Mscape Design

My husband and I still need to finish the landscaping which Monika designed. From day 1, we like Monika a lot. Her personality is very gracious. She is funny and very easy to work with. Her design is totally beautiful with colors, dimensions, material etc. defined. It saves a lot of time when we quote with contractors. She has very good taste and a lot of good suggestions. Every meeting with Monika is a lot of fun.

Just installed the water feature that Monica helped envision in her design. We used a concrete fabricator from Santa Cruz and it turned out wonderful. Now on the the next phase… decking, plants, sprinkler, artificial turf, river rock, and landscape lighting…

I do not recommend Mscape (Monika). I have no interest in working with a business person who is rude, incapable of listening, and intolerant.
Monika attacked with a negative description of me as «people like you.» That phrase reminded me of those who use that phrase in a derogatory way to express prejudice. No matter what she meant, it was insulting. So I do not recommend that other Unilocal readers seek her out and put themselves at risk of being derided with that same term.
Additionally, Monika now claims that she told me about her website that I could peruse, but that is less than honest; she said no such thing to me. More details of her behavior are objectively described below in a previous review, July 2014.
I had an awful experience with her in 2014. I had contacted her by phone to tell her I was interested in getting my front grass removed and replaced with water tolerant plants to conserve water because it is the right thing to do for the environment and for our community. She said she was interested and wanted to meet.
Upon entering my house, Monika insulted me by telling me how badly the front landscape looked. She did not seek to listen to my perspective, but said that it is just awful to have to walk to my front door via the driveway and that I must have her plan a walkway. Well, first of all, the vast majority of homes in my neighborhood are designed without a distinct walkway; and secondly, she failed to ask if a walkway was of interest to me. So I felt put off since she was immediately trying to sell me on something that was not the reason for the visit.
And when I tried to tell her what I wanted, she interrupted me.
Next I told Monika that the difficult part for me was that I needed to see how the yard that she would design might look. I asked if she could show me or send me color pictures. In response, she had a book with pictures of work she had done and she immediately began to brag about artificial grass that she had done for other customers. What she should have done was ask me if I was interested in artificial grass (I am not).
I asked if she would leave the book of photographs with me or send me some. She said: «No» and I had a look of disappointment. Then Monika said: «I do not like working with people like you» and she left. This face-​face exchange lasted about 5 minutes.
On a separate issue, the Santa Clara Water District gives rebates for replacing grass with water tolerant plants (not artificial plants), but Monika has no experience with that program and that made me wonder why.
I have no interest in working with a business person who is rude, incapable of listening, and intolerant.

We hired Monika to design the landscape for both our front and back yard and could not be happier with the result. Both look great and we get compliments from friends, neighbors, and even random people off the street.
We had a lot of requirements:
1. Replace the grass in front yard with drought tolerant plants
2. Incorporate fruit trees because I love them
3. Make our backyard a Japanese garden that is peaceful and beautiful
And she met all three of these requirements with wonderful results. She even accounted for the fact that we have a young child and suggested a grassy area in the backyard so she could play. We’re glad she did, because we do use the grassy spot a lot more than we thought we would. She also suggested a glider which we pooh pooh-​ed at first, but ended up greatly enjoying after we put it in. Basically, whenever we followed her advice with the design, we never regretted it.
I highly recommend her, she is fantastic to work with and has great ideas. Extra points to her for taking our calls/​texts when we had questions. She was a great support through the whole process.

We had Monika help design our backyard this year. She listened to all the things we wanted to include and helped us figure out how it could all be possible. We wanted to contract out some of the work but do most of it ourselves. She recommended contractors and other resources for getting the work done.
Monika was easy to work with and available to answer questions when we had them.
Thanks

I LOVE MONIKA! After worrying about what to do with my shabby front yard (and growing concern about the water bill) I contacted Mscape for a consultation. I am so happy I did! Monika is a bundle of energy and ideas– she came in with thoughts and opinions and now I am really excited about the possibilities for my entry. It’s such a pleasure to work with someone who so obviously loves what she does…
Call Monika– you won’t be sorry!

