Lee Ann Marienthal Gardens

A pleasure to work with! LeeAnn is efficient, knowledgeable and fun. She spent a lot of time getting the right plant varieties for me and installed everything beautifully.

My wife and I had the privilege of working with Lee Ann shortly after buying our first home together. Lee Ann's sister was actually the real estate agent that sold the house to us, so Lee Ann was very familiar with the property as she had already done some work for the sellers. We reached out to Lee Ann to setup an initial consultation, and she was very responsive, coming out within days to meet with us. She came with great ideas, and she was eager to get started. Being our first time embarking on a project like this, Lee Ann demonstrated amazing patience and did a great job walking us through the process. Not only did she design our project, but she brought contractors to the table to bid the project, and she was a very important piece to the puzzle as she helped us level the bids and select a contractor. We had countless calls and text messages about the project during the design, bid, and install phases. The project was our backyard, and we completely demolished it. Starting with a clean slate, we added hardscape, grass, countless plants, custom fire pit and bench seating, string lights, etc. The project is now complete, and my wife and I couldn't be more happy and proud to call our backyard home. We've had several people over, and have only received the highest of praises. Lee Ann did an amazing job for us, and we would absolutely recommend her to friends and family. Thank you, Lee Ann!

Lee Ann Marienthal is absolutely wonderful to work with in creating a special landscape. She listened to my wishes and shared excellent ideas. She is an expert on plants! She also went with me to a tree nursery so I could see and learn about good possibilities for my new landscape. She has as her colleague Chris who worked seamlessly with her, and also with me, the client, to make sure everything was done properly including the removal of the old landscape and then with the installation of the new planting , irrigation and lighting. They are outstanding. My new front yard is great! Thank you Lee Ann and Chris.

Lee Ann is a true professional. She exceeded my expectations from start to finish on my landscape project. She was always on time and listened very carefully to my questions and keep me in loop during every phase of the project. With then the project was competed, she has checked in on the landscape and also consulted with my gardener.

I lost two huge and wonderful trees and needed new landscaping, planting and irrigation systems as a result. Working with Ms. Marienthal has been a delight. She has been patient, tactful and marvelous in making suggestions - Including but not limited to gravel pathways in the back yard and four hours of lighting in the evening. As a result I have a back yard and a front yard that are a constant source of pleasure and respite. I honestly cannot take credit for any of the project. The only problem, if it can be labeled as such, is that she uses often uses formal names for plants which leave me flummoxed.

Lee Ann was wonderful to work with. She understood my vision, and follow through was timely until she was satisfied the project was perfect. She was creative , professional and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her. I've gotten many compliments on my garden.

I needed a talented, cost conscious and collaborative landscape designer to tackle our challenging project in Dana Point. Our small front, side and back yard was a myriad of plantings by a myriad of former owners. We needed it all out and completely re-designed. Our lot also presented privacy and light issues. Lee Ann took the task head-on and designed an oasis that featured succulents in the front yard that easily transitioned to tropical in the side and back yard. Lee Ann listened carefully to my ideas and took me to a variety of plant nurseries including vendors where we browsed pots for planting and pots that could be converted to fountains. Draft designs were easily and quickly modified to reflect my input, plant availability and, when necessary, budget. Lee Ann handled everything, including directing demo, lighting design (included in the plans) and purchasing all plants, lights, and pots. Her on-site supervision of the installation ensured all was done according to plan. She hired the fountain designer/ installer as well as the landscape installer. All were nothing short of amazing. I will be hiring the the plant and lighting installer and his crew for weekly maintenance. Finally, Lee Ann's design stayed within my budget. Some cuts needed to be made and she did so without hesitation and without impacting the beauty of the design. I appreciated, too, her timeliness and responsiveness; all work was completed within my time frame and all emails, phone calls, text messages were responded to quickly. From our first meeting, I knew she was the best person for the job!

