62. Rhyne Designs 10th Anniversary
I am thrilled to announce Rhyne Designs is celebrating its 10th Anniversary! It is hard to believe a decade has passed since I founded the company in February 2013 - hundreds of great projects, countless happy clients, many thriving gardens, over sixty blog postings, and much more! I feel very grateful for the success I’ve had and appreciative of the people that have helped me get here. I’ve had a few lucky breaks but also put in many hours of hard work along the way and it is gratifying to have reached this point!
Looking Back: 2013 - 2023
One of my main motivations for founding Rhyne Designs a decade ago was to get closer to the reality of designing outdoor spaces directly for the people that use them. Coming from a large company that designed college campuses and corporate office parks I was excited to scale things down and focus on giving families beautiful gardens that fit their needs. I was also motivated by an interest in collaboration with the contractors installing the landscaping. When a builder is excited to put their expertise and craftsmanship into the project it always improves the results. Along the way I have learned more about the realities of construction and that has fed back into the development of what I consider a very practical approach to landscape design. And I’m proud to say that building good relationships with contractors and others in the business has helped me develop a great network. This has allowed Rhyne Designs to flourish and receive a plethora of projects through word-of-mouth referrals.
Rhyne Designs’ first projects were small backyard remodels close to home, but over the years we have enjoyed working on a wide variety of residential sites all over the North Bay. As I’ve gained more experience I’ve discovered a particular interest in landscape design for larger rural and agricultural properties and this has extended my focus to the North and East edges of the nine county Bay Area. I’ve learned a little bit about farming Lavender, Olives, and Grapes; but more importantly I have gained knowledge in how ornamental gardens can interface with and complement these areas. I’ve also learned quite a bit about septic systems and well water supplies and other parts of rural life and their implications for landscape design.
A Decade of Design Influenced by Climate Change
Designing for water conservation has always been part of Rhyne Designs’ work, but over the past 10 years it has become a higher priority as the drought in California has become more extreme. We’ve just recently gotten a big boost of rain, but the predictions are that water supplies will continue to be below average and droughts more frequent. Therefore water conservation continues to be critical, and I think rainwater collection will also be of increasing interest to many homeowners.
On top of that, in 2017 we had the first of several clusters of devastating wildfires in the Bay Area, leading to increased awareness and concern for fire safe landscaping. I have witnessed first-hand the impacts of these fires, visiting many fire damaged properties and helping to restore or replace the gardens. I’ve even had a couple of clients see fire burn through their properties while we were in the middle of the landscape design process. In 2020 we had another bad round of fires and at this point Rhyne Designs has been brought in for landscape design on more fire damaged properties than I can count. Fire safe design is now integral to the design process for every project in the office. Creating a beautiful and fire safe landscape can be a challenge but we continue to work hard to balance those needs.
Early in 2020 we were all presented with another challenging and tragic event, the Covid Pandemic. In the first few months of shelter-in-place all design and construction was put on hold. But the rebound was surprisingly fast and ever since that summer the demand for landscape design has been very high, with everyone spending more time outdoors and in particular needing nice private gardens.
Of course the high demand has led to materials and labor supply shortages and slowed down the ability to get projects built. But despite all the tragedy of these events, it has been a great time for landscape design work and Rhyne Designs is hopeful that California is moving towards better adaptation to both extremes of wet and dry weather going forward.
With Gratitude
I feel very fortunate to have reached the ten-year mark and am very grateful to all my clients, the expert builders I’ve worked with, and supportive friends and family. And a special thanks to those who have come back again and again to trust Rhyne Designs with the development of landscape designs for new projects. This also wouldn’t have been possible without the support of several key professional collaborators, especially Geomorph Design, Bay Tree Design, Jay Thayer and BASE Landscape who have helped with consulting work and critical experience along the way.
Looking Ahead
What will the next ten years be like for Rhyne Designs? To kick off our next decade, we’ve redesigned the web site and brought it up to a much higher level of design and functionality and I encourage you to explore it more. I am very optimistic about continued success and growth and excited for all the beautiful gardens the Rhyne Designs will help bring to life! At the moment we have several big projects in the mix, some on the drawing board, some under construction and a few installed last fall that should explode with new growth and flowers this spring . The Bay Area has just seen one of its most intense periods of rain in over 100 years and that has put a good dent in the drought. But it has also shown that water scarcity and wildfires aren’t the only increasing hazards out there for landscapes – good drainage and proper tree selection and care for wind resistance are on many people’s minds right now. After all that rain, and assuming some more in the coming months, I am hopeful we will have a nice long Spring and a short fire season this year!