Monika is the one and only person we considered when we decided to re-​do the backyard of our Eichler. She had great vision, great creativity, took our inputs and brought them to a new level. She worked within our budget and delivered a beautiful, efficient backyard that added value to the home when we sold it.
She turned our backyard from an uninteresting place that I didn’t want to spend too much time in, to a beautiful sight to see that I would constantly glimpse at while walking through my living room, and subsequently considered and used it as a new room of my house.
I was very pleased with Monika and the work that her contractors did, and would enthusiastically endorse her.

My wife and I hired Monika to design landscaping for our back yard and front yard and then to project manage the implementation of the back yard plan including a beautiful new deck off our living room. From the moment we met Monika we knew we had found the right person for the job. She listened to what we wanted and the first iteration of the designs were spot on, we did one more round of designing and then it was a no brainer, we hired Monika and her crew on the spot to do our backyard. You won’t find a more dedicated, talented, hard working, and creative landscape designer. Monika was here everyday to make sure the job got done right and her crew is just amazing, polite, hard working, professional. We were thrilled. Monika has a real eye for how to utilize space and she knows so much about the latest materials for hardscape as well as softscape. She let my wife accompany her to pick out all the fruit trees that are now growing in our backyard, and I got the built in bar and grill area! We were both so pleased with the results, and everyone that comes over just raves about how it all came out. We got way more for our money than any other estimates we had received, the whole backyard just flows. You get quality from beginning to end with Monika and she approaches every job as if its her own home. We’ll have her back for all our outdoor landscaping needs. Hiring her was a great decision, you won’t be disappointed!

I am so pleased with Monika, owner of Mscape Designs. Monika designed our backyard after listening to all of our many wishes and then re-​designed it when we needed to cut the cost a little. :-) She listened to all my feedback and honestly responded to every concern. A few things we didn’t think we would like and she said «trust me» and we did and so happy with the results.
We hired Monika as our project manager and glad we spent the extra money. She referred a fantastic contractor (Jose Perez) that was efficient and very good. And Monika was on-​site every day making sure nothing was missed.
She also went above and beyond on the little things — house light changes, covering our sprinkler system and re-​potting or transplanting my favorite plants. Monika would also volunteer to research and buy all the little things that we probably should have — outdoor heaters, fan, etc. She absolutely loves her job and it shows every time you talk to her.
I have already recommended her services to my friends and I will definitely call her again when it’s time to do our front yard.

Monika helped me design our front yard. The yard was a mess and I needed professional help. She was GREAT! She had great ideas right away and started making suggestions.
She listened to me and took my need into consideration. After meeting 3 times in person and going back and forward about ideas, finally, the design is done.
She even gives me a broad idea of how much it would cost.
I used Monika only for the design. But you could hire her as project management.
I ended up using my own landscaper — Padillas Landscaping of Gilroy — to do the contract work.
Very happy with both. I now have a beautiful yard!

I spoke to Monika at Mscape to make an appointment with her to see my backyard for landscaping work. She said that it would cost me $ 100 for my wife and I just to meet with her. Very disappointing.

Monika is outstanding! Monika worked on the backyard for our Eichler home. From start to finish, Monika was professional, creative and energetic. She listened to both my wife and me to understand what we were looking for. She successfully took our ideas and created something wonderful and special, well beyond our expectations.
Monika also served as project manager. She and her contractor, Miguel Gonzalez, did an excellent job. They worked expertly and quickly and proved very responsive to our questions and suggestions.
Overall, we received tremendous value for our money. Monika worked with our budget, came up with creative solutions and even worked a little magic to create a space that has truly trasnformed our home.
We can’t wait to call Monika to help renovate our atrium!
Posting two photos now (before & after). More on the way.

