The Garden Route Company

I hired The Garden Route for a complete remodel of my Noe Valley terraced yard, including design services: - Demo existing concrete steps and retaining walls, and create two new retaining walls to make more usable flat space - Cover two patios with bluestone - Install fire pit connected to gas line - Remodel garden shed into kids playhouse - install lighting - install irrigation - new plantings to replace plants that couldn’t be saved in the demolition Plus a few other small things They did an absolutely incredible job. The crew was meticulous at following the design plans and doing high-quality work (the bluestone looks awesome). Access to my yard is through my house, so all the debris from the demolition and construction materials had to be carted through my entryway and kitchen, and throughout the project the crew was so great about keeping everything as clean as possible. All the crew members were super nice. They send the same guys every day so they know what is going on and are on top of the project management. Richard was also respectful of my budget and gave me multiple options to keep things to a reasonable price. They were not the most inexpensive option, but it was worth it to me for the quality of the work and general service / communication. I did not have to do anything except align on designs and choose materials, everything else was completed on schedule and exactly to the plans without my involvement. I would definitely hire them again for other yard projects.

We highly recommend The Garden Route Company for your landscape project. Richard and his team are highly knowledgeable landscape architects. They did an excellent job, starting with a stellar front patio and landscape design. They collaborated with us during every step of the process in the details and design so that it worked perfectly with our house, personal taste and lifestyle. Once the design was approved, the build process went smoothly and efficiently as they manage the entire project from start to finish without having to bring in outside vendors or contractors. They are able to control the quality of the work in this regard and their team was professional and respectful of our property throughout the project. After the project was finished, there were a couple little things subsequently that needed fixing or changed. They responded right away and took care of the fix/change - no problem! We are extremely pleased with the final outcome of our front patio and landscape. The contemporary design worked beautifully with the aesthetic of our older 1930's home. We have created additional functional living space and enjoy it every day! We are thankful for Richard and his team for the excellent work they did. Added benefit......they were fun to work with!

The Garden Route did a fantastic job designing and building our yard. They came up with a beautiful, imaginative, and sustainable plan involving many components—a fire pit, pergola, outdoor kitchen, patio, decks, trellis, vegetable boxes, lighting, etc.—as well as an amazing array of plants, vines, and trees. Richard Radford and his staff are treasures. They have extensive knowledge, skills, and experience; they are easy to work with; and they have extensive relationships with plumbers, electricians, metalworkers, and so on. We were especially glad that Garden Route is a design/build firm: dozens of creative adjustments were made in the field during construction, ones that greatly improved our project but could not have been foreseen in the planning stage. The results are a unique and magical garden that we love to enjoy in every season. I highly recommend them.

Rich and his crew have implemented an incredible transformation on a very disfuntional jobsite in Sea Cliff. His creative process takes in his many years of experience, but he still listens to the client, with regard to thier likes and dislikes. He is as good at hardscape as he is plants, and does railing, water features and accessory features. I will use him again on my future projects.

After looking for over a year for a design-build firm that would fit our needs, we are so happy to have found The Garden Route Company. Rich and his team have delivered exactly the garden and backyard landscape we envisioned. Rich took our crazy vision and napkin sketches of an aesthetically beautiful, yet easy to maintain, yet dog-friendly backyard and converted into reality. He helped value-engineer it to keep it within our budget. On the build side, the professionalism and skill-level of his crew is beyond compare. Unlike most contractor experiences we've had, they required minimal oversight and their attention to the smallest detail was apparent (and they are genuinely nice people). Our backyard had complex and steep grades and the project involved large boulders, concrete stairs, built-in benches, decking, a fire-pit, built-in planters, decomposed granite pathways, appropriate plant selection for our local micro-climate, lighting and irrigation. All issues we had during the process have been quickly resolved. Highly recommend!

