You will be really happy you did!!! read more

KL Design provided the best landscape design service that I could hope for. They were extremely diligent in delivering high quality work. Their design is highly creative that fully reflects my vision of a contemporary style. They also provided plenty resources (e.g. contractors, info to apply for Landscape Rebate, and even extra large prints of the drawings) to help me jump start my project. KL Design has exceeded my expectations in many ways in delivering their service and I would recommend them to all my friends and family. read more