LeeAnn is so good at what she does that the end result transcends the design itself; having myself become enraptured with horticulture, design, and an newfound appreciation for the elements of nature. I was extremely high-maintenance (i like to know everything that's going on and why), and her efforts remained indefatigable. I could go on and on, but it might be best if I just copy and paste my response to her first design draft: it’s really impressive. You did a wonderful job at interpreting our ideas and conceiving them in an artistic and unique way; including preserving hillary’s tastes in the front and mine in the back. I’m learning a lot just studying it. It is truly a work of art, so i’m afraid to give any feedback at all…You clearly put a lot of work into it, and for that we’re very grateful. Even if we have different “temperatures” (inevitable), the work itself is masterful. The rosemary is brilliant, as is the jasmine espalier, the underplantings of the orchid tree, the cersis in the backyard, the clivia miniature under the cherry trees as accents, the mini-lemon tree, the lighting is amazing, ferns, iris, agapanthus scattered throughout, the yellow wave, seabreaze along the street is ballsy! we will definitely be setting a new bar for the neighborhood.

LeeAnn is a top notch designer and cares very much about the look, feel and success of a great yard. She pays special attention to the quality of the plants and looks for those that will suit the design as well as great maintenance of the garden. We have a big yard with a challenging slope. It looks beautiful now! Everything from the irrigation to the lighting and planting was completed on time and within the scope of the budget. Her eye for color and texture makes this a garden to enjoy for all seasons! I highly recommend LeeAnn.

Lee Ann is amazing! She designed a complete remodel of the patio at my townhouse. While it was a small, tricky space smaller than her typical project, Lee Ann patiently listened to my concerns and aspirations. She is particularly talented at balancing succulents with other types of plants and incorporating lighting in her design. The overall result is a modern, practical, and beautiful space that I will enjoy for many years! In addition to her knowledge and artistic vision, Lee Ann is one of the kindest people I know. In the middle of the project, I had some health problems and she brought me peonies! She and her husband also give back to the community. I would give her six stars if I could!

We needed to rework a portion of our backyard grassy area because we participated in our water district's turf replacement rebate program. Lee Ann Marienthal was hired to design the water-conserving landscape and oversee its implementation. After hearing what we were looking for, we met to discuss her initial design and the type of plant materials she proposed to use. She was able to talk through the plan and show us some wonderful pictures on both her iPad and her design book. We were able, through these mediums, to get a good idea what the overall look was going to be. We then went outside to decide what existing plants needed to be deleted and what could be used in her design. She was able to keep the plants that we felt attached to and was able to work that into the design. Lee Ann is a hands-on person. She didn't do what many landscape designers do by choosing plants that were "easily available". She went the extra mile to track down a particular tree that she recommended, but happened to be available out of state and had it delivered. She made the effort in finding the right succulents to put in a certain area even if she had to go to several places to acquire them. To help us with our limited budget, she reused/propagated the succulents we already had in other parts of our garden. As a result our backyard has interesting plants that are beautiful, well-placed, well-balanced, and drought tolerant once established. Lee Ann was here frequently to oversee the work and spent entire days delivering plants, and meticulously positioning boulders, plants, and lighting to achieve the best overall look for daylight and at night. She was very easy to work with. Her communications with us were constant and appreciated. We LOVE the end result. We now enjoy going out to our new backyard. We would never have picked out the plants that she chose and have come to realize that we picked someone that really knows plants and landscape design- a true professional. We were very fortunate in choosing her to bring new life to our backyard. Another 5-star rating well-earned!

Lee Ann met with us in our home on a Saturday and spent at least 4 hours with us to find out what we had in mind and wanted for our very large back yard and somewhat smaller front yard. In the back yard, we were removing our swimming pool and all the grass and asked her to design the yard with drought tolerant plants. We knew nothing about this kind of garden and certainly nothing about caring for it. She made several trips to our house to draw a design that we were delighted with. She send us to several nurseries to see what the plants looked like as young plants and then as older plants. We took the design to our association for approval and we were approved on the first visit. She personally picked out all the plants, delivered them to our house and then placed them where she wanted them. After they were planted, she watched over them like a "new mom" and replaced several plants that were not doing well. She also suggested we use her gardner for a couple of months because he know exactly how to get the plants started on good footing. And she asked him to spend some time with our gardner so he would know how to care for this different kind of garden. I would recommend her to anybody who wants a new and beautiful garden and has the time to spend with her. She will give you a lot of individual attention.