Quite simply, The Garden Route, Rich and his team were outstanding through every step of our project. After interviewing a number of landscape architects, we chose Garden Route based on their understanding of our design aesthetic, and their awesome design/build capabilities. Beyond being incredibly nice individuals (because these are the folks you’re going to be waking up to every morning and that’s important), they listened to design considerations, incorporated those with their own thoughts and ultimately created a design that exceeded our expectations. The final design is exactly what we didn’t have the expertise to envision ourselves - - but is everything we could have asked for. Thanks to Rich and his team!

Rich and team made our backyard dreams come true by creating a functional space that feels like our very own zen garden. From the materials to the carpentry, the quality of the team's work is top notch. Without direct access to our backyard, we were wary about starting a massive backyard project that would require the workers to go through our house everyday but Rich's team was so considerate of us and our space - every time they ended their day, they vaccuumed up every speck in our hallway so you could never tell they were there. Rich was communicative and gave us fantastic advice - he has great design sense! We recommend The Garden Route Company with the highest regard!

Rich at the Garden Route Company is a solid professional. Not only are his designs truly exceptional, they are backed up with excellent service and a willingness to make the whole experience positive and as painless as possible. I really feel like I was treated fairly during the whole process.

Garden Route designed a spectacular, customized hardscape complimented by beautiful and unusual plantings that enhanced the architectural design of our house. Rich and Sandy interpreted the our vision to create an outdoor space that far, far exceeded expectations. They represent the best kind of professionals.

We had three different people create designs for the backyard. This group was far and away the best. Incredible!!! Thank you!!!!

Rich Radford and the Garden Route team created an inspired, beautiful and serene garden oasis for our family. Rich is an experienced, artistic and creative landscape designer. He created a front & backyard landscape that is truly unique and perfectly complements our new modern house. The Garden Route built custom steel gates and planters, an outdoor gas-powered fireplace, cedar benches, a modern fountain, steel veggie planters, a succulent roof garden, and an absolutely stunning arbor and a wooden deck with a 10 person outdoor dining table with lush vines growing overhead. The quality is of the highest caliber and his creativity is unparalleled. Highly recommend.

Good natured, expert, easy going and professional. We have trusted our work to the Garden Route many times and they are always a pleasure to work with. Thank you!

Simply the best! Designed and built my deck and small garden in San Francisco, when I purchased the 3-unit building. I've worked with them again and again over the last 15 years. Since then they've installed an extremely efficient drip irrigation system, rebuilt the fence, added new plantings and provided all kinds of maintenance. Everyone is friendly and professional, sensitive to my budget and time frame. I will seek their assistance any time I need garden work.

Did a great job transforming our back yard in Pacifica from design to build -- new and expanded deck, a new concrete patio, artificial lawn, and a decomposed granite patio + new drought resistant plants and lighting all around. Total project was about 4 months. We've been very happy with the result and have been using the space extensively since it was completed. Design process was great. Sandy listened to our needs and concerns and came up with a great (albeit a little over budget) design that we loved. Had to do a little work to bring the cost down, but the end result was still terrific. Staff was great too. A few minor issues here and there, but overall highly recommended.

Rich, Sandy, and their crew are amazing! After hunting around on Houzz for ideas for our backyard mess, I noticed that a lot of the pictures I was "saving and tagging" were related to work done by The Garden Route. We started design discussions with Rich in the Winter/Spring of 2014 and broke ground on the project June 4, 2014 (I remember the exact day because my son was born - we were hoping to get things kicked off prior, but we ended up adding on a portion of the project we thought we might wait until the following year to do, so there was a lot of "value-engineering" to see how we could make it work within our budget - just under ~$100k). Rich and Sandy were great at this and everything through the design process to checking in on the work at both the beginning of the project and throughout the summer. The build crew are extremely detail orientated and take great pride in their work. I think we wrapped up towards the end of August/early Sept 2014. We could not be happier with the final product. Our now 3.5 yr old and 1 yr old LOVE the backyard. We entertain all the time back there and would not change a thing about it. In fact, we recently got in touch with Rich again to figure out what we're going to do about our front yard (which is a mess of overgrown juniper bushes like the back was). The whole process went extremely smoothly and even if I thought I could get the work done cheaper by another firm, I would stick with the Garden Route because they're such a pleasure to work with and I really trust them. Thanks for giving us a space we'll continue to enjoy for many years to come! We're looking forward to the same sort of transformation in our front yard.

