Rock Paper Clippers

Our backyard was an eyesore when we bought our home. The deck was way too large relative to the yard size, and concrete was poured in the oddest places and angles. We finally committed to re-do the entire yard, and we are so thankful for Kathy’s vision, guidance and expertise. We talked with a couple other designers, but they were nowhere as detail oriented as Kathy. We needed some hand-holding, and that’s what Kathy did. Kathy listened to our general ideas, and she put together a specific design for us. In addition to the design, Kathy also put us in contact with a couple of contractors with whom she has had positive experiences. We obtained proposals from them and selected one to perform the work. Kathy was regularly in contact with them, and frequently showed up on site to check the progress and make any necessary modifications. The final result was an outdoor dining/entertaining surrounded by a botanical paradise. It feels so serene back there now. We love it. In fact, we love it so much that we also asked Kathy to help re-do our front yard! No more lawn mowing, and we love the lighting, tree, flower and plant selections Kathy recommended to completely change the curb appeal. Highly recommend Kathy for your yard design!

We moved into a newly built modern farmhouse where the builder clearly saw the landscape as an afterthought…lawn in front with uninspiring shrubs, a nice deck in the back but the remaining terraced landscape and yard was just decomposed granite and more lawn! Of course, we did not want to waste water trying to keep the lawns green. We were looking for more lounge space, play space and garden space. After meeting Kathy and hearing her process for designing our landscape, we were all in! She has a refreshing perspective, great experience with the layout of our backyard and a practical attitude. Kathy created a beautiful, robust design incorporating all of our wants and needs. We now have an enviable front yard of drought tolerant and native plants with a fantastic Japanese Maple tree and some boulders. Our terraced backyard now has dining space, lounge space with a fire pit and steel pergola, play space for our daughter and garden space. The rock walls, patio, lighting, etc. are all great and Kathy oversaw every detail. We could not be happier with the design, Kathy’s plant & tree choices, and her project management skills keeping everything on track. I would highly recommend Rock Paper Clippers for any landscape project you have!

Kathy rescued our yard! Before working with Kathy, our yard was overgrown, chaotic, full of dead lawn and - thanks to a homemade pond from the prior owners - unsafe. We rarely spent time out there. We interviewed Kathy along with a few other landscape designers and were impressed with her knowledge of plants and her vision for what we could do with our space. We decided to move forward with Kathy and she helped us work through exactly what we wanted, suggesting design elements and layouts we never would have thought of. Once we had a landscape contractor on board to build out the design, she partnered with them to make sure the end result was perfect. Kathy helped us through the inevitable speed bumps during construction, guided us through decisions and answered all of our questions thoughtfully and thoroughly. These days, we spend almost every evening out in the yard. The layout is clean and functional, the plants are colorful and unique, and the lighting makes it a magical space. We love it and constantly get compliments from neighbors. Thank you Kathy for turning my confusing layout sketches and vague ideas into a beautiful yard we’ll enjoy for years!

We were referred to Kathy last year when we're beginning to explore redoing the landscaping in our front and side yard, which were both in desperate need of updating the existing 90s landscape. Our decision to work with Kathy was solidified over the phone and in-person consults that we did to start the process. We were impressed with her local knowledge, great questions, and guidance as to what the process would look like. We also loved how communicative and transparent she was about timing and costs. We were thrilled once we received the master plan and couldn’t wait to see what it would look like once it was completed. Upon deciding to move forward, Kathy provided a list of contractors to work with and made a recommendation on who would be best for us based on the demo, plants, and stone work we wanted to do. Kathy helped to shepherd the process from start to finish. She was directly involved in guiding with precision the placement of the stones, plants, and lighting. Once the project was complete, Kathy did a meticulous review (helping to ID which plants didn’t make it through the planting process, adjusting lighting based on how the plants had settled, and ensuring we had the right irrigation and lighting equipment installed) and provided us with a comprehensive plan of how to care for each and every plant. We would highly recommend Kathy for any of your landscaping needs!

Our backyard had been ignored since we took out the kids’ playstructure. While we had a nice deck, the lower tier of the yard needed a serious update. We met with several landscape designers and Kathy really stood out as someone who is responsive, open, creative and straight forward. When we met with Kathy she listened to what our needs were and our aspirations for the space, and was very clear about what was possible. She had some unique design suggestions that helped create a unique feel to our space. In addition, she was very candid about budget considerations. The design process was fantastic, she came up with novel solution for connecting our deck to the lower tier and the renderings that she makes allowed us to visual the impact of different design features. Once we finalized our design Kathy helped us find Landscapers to perform the work, and once identified worked seamlessly with them. We added a mezzanine deck, replaced a wood retaining wall with stone, adding a beautiful fountain, repaved the lower section and added lighting and irrigation throughout. It is a pleasure to entertain in our backyard (perfect during COVID times). Besides being available all throughout the process, Kathy has continued to respond to questions and challenges to make sure the plants are healthy and growing. The best thing about working with Kathy is her creativity, pragmatism and availability. I highly recommend Kathy to anyone looking to update their outdoor space, and can’t wait to work with her on our next (front yard) project!

We had the great pleasure of working with Kathy on designing our new home's landscape. What impressed us the most about Kathy was her knowledge, passion, creativity and professionalism. Kathy checked all the boxes on our wishlist and went above and beyond - low maintenance/sustainability, large plant variety, visually harmonic with the surroundings and colorful. We have a net-zero home, so sustainability was on the top of our list - Kathy picked out colorful draught resistant/tolerant plants and taught us to look beyond succulents. We love colors - Kathy would send us to different houses to check out their plants to make sure we love the colors and the looks, she even helped us picked out our house's exterior color. We wanted something topographically interesting - Kathy brought in big rocks and little rocks, purposefully designed high grounds and low grounds for different types of plants based on their water usage. We wanted a worry-free installation - Kathy was involved every step of the way during the installation process to ensure every detail in the design was captured by the contractor, she even chased after the contractor for us for plant replacement and fixing the lighting system for free! We really couldn't have asked for a better landscape designer, who takes such great pride in her work. Kathy is extremely knowledgable about plants, landscaping, lighting and irrigation, so every time we had a question, she would have a thorough answer on why and why not it was a good idea/would work. I used to laugh at "homework assignments" she gave us, granted that we knew nothing about plants - she asked us to look at the pictures of the plants and read about them (yes, she did quiz us on things once in a while ;)). But after working with her for a while, I started to appreciate her assignments - we started to understand why she made the choices/suggestions she did, we started to appreciate the level of detail that goes into landscape design, and after everything was done, we were beyond thrilled to see the final product that we were part of making. Kathy still stops by our house periodically to check on our plants and makes suggestions if anything needs attention/to be replaced. Not only have we been thoroughly enjoying our views outside our windows, we've had so many compliments on our yard from neighbors as well as people passing by. We have happily referred friends and neighbors to Kathy. In short, when it comes to landscape design, in Kathy, we trust!

We have curb appeal now! We met Kathy through a recommendation from my co-worker, who had both front and back yard design and landscaping done. (And how did my co-worker find out about Kathy? By admiring a neighbor's landscaping and asking who the designer was.) We replaced mostly dead lawn in our front yard with stone veneer-sided planting areas (with cap stones), a 12'x12x patio area (that needed a lot of dirt hauled in to level out the area) fenced on 2 sides with cable wire fencing, removal of 30+ year old railroad ties (that served as a sidewalk), a new concrete sidewalk along the street and 3 wide concrete footpaths that now lead up to the house. There is so much more to describe. What impressed me most about Kathy is her ability to visualize a design from our wish list of ideas. Then follow it with measurements (slope, distance, quantities), suggest hardscape materials and plants (many of which we were unfamiliar with so we had some homework to do), suggest lighting and irrigation ideas we didn't even know existed, and connect us with a landscape contractor who was professional and a pleasure to work with.

Kathy is a fabulous landscape designer. We absolutely love the results of the front- and back- yard new design that she did with us. It has all of the characteristics that we wanted and some others that we didn’t know enough to ask for, but now appreciate too. In addition to a keen eye for design, Kathy is very knowledgable about plants and how to care for them. She has a high bar for quality and isn’t afraid to voice her opinions, which came in handy when we were going through the installation process. Every day I enjoy our new outdoor living space! Highly recommend.

We loved working with Kathy. Our yard was a mess after having to remove a large tree from in front of our house. And, we know very little about plants. We met Kathy through a neighbor and liked her immediately. She is practical and no-nonsense when it comes to getting things done. I told her that we had no idea what we were doing but that we liked "color." From there, she came back with a design, plant recommendations and, best of all, a great recommendation for a contractor! From start to finish, Kathy was great.And, our yard is gorgeous! We get complements from people all the time now! I would wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone who is looking for a great, practical-minded designer!

