Christiane Holmquist Landscape Design

Christiane is a superb artist and created an amazing landscape palate for our yard. She was able to incorporate badly needed drought tolerant plant selections with other architectural elements to create a garden that flows seamlessly from front to back in our 25 year old home in San Marcos. I initially contacted her after looking at her web page--anyone can make a mansion look fabulous but it takes great skill to transform a tract home to something unusual and interesting. Christiane was very willing to work with our existing hardscape elements to create this harmonious garden. I explained that I wanted a garden, not a yard. Many other companies are primarily interested in selling hardscape; the garden is secondary. Her plan included new pathway placement, addition of small sitting area, construction of lattice work privacy fence, rearrangement of the placement of a few large mobile items (fountain, totem pole, raised vegetable garden) to better emphasize focal points, and new flowering plant selections more suitable for our local climate. Her ideas initially seemed radical to me--cut down existing trees, replant with new varieties (better suited to climate), demo 25 years of hard work--but I'm so glad that we followed her recommendations. I have to smile every time I look outside my windows. I'm also looking forward to considerable future water savings. I would like to also emphasize that Christiane is the consummate professional. She communicates well with her clients, arrives on time for appointments, and is easily accessible by e-mail or phone. She was very careful to listen to our concerns and requests and to incorporate our wishes into her plan. I always felt that this was OUR plan and not HER plan. Christiane was very attentive to our budget and worked with us to find a good fit in a landscape installer. She remained available to act as a liaison with the installer when needed, during crucial points of design installation. I am most grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Christiane.

Christiane did a fabulous job transforming our grass laden backyard into a beautiful low maintenance, water wise garden, complete with a bocce ball style play court, arches, and trellises! She was a pleasure to work with as she truly seemed excited about this project. She asked what my budget was up front and she did not deviate from this. She spent a fair amount of time getting to know me and understanding what my likes and dislikes were before even creating the design. She has such a wide range of knowledge of plants that thrive in our climate and an eye for putting things together that I had complete trust in her design. This made the process so much easier for me. With her help, decision making on my part was easy AND fun. She was involved not just for the drawing of the plans, but for steps along the way, such as boulder and plant placement. Christiane has been an amazing resource for me the entire way. I am learning how to take care of my new plants and she continues to be available with any questions that I may have. I would highly recommend Christiane to anyone.