Sandy and his crew did an amazing job designing and building our backyard space. We use it more than we ever did before he got there and brought out it's true potential.

I have just hired Rich for the third time in as many years. I am consistently impressed with the quality of the work produced by The Garden Route and their willingness to see things through to complete customer satisfaction. They completed a redesign of my driveway and entry garden, built a beautiful fenced vegetable garden with raised beds, built dry stack walls, a deck and stairs. The crews are always friendly, hardworking and detail oriented. I highly recommend them.

I hired Rich Radford and Sandy Ayers of The Garden Route Company to design and install my front landscape, which involved some complex elevations and challenging conditions. From the innovative design, quality installation, attention to detail, and overall project management, their service was outstanding. Their crew was a pleasure to have around and had a thorough work ethic throughout my six-month project. They created a low-maintenance, low-water-consumption garden that is not only functional but absolutely gorgeous as well. I have neighbors and strangers stop by constantly to admire and compliment my front yard. I highly recommend The Garden Route Company for their award-winning designs, stunning landscapes, and top-notch service.

Rich and The Garden Route converted a large unconnected grass landscape into a inviting home surrounding with connected DG paths and surfaces , vegetable beds all bordered by low-water plants, shrubs, trees, stone-walls, steps and punctuated with circular stone patios, vases and gas fire-pit with bench. The Garden Route's design/build service/maintenance, references, photo gallery, interviews were all critical in our decision, but what turned out to be the deciding factor was Rich's ability to suggest features on first visit that were then instantly obvious and to become central to the final design. This quality resurfaced throughout the project in helping us to envision the end product that would not mature for years. Rich's unique talents were witnessed again with planting where he set a large number of plants in places and formation that are still enduring and eye catching. The entire Garden Route's team were great and earned our trust and appreciation quickly. As with any large projects there are times where you need to either add extras in or consider different options not discoverable and these were all negotiated openly and fairly. The timeframe approximated for the project occurring in Winter and Spring was held to closely and maintenance is on-going. Our choice with the Garden Route is reassured every day as we enter visibly from windows or physically through doors into our new inviting outdoor space. I recommend The Garden Route Company.

It's not often you find a company capable of being both creative and efficient, but that's been my experience with The Garden Route. The team designed a beautiful landscape for our new house, and then executed that design with nary a delay or problem. Highly, highly recommended!

Landscape design and installation. Fabulous company, excellent design services, excellent crew. I had my very large front garden completely excavated and redesigned with a new efficient watering system, dry creek, DG pathways, two seating areas, boulders, and plants. Many of my existing plants were recycled, as was any savable and useful soil. The overall effect is natural, flowing and curvy, which was important to me. It fits a coastal climate, and is environmentally responsible while being beautiful. Sandy Ayers and Stephanie Kawachi are great listeners and communicators. The crew is the same. To a person they are friendly, professional, and hard working. Delightful experience and worth every penny. I highly recommend this company.

The Garden Route Company is a class act from the design phase of a project through building and maintenance. Both Rich Radford and Sandy Ayers are innovative and conceptual architects with the added bonus of being licensed contractors. They are able skillfully translate and execute a vision into a beautiful, livable, and sustainable garden. Their extended team that worked on our property were respectful and tidy. If ever we had a question or concern about the project, we received an immediate personal response from Rich or Sandy, which allowed us to feel connected to every phase of the project. Rich and Sandy have vast horticultural knowledge in addition to their ability to design and build, which allowed us to transform our front and back yards into lush living spaces, abounding with native, low-water use plantings, in addition to edibles, which include seasonal vegetables and fruit producing trees. We are now able live outdoors on our property when we gather around a hand-crafted fire pit, cook outdoors in our outdoor kitchen, and eat in a protected dining area. Our children have a safe, yet rustic space in which to imagine and play. Our garden is a dream come true for our entire family, and is enjoyed by all of our friends.

