Sustainable Landscaping Services

We are so happy with our yard! We weren’t sure what we wanted at first, but we were drawn to the designer's unique and colorful designs. She has a great eye for mixing different colors and textures of plants, and she designed a completely California native yard that has something in bloom year-round. We have received so many compliments from neighbors since installing our new yard. Having Water Efficient Gardens manage the reimbursement process with the county was also really wonderful. She knows how the department works and submitted everything they requested very quickly. We received our reimbursement with no issues not too long after our yard was complete.

It was the best decision to work with Shelkie to have it redone with a rain garden that would attract bees and butterflies. She worked with a few plants I had already in place that I did want to keep, and put in native plants that are low maintenance and water sparing. I told her what was important to me and she made the whole process easy and worked to find the best fit. After she created the design, she arranged for a landscaper to carry out her plans, and oversaw the whole project. She also facilitated the process for getting a water rebate.

It has been 3 years now and I still get comments from people passing by about how well done the yard is. It still makes me happy when I look out at the yard, especially when something is in bloom, which Shelkie staggered plants to do for several months of the year. Very reasonable cost for what was done, especially with the water rebate. Wish I had done it sooner!

We recently converted our lawn to drought tolerant plants. Working with Water Efficient Gardens was easy. They handled the paperwork for the rebates and brought in a contractor to install the plants and irrigation. They created a low-maintenance design with a rain garden. Highly recommend!

Working with Shelkie Tao has been a joy start to finish! She crafted us a beautiful, low-maintenance, water-efficient California natives garden in a palette that reflects our tastes and with plants that fit the precise needs of our soil conditions and space. Throughout the process, she was endlessly responsive -- always willing to answer our questions and to share her deep native plants expertise. Her Lