Besides professional garden designing, Karen has designed her own gardens for 30 years in each home she has lived in; from Marin, abroad, Midwest, Las Vegas, and now back to the Bay Area in Sonoma County.  As a child in the Midwest, she loved all seasons and the display of various plants in each season.  Moving to California, she was fascinated at the vast difference between the two areas plant arrays and how they thrived in various conditions.  

Her passion for the plants continued during her education process for her Nutrition degree. Drawn to the plant course offerings she loved learning all there was to know about botany so much that she has a minor in the subject. Each home was an experimentation to push the boundaries of what would work in each climate and plant’s location while she gardened as a hobby.

Karen uses her experience and professional landscape training to give you the best of both worlds in creating lovely outdoor spaces.  Karen specializes in linking your inside and outside living environments, producing enchanting spaces from entertainment rooms to meditative gardens.  In her professional time spent in the desert she is well aware of ‘water wise’ gardening and the need to plant appropriately for the environment, yet not sacrificing clients’ wishes.

“I like to think of a residential design in the big sense, but break it down into smaller outdoor rooms.  It’s difficult for one to envision what a garden will look like when you see a massive piece of barren land.  I can take this daunting task and turn your garden into livable meaningful spaces for you.”