We hired the Garden Route after receiving an uninspired set of designs from our previous landscape architects for our front yard. We wanted to something modern, refined and visually impactful. The Garden Route delivered with a series of great design ideas. We had fun collaborating with them on a few embellishments and ended up with exactly what we were looking for including some incredibly cool vertical gardens. They also did a great job with the installation. Our general contractor commended their professionalism and workmanship. We are planning on hiring them again for our patio and backyard.

The Garden Route does it all!---great landscape design, plant choice, installation, masonry, carpentry, lighting, and maintenance. We were delighted by the fabulous job Rich Radford and the crew did. Rich and his staff all have a great eye for design. We found the Garden Route after we had already hired landscape designers and had a basic design—but the Garden Route altered our plans for the better and did gorgeous work. Rich is definitely flexible in creating different designs for different clients and adapting a design to meet your family needs. We provided a long list of priorities—we wanted to grow fruit (in a yard with few sunny spots), to have a flower cutting garden for our daughter, to kick a soccer ball around in an open space, to have places to sit, and to utilize mainly native and drought tolerant plants. Rich never lost sight of any of our priorities---and now we enjoy our plums, apples, flowers, benches, and low water requirements of our yard. Rich and all of the staff were exceptionally dedicated to recycling and reclaiming existing soil, rocks, slate, and other materials for re-use in our new design. This environmentally conscious ethic was in line with our values. This approach also saved us quite a bit of money—as it meant we had to haul away very little and not purchase new (expensive) materials. Rich and his staff are complete perfectionists in designing and installing the hardscaping and choosing and planting the plants. They built beautiful stone retaining walls, sleek, neat metal edging for the yard and planted areas, a perfectly pieced together mosaic slate walkway, a modern wood bench for lounging in a sunny spot and very lovely wood planters. In our indoor atrium they set large blue concrete pavers (again reclaimed material) and built an elegant, simple fountain. They installed a flawless irrigation system—with multiple different zones for different water needs of the plants. The plants they chose flower sequentially—pro

Sandy and the Garden Route landscaped our front and back gardens in the summer of 2010. We are very happy with the work Sandy and his crew did for us. They are very professional, polite, and obviously take pride in what they do. Any questions or concerns we have about our plants or landscaping are always addressed promptly and professionally. We have contracted with The Garden Route to do regular maintenance as well. We would highly recommend working with the Garden Route.

I was thrilled with the creative landscaping that Garden Route Company did for us. They revived our backyard, which was in an awful state of disrepair when we bought our house. I couldn't be happier with their work. Not to mention that Sandy and his crew were absolutely wonderful to work with. Sandy is truly an artist, yet the end product was practical and easy to take care of.

The Garden Route is a great company. We worked with Sandy to landscape our front and back yard. He did an amazing job! Sandy & his team go the extra mile to make sure everything is done beautifully. They are knowledgeable and easy to work with. I highly recommend them.

Excellent design and workmanship follow-through. Rich helped us design the garden of our dreams, his team of professionals carefully transplanted our existing plants, re-designed the yard, included new plantings and transformed a once unworkable and unmanageable area into an entertainer's and gardener's paradise. All of this within our budget and without any hitches or excuses. Highly recommended!

The design/build team at Garden Route are impressive. Rich and Sandy's designs are contemporary and liveable, and always striking and interesting. The designs are enhanced by an environmental consciousness regarding the use of water and the use of plants such as native plants and grasses that do not require regular maintenance and a chemical regime to sustain. They have an outstanding knowledge of useful and innovative materials for their designs. They create conceptually interesting gardens where the complexity and thought that goes into the design and construction supports eminently liveable spaces.

We are very happy with The Garden Route Company. Rich Radford has been delightful to work with, knowledgeable and helpful. Our backyard was a weeded jungle and is becoming an inviting extension to our house. Thank you Rich and your wonderful Crew!

Our landscaping after The Garden Route Company completed their work is magical. Rich is extremely knowledgeable about every variety of plant, tree and flower and selected plantings that complement well the contemporary quality of the home and our desire for a relatively easy maintenance garden. Equally important, the project was completed efficiently and on budget.