52. Rhyne Designs' 5th Anniversary
I am so proud to celebrate Rhyne Designs' 5th anniversary! We’ve seen many fun designs come to life, expanded our knowledge on many fronts, shared that experience in over 50 blog articles, and made many friends along the way.
A very notable 'landscape' event of 2017 was the North Bay Fires of last October - a tragic time for many people in the Wine Country. It was a scary few weeks with fires all around and hazardous levels of smoke keeping people indoors. Although I didn’t have any clients lose their homes, I saw the destruction first hand and have recently taken on a few projects restoring damaged gardens. I’m happy to say that I’ve seen really positive attitudes in people impacted by the fires and a flurry of activity to quickly rebuild.
Overall, the past year for Rhyne Designs saw several multi-year projects finish construction and quite a few more designs completed and moving into the construction phase, with more on the way...
Built Work in 2017
One of Rhyne Designs’ largest projects to date was completed in 2017 - three new houses and gardens set in 9 acres of vineyards just north of Napa. The design process began in the Fall of 2014 and construction took place in phases, with the landscaping for the third house finishing up in October. The one pictured here was designed in a very modern style and featured in the local style publication Gentry Home Magazine. It was really exciting to create three distinct landscapes to fit the different styles of these houses.
North of Napa another Rhyne Designs project continues to come to life, with the front entry landscape of this 2 acre property now complete. In the backyard, the installation of new landscaping around the existing backyard pool is underway, including an outdoor kitchen, a fragrance garden, a bocce court and some fun sitting areas among the Oak trees.
The landscape for a hillside home in Belvedere was also completed this year, with very nice results. The design includes new terraces built into the hillside with elegant board-formed concrete walls and simple stone paving patterns. The permitting process was lengthy, and the construction of the walls took time, but the end result is a beautiful series of outdoor spaces.Rhyne Designs also had fun with a small local project to design new plantings for a small but well used plaza space on the Colusa Circle in Kensington, with new flowering plants and evergreen shrubs to add life to this space where locals go to have their coffee and pastry from the bakery next door.
Design Work under construction
This past year also saw several exciting projects move into the construction phase. Especially fun was the design of a landscape around a new house in the Capay Valley for a client who is starting a new Lavender farm on the surrounding acreage. Working with the enthusiastic client and a great local contractor, this design included a whimsical serpentine seat wall in the back yard that defines various garden spaces. With cultivated land on three sides of the gardens for Lavender, the focus was more on creating outdoor rooms, edible landscaping, and a natural Oak Woodland native plant garden to stroll through.
Rhyne Designs' consulting with Geomorph Design continued, with several projects involving planting design for stream bank restoration in Marin County. This included a planting plan for a steep drainage running between several new homes in San Rafael with a nice combination of plants native to that specific microclimate. These are just the highlights, several other projects in Napa, Sonoma, Walnut Creek, Alamo, Kentfield, and El Cerrito moved from the design phase to construction in 2017 and we are excited to see them come to life as well!
New Design Work Underway
Rhyne Designs enjoyed being involved with the non-profit Contra Costa Interfaith Housing organization to donate our design services. This organization provides housing to homeless and at-risk families at an apartment complex in Pleasant Hill. We worked with the residents to design new gardens in a neglected corner of the property. This included a fun workshop with some of the children that lived there to get their ideas for what to do with the space. They had great ideas and impressed me with their plant knowledge! Based on their input the design consists of a new lawn for the kid’s play and a cutting garden where they can cut flowers to bring into their apartments.
Just recently Rhyne Designs has been working on a garden in St. Helena where a unique square stone house is situated on the small property to create four distinct outdoor rooms. These rooms are already defined in part by hedges and Citrus trees but needed additional layers of paving, planting, lighting and furniture. We are excited to see this one develop into an exceptional place for wine country outdoor living.
Advancing into 2018
Overall it has been a fun and busy year. Looking ahead at 2018 there are some great potential projects on the horizon. As I write this we are having a very early moment of sunny and warm spring weather - a nice break but definitely raising concerns about our state's water supply. Rhyne Designs looks forward to continuing to help create drought tolerant landscapes that look great despite this overall trend of a drier climate!