About Me

Hello, my name is Rose. I live in Northern California along the Russian river and have for my entire adult life. I am a garden designer, a mom and a wife, an artist, a foodie and a nature lover . I am inspired by flowers, plant lure, growing food, art, and ecology. And I love plants!

I studied horticulture at Santa Rosa Junior College, where I majored in Garden Design and Landscape Management, I also studied Nursery production, and earned a degree with the Deans highest honors.

I set out with the goal of ultimately becoming a Garden Designer with the plan of getting as mush diverse experience in the field as possible. My favorite college instructors believed that the best designers have a firm understanding of maintenance practices and plants.

Prior to SRJC I worked in a farm supply garden center and irrigation house, and also as a free lance gardener.

After college I worked as a Landscape Designer for a contractor in the Santa Rosa Fountaingrove area. I designed many beautiful dream home gardens with outdoor kitchen, fountains and fire pits. I loved this work, but often the elaborate hardscaping left a fractional budget for plants, my true passion!

I moved on to work at a local nursery garden center. I got to spend every moment of my day surrounded by beautiful plants, it was a joy to go to work! I ordered Bedding plants and Pottery for the store and I got to help people solve their garden dilemmas all day long. I studied on the side and also became a California Certified Nursery Professional(CCNP). This improved my plant identification skills as well as my trouble shooting and ability to give garden tips on the fly and help people find the right garden solutions.

I found I wanted to learn more about trouble shooting, and how plants and landscapes mature and next I became a commercial landscape maintenance manager. I learned about landscape maintenance at a quick pace, overseeing all of the garden work practices, irrigation, pest, and disease issues on site in large scale landscapes. My portfolio included Landscape management for everything from Costco, and Office depot to high end Private Schools, and Sports Turf, as well as large classy Office Parks in the Santa Rosa Corporate Center and Stony Point area. I learned how to recognize and rectify problems quickly and efficiently, and how program every model of irrigation controller. I became a Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper (QWEL), and I won awards for my sites from the California Landscape Contractor association (CLCA) for Best Landscape Maintenance and for Sustainable Management of a Commercial site.

I found I wanted to work with more individual people, besides my crews and property managers, and I wanted to work with a broader based plant palette. I also missed design work and I was looking to add that back into my life.

I started working as an assistant to a cutting edge designer at a Sonoma based Landscape Design & Architecture firm. I really enjoyed using rare and unusual plants in home and corporate gardens and I got exposed to the simple elegance of modern design. While working part time as an assistant designer, I got my C-27 California Landscape Contractors license and started a small business doing Garden Care and Design.

For a few years I worked at both jobs. Learning modern design as an assistant, and utilizing my maintenance experience to facilitate design oversights for large commercial Marin and Napa gardens with more modern themes. At the same time I worked on my company building my own design style. I like to think of as natural style with enhance color and a low maintenance structured planting of trees and shrubs. Sustainable, and dynamic.

I believe by drawing from nature and being open to the details of the ecology of a site we can use a vast selection of plants to create garden that are beautiful and in tune with nature in a way that will guarantee their success and longevity in the long run and for decades of growth. Out of this Nature’s Designs was born.

See what our friends at Auto Desk are saying about us!

In our first 6 years we worked as a design, build, and maintenance company. We learned a lot in the process. I believe garden maintenance is what allows the best designs to shine over time and through maintaining our own designs I learned what choices were truly sustainable and how to implement the right plants to solve garden dilemmas. Each of our gardens is entirely unique and holds a special place in my heart.

After learning I have a severe Bee allergy I decided the time had come to bring Nature’s Designs full circle on my own personal master plan, and I relaunched the business as a Garden Design Firm.

At this point I feel that I can bring a wealth of experience and expertise to every element of design, drawing from the strengths of of all of my different skills and I am confident I can help each and every one of my clients find successful strategies for their gardens.

Since relaunching I have become a Certified professional member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD). A national association recognizing quality and competency in Garden Design.

Designing gardens allows me to create art and ecology at the same time.

I love what I do and it's my goal to help people love plants as much as I do

by helping them find the ones that will fulfill their function and bring joy to behold. 

Thank you for your interest in and support of me and my small business!