58. Rhyne Designs 7th Anniversary
It is 2020 and Rhyne Designs is thrilled to celebrate our 7th anniversary! The past year was one of the busiest ever, with some very exciting projects constructed, and even more fun ones in the design stages. It is so rewarding for me to see the smiling faces of clients after their expanses of dirt and weeds are transformed into lovely landscapes! Let me tell you about a few of these recent projects.
Built Work in 2019
Several notable Rhyne Designs projects completed construction in 2019 and we were pleased to be on site to help get the finishing touches right in many cases. In Pleasant Hill I worked with some great clients with a love for native plants and birds. The design converted their back yard into a wonderful habitat garden that included a stone walkway encircling a planter full of butterfly-attracting plants with a bird bath as the focal point.
In the Napa Valley, a whole series of gardens came to life on a two-acre site around a beautiful new modern farmhouse. The house spreads out on the property to frame various exterior spaces and the landscape design expanded upon that to create many places for outdoor life including a bocce court and fire pit terrace shaded by Crepe Myrtle trees.
Another exciting project that was finished in 2019 was the all-new landscaping around an existing house in Alamo. This design created a fun series of spaces centered around a shaded outdoor living and dining deck and a new swimming pool while preserving and highlighting a beautiful old Valley Oak tree.
Meanwhile, a project in the Capay Valley that was finished in late 2018 has been shaping up nicely as the plants grow in, and photos from last Spring have been added as part of a new Project page here. Rhyne Designs was also thrilled to take on a project closer to home for the Alpha Phi sorority just off the U.C. Berkeley campus. This project replaces very old and overgrown planting around a beautiful historic building with a variety of flowering plants and new lighting to create a safe and pleasant environment for the students living there. I’m looking forward to seeing it growing and flowering this spring!
Design Work Under Construction
There are also a few Rhyne Designs projects that have recently broken ground, or will as soon as our winter rains are over. This includes a few in the Napa Valley such as a new house on several acres near Yountville featuring a swimming pool, a bocce court, a fire pit tucked into a grove of Olive trees, a large vegetable garden, and new vineyards framing the entry drive.
On the edge of Santa Rosa, in the zone of the 2017 fires, Rhyne Designs’ was pleased to create a new design for clients who have just finished their new home. The landscape master plan for their acreage includes a new driveway, an outdoor living space with a fire pit and space for projecting movies, along with a large edibles garden with fruit trees, raised vegetable beds and a chicken coop.
I am also pleased to continue to be involved with a project in my neighborhood to improve a small public outdoor space at the Colusa Circle in Kensington that is used frequently by the patrons of the local bakery / café and other shops and will benefit from planting upgrades and additional seating.
New Design Work Underway
Rhyne Designs has quite a few projects currently being designed and going through the permitting processes in various localities. We are excited to have taken on another project in the zone of the 2017 fires in Santa Rosa, a beautiful hilltop site with many Oak and Madrone trees that are recovering well. We started with a design to infill the existing planters around the house with fire-resistance in mind and are looking forward to expanding the design out from the house with a new overlook gazebo and other features.
We are enjoying working with the architects at Studio KDA on a multi-building project in Hayward that will create much needed housing units complemented by a nice common open space and neighborhood-enhancing street edge improvements. Working with another local architect, Gunkel Architecture, we are designing a residential garden on a challenging steep site near the Bay edge with spectacular views. The site is flanked by open space that we are complementing with locally native plantings.
Rhyne Designs also continues to consult with Bay Tree Design on mixed use and public park projects, very much enjoying the collaboration and the added experience with these project types.
2020 Vision
This first year of the new decade promises to be full of changes and I hope there are many good things ahead for all of us. Rhyne Designs is looking forward to working with more homeowners with great garden aspirations and continuing to provide high-quality design work. As always, we are excited to include sustainable landscape design features whenever we can and are seeking new ways to improve the fire resistance of residential landscapes as well as help fight climate change.