Jade Design Group

A SWAMP JUNGLE!
That’s how I would describe how my backyard started off as when my husband and I moved in last year. The house had sat empty for so long and without care that the backyard was just over watered, grass up to your knees, muddy and sad (although my lil’ nephews loved playing in it and braiding the grass into whips… yes, that’s how long the grass had become). The front yard was no better with giant patches of brown grass and horsetails that had become incredibly overgrown.
As we were on a tight budget starting off our first year as newlyweds (wedding + mortgage + life = close the doors and pretend your backyard is fine), I delayed working on our yard. However, after a year of turning a blind eye to our weeds and dead grass, we finally started interviewing landscapers to help us achieve our vision for a serene, open, Japanese inspired front and backyard.
Unfortunately, after interviewing the gamut of teams, we didn’t really find anyone that I was comfortable with or who I thought could get the job done at the budget we could afford. Randomly I googled — «Los Angeles Landscape Designer Japanese Garden» and Jade Design came up as a sponsored listing and was one of the few I hadn’t contacted yet. I figured wth and emailed — within a week, Joanna was out to the house. After some negotiating, we moved forward with her team who were literally in the following day at 7am (they def. move quickly).
Sure, there were some hiccups along the way (the wrong plant or wood chips being delivered). Like any time you deal with contractors you need to keep your eyes open to ensure what you asked for is what is delivered (and, thankfully, my husband was able to oversee the project). But they did fix any issues when we brought them to her attention.
In the end, we got a beautiful front yard (when I drive up I happily see our fruit trees, a great walkway to our front door, our beautiful maples, hedges and roses starting to grow…) and a fantastic back yard (beautifully designed concrete areas, trees, bamboo, flowers, etc.). We did do a BBQ area but through a different contractor — Joanna and her team can easily build your BBQ islands, etc. too though (we just happened to come across a holiday deal from another BBQ vendor we couldn’t pass up).
The only negative? My nephews are probably going to be sad they can’t play Tarzan in our backyard anymore… but I’ll gladly play happy host now — BBQ season here we come!