California Landscape Design

Award: GOLD

Project title: KOCH PROJECT

Category: RESIDENTIAL #2 $25,000 - $100,000

Project location: SAN DIEGO, CA

Colin Miller 
Envision Landscape Studio, Pleasant Hill, CA

Award: SILVER

Project title: BEACH CITY

Category: RESIDENTIAL #3 over $100,000

Project location: MANHATTAN BEACH, CA

Award: SILVER

Project title: CAMINO LENANDA RESIDENCE

Category: PLANTING DESIGN

Project location: ORINDA, CA

Award: BRONZE 

Project title: MODERN 50’S RANCH

Category: RESIDENTIAL #3 over $100,000

Project location: PLEASANTON, CA

Artful Revelry

The project initially began as a house addition for the homeowner’s painting studio and soon evolved into a more extensive home renovation with updated materials and large new windows and glass doors to invite the landscape views and light inside. With her children grown, the homeowner’s new lifestyle filled with art and entertaining was actualized alongside her vision for a sophisticated and harmonious contemporary design inside and out.

Majestic Oaks in Rancho Santa Fe

A new garden of Aloes, Agaves, Succulents and Ornamental Grasses complement this vanishing edge pool. The new curved steps connect the existing patio to the sun bathing area. The color and texture of the drought resistant plants contrast with the existing body of water to bring life to this landscape.

Craftsman in Sacramento

With an attention to detail reminiscent of a bygone era, this East Sacramento home reflects quality workmanship. A carved stone bench, a custom fountain and lush plantings all contribute to the overall vision.

Also by Gary Kernick

Eco Retreat

This Mid-Century Modern home features a homebuilt music studio. To bring the groovy vibes outside, we ripped out the back lawn and installed terraced patios with drought tolerant plantings. A custom ‘pipe organ’ fountain supplies the water music. The biofuel fire bowl is a hot spot for a midnight jam session…just make sure you invite the neighbors.

Casa Madrina in Palm Springs

Essentially when we first bought the place there had been no irrigation on the garden for 2 years so what was left were well established native palms and others adapted to the Palm Springs climate Sunset zone 13. We moved rocks and some underlayer plastic sheeting. I mounded our extra soil/sand from digging elsewhere to create contours and berms. I decided to use mostly native and other “desert” plants. I went to Mountain States Nursery and had a good long chat with Wendy Proud who helped me understand this new zone I was working in.

Padres Trail in La Cañada Flintridge

As we all know, oak trees are protected more dearly than human lives in California. La Cañada Flintridge, where the project site is, is particularly riddled with oak trees, which give the city and its properties so much of its character. We were required to get an arborist out to check on the overall health of the trees, as well as provide him with a plan of the work to be done so that he could make construction recommendations for us to include in the overall design.

Modern Hilltop Retreat in Tarzana 

This project was located in Tarzana, California, which is one of the hottest neighborhooda in the West Valley of Los Angeles County. When I first arrived, the garden was a poster child for deferred maintenance; a tumble-down wooden fence blocked the views, the paving was cracked and dated, and there was not a single shrub or groundcover worth saving. The site, however, had a lot of potential.   

I guess it all started when my friend Elizabeth Patterson (previously a City Council member, now Mayor) asked me to help create a tree committee. Benicia’s trees were not being well cared for, and she wanted to see that change. Rewriting the existing tangle of tree ordinances was the best first step, so we spent 3 years working with the City staff and the public to enact a new, more straightforward tree ordinance that helps homeowners keep healthy trees and remove dangerous ones. It’s not perfect…but nothing is.

While we were working on the ordinance, another group of citizens had arranged an influx of money from our local refinery, Valero, to pay for environmentally-sound projects. Several people who had worked on the tree ordinance joined forces, and in 2009 we created the Benicia Tree Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit. Our Mission is “to strengthen community by promoting and supporting tree planting, maintenance and education”. To that end, working with the City, local schools, and private homeowners, the Foundation has thus far planted 821 trees.

Emerging Professional Members

An individual who has been practicing landscape design for one to three years and is starting a career in landscape design. Membership requires affirmation of education and experience, but not documentation.

Jonathan Ladd
Jonathan Ladd Landscape & Garden Design
Los Angeles, CA

Kelly LeVoir
Encinal Nursery
Alameda, CA

Ryan Minahan 
David Thorne Landscape Architect, Inc
Oakland, CA 

Allied Members

An individual practicing in a related and/or associated field to landscape design.

Brian Gonzales, Escondido, CA

Student Members

An individual who is actively enrolled, on a full or part‐time basis, in a landscape design, landscape architecture or horticulture program. Membership is limited to five years of membership at this level and proof of enrollment must be submitted.

AnnMarie Boylan, Sacramento, CA

Gary McCune, San Diego, CA

Jeremy Moss, San Jose, CA

Rebecca Perrine, San Francisco, CA

Debbie Seracini, National City, CA

Angela Tamblin, Alameda, CA

Ilona Kozin, San Jose, CA

Karly Silicani, Bay Area

David Cruz Martinez, San Diego, CA

Kirby Baldacci, Bay Area