63. Rhyne Designs 11th Anniversary
We are taking it to 11 here at Rhyne Designs, very happy to be celebrating another successful year and looking forward to a great one ahead. Thinking back it occurs to me that the we are finally getting past some very serious drought years with this second winter of good rainfall and a greatly decreased fire hazard, definitely worth celebrating! Here is a look at the highlights of Rhyne Designs’ past year of work:
Finished Projects
Rhyne Designs had several very exciting landscapes that completed construction in 2023. This included a wonderful new residential estate near Yountville with many beautiful gardens and all kinds of site amenities, recently added to the Projects section of the website here.
Another fun project was a site in the hills near St. Helena where existing gardens were in need of a fresh look and some better quality outdoor living spaces. This included two new terraces shaded by pergolas alongside an existing putting green and a tennis court, along with new plantings, paving and lighting throughout the property. Because of the area’s high fire danger there was extensive use of gravel as a ‘mulch’ instead of the typical wood bark to improve fire resistance around the house.
And we were thrilled to see the installation of a large butterfly and pollinator garden in Sonoma. Rhyne Designs has been involved with this property for a few years: part vegetable farm and part residence, described in the Projects section here. But the butterfly garden is a new addition that creates a fun space with many sitting areas and a huge variety of annual, perennial and permanent plantings to attract butterflies and all kinds of pollinators. It is also intended to become a certified Monarch Waystation from monarchwatch.org. We were there recently to help plan a new round of Spring planting and hope to have some new photos to add to the Projects page soon!
Projects Under Construction
The past year has also seen several projects complete the design phase and move into construction, always rewarding to see what has been put on paper come to life!
A new house that has been underway for more than a year finally reached the time for landscape installation in the Fall and they have been making progress in between the rains. Particularly exciting was a recent day when a couple of very large Olive trees were brought in and planted to frame the walkway up to the front door.
Projects on the Boards
Rhyne Designs has several interesting projects in various stages of design, getting things ready for construction once the weather improves in a month or two. This includes several landscapes for new houses currently under construction in the Napa area and a substantial redo of gardens for a hilltop site near Petaluma to focus on habitat value and fire resistance. We’ve also have a few new fun projects in the Sonoma area that have recently started up.
A very interesting project that we hope to see start construction soon is in the hills near Napa. This client saw their yard suffer in the drought years and then watched the heavy rain of 2022-23 create erosion problems, motivating them to take advantage of all the rainwater. As part of an overall landscape design we helped with concepts for rainwater harvesting and infiltration. This started with re-routing all the roof gutters to storage tanks in strategic locations where they could help irrigate the gardens in dry months. It also included grading concepts for new paved areas to slope into bioswales and retention areas to slow that rainwater down and allow it to sink into the ground on-site. We are looking forward to helping see this idea through to implementation this year.
Looking Ahead
As I am writing this we are getting heavy rain once again and it is looking to be an above average rainfall season (at least!). We definitely love the rainy days for the health of our client’s gardens and the overall water supply, but at the same time are not thrilled to see the hazards the storms generate, not to mention stalling projects under construction. But as we all know, water gives life and Rhyne Designs is excited for the coming Spring when the landscape really comes alive with flowers!