Kathy was a delight to work with and the results of her landscape plans were amazing. I am thrilled with our new front yard layout, rock walls, plants and flowers. Kathy adjusted the plans to include more of the colors I wanted. We can't wait to start the backyard this winter!

Kathy helped redesign our old uninspired landscape which included a lot of dead grass and box hedges. Now we have a beautiful drought tolerant landscape that compliments our CA home with colorful flowers and native plants. Kathy was great in matching our style with her design aesthetic and leading us to the right choices for our soil. We now have a beautiful look that is hearty, compliments and adds value to our home.

Kathy did an amazing job on my front yard. I can't wait to hire her for the back! I've recommended her to many friends and everyone who stops to admire my yard. She presented me with well researched themes and I appreciated the low water suggestions she made. Kathy has an incredible depth of knowledge about her craft and can rattle off the Latin names for almost every plant she sees. Her sense of design and balance is spot on. I've seen many of the projects she has done and they all look different and take advantage of the site's characteristics. Hire Rock Paper Clippers - you will be thrilled!

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to landscaping and gardening - I grew up in SF so its never been something I have been exposed to. Now that I live in the burbs, we have a house that was in some seriously need of landscaping help. And we don't have a single flat area that is perfectly square with consistent conditions that was a blank canvas that I could easily copy what I saw online. No, we have multiple areas, some shady, some super sunny, some covered by huge pines, some covered by oaks, some completely exposed, some hilly, some flat, etc. So needless to say we needed a plan to figure out a cohesive look and also the right type of plants for the different zones on our property. Its pretty unlikely that I could have a ton of research and figured it out on my own because not only would it take a lifetime but it would require a ton of trial and error that would be so discouraging. Enter Kathy, she is an expert on all things landscaping. I was amazed at her level of knowledge on plants, hardscaping, and irrigation. She put together a detailed plan and helped with the installation process as well to make sure the actual landscaper didn't miss out on some of the finer details. The best thing is that with some "designers" they can be disorganized and slow to respond back, Kathy is the exact opposite. She is super organized, has everything laid out in easy to comprehend documents, and is super prompt to respond to communications. I would say its an investment because her expertise is not cheap, but if you want to have a landscaping plan that is not only going to look good but also be sustainable (aka, not die in a few months because the plants were inappropriate for the conditions, etc), I highly recommend you at least get a consultation from her. Also she makes sure the landscapers don't do anything that doesn't make sense, like in our case, not putting enough water emitters by larger plantings, which is something I wouldn't have caught on my own.

I have hired quite a few landscapers but Kathy of Rock Paper Clippers is the only one I have asked to return to update our yard with more plants and expand the area. She prevents you from making "mistakes" which I define as putting in plants that you may love but won't work well the design, yard, or your lifestyle. She keeps the big picture in mind and listens to your needs and desires instead of revamping other yard designs and plants over and over. This is not just a job but a passion and it shows.

After attempting to design our front and backyard on our own....and never feeling satisfied with our ideas we decided it was time to hire a designer. Having known Kathy on a personal level for a few years she seemed like the perfect choice. I emailed her to ask about how she worked, cost, etc....and she got back to me promptly with detailed answers to my questions. We set up a time to do a walk through and we were impressed immediately by her eye for design, plant knowledge, thorough approach to the design/project, and creativity. We spent months brainstorming together in person, over email, through text, and even via Pinterest board. She created a wonderful landscaping plan complete with a visual plant list. The design included a paver driveway, rock walls, rock bench, DG patio, travertine patio, lawn, electric water feature, stone bird feeder, and beautiful drought resistant plants. We were pleased with her design and perfectionist attitude (woman of my own heart). When the design was complete we had a hard time finding a contractor in our price range that we felt comfortable with. Kathy went above and beyond to help us find the right person. We were so touched by her desire to make sure we had the right contractor to work on our yard for us that we hired her on to check on the project weekly. The project was completely in a timely manner (even with all the crazy rain), and turned out just perfect. To be honest it is even better than we imagined! We can't wait for all of our little plants to grow! She did an amazing job transforming our ivy jungle into a safe place for our toddler and dog to explore. We are already loving all of our time relaxing in our new space. She listened to all of our hopes and desires and truly created a special place.