I interviewed 4 landscape contractors and Monika quickly impressed me over the others I had met with. She had such great ideas on my backyard landscape project and she also incorporated my wish list to create a gorgeous sanctuary. She is so enthusiastic, it’s obvious that she loves what she does and she is SO good at it! I couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome of my backyard landscape project and the quality of workmanship of her and her crew. In fact I was so pleased with the crew that I hired them to do ongoing maintenance in my yard.
I also hired Monika to do the project management and I highly recommend it for anyone working with her. I was busy at work during the day so I couldn’t be here to oversee the work, spend time shopping for plants, and materials, etc., Monika came over every day and made sure the work was being done according to plan, she shopped for plants, hardscape materials, and she was always looking out to save me money wherever possible.
I’d be happy to share pictures of my yard if you’re considering hiring Monika and would like to see before and after pictures of one of her projects.

We just completed a project with Monika at Mscape, and wow, what a fantastic job she and her contractor did! From the initial design meetings to final sign off of the project, Monika was very professional, had great ideas, and listened to (and incorporated) our feedback in the design. She has a genuine enthusiasm for the project she’s working on – you really feel you have an engaged partner in first creating the vision, then seeing it brought to reality.
We retained Monika as the project manager during construction, which was also invaluable, as she ensured plants were placed in the right place, offered suggestions for slight changes that worked very well, etc. Plus, the contractor she partners with, Lucio, was excellent — he and his guys worked unbelievably hard, were very helpful, did quality work, and completed the job on time and within budget.
We’ve received a number of compliments from neighbors, and couldn’t recommend Mscape higher. I’ll post pictures of their work soon.

Monika did an incredible job on our Eichler. The design was modern, personalized to our tastes, and remarkably affordable. She was fast, efficient and an awful lot of fun to work with.
Our landscaping looks amazing. We’re the envy of our neighborhood.

I highly recommend Monika and Mscape Design. Our backyard was basically pea gravel and a peach tree. Now, we have a deck with lighting in the steps, a wall with electricity near the bbq, a planter with electricity that doubles for seating, a raised bed and pavers. She is very green and reused all the pea gravel that had existed before to work between the pavers. She also suggested other small touches like a door closing off the garbage/​recycling/​compost and an enclosure for the air conditioner.
In short, Monika had a vision and executed it within our budget. In fact, the whole project came in on budget and early!
In addition to designing the backyard, she had ideas for integrating the look of the backyard with the front and side yards. As just one example, she replaced some brick in the front sidewalk with some pavers to match the pavers in the back.
Since she also managed the project, she was able to make adjustments as needed to be sure that everything was just perfect. For example, she realized that some of the plants she had selected for the side yard needed to be changed because the area got more sun than she had originally predicted.
Everyone is amazed by the transformation of the yard. We actually use and enjoy our backyard now. Monika’s thoughtful design has made all the difference!

We found Mscape Designs through Atomic Ranch Magazine. We live in a Midcentury Modern house and needed someone who had this sort of landscaping experience. We were so happy with Monika’s work. She came all the way to Oakland and was so flexible with our needs and design ideas. So friendly and outgoing. She helped design our entire property (over 9,000 sf) and worked with us to identify a Landscaper and worked with the Landscaper and I to implement her design (since she was so far away). We throughly enjoyed the process and now we are in love with our landscaping.

We were very pleased with Monika’s design work for our backyard. She listened carefully to our wishes – and brought her own expertise to make our ideas come to life.
In addition to designing the backyard, she managed the entire process from plant selection, installation and on-​going maintenance. She also worked with us closely to fix a problem (not her fault) that cropped up one year after the initial design and installation.
In summary, Monika brings a high level of creativity as well as excellent customer skills. We can’t recommend her enough!

I highly recommend Monika at Mscape Designs. She does it all when it comes to landscaping – design, installation, plant and furniture recommendations/​procurement and a maintenance plan on the finished project.
We redid our entire yard a few years ago, and we get nothing but compliments on it. We have an Eichler home, and Monika’s modern sense of design created several beautifully done, usable spaces within our yard. We use the yard so much more now thanks to the great layout, easy maintenance and just the fact that it feels good to be outside in a great space.
We were very budget conscious when it came to this project. and Monika was great about working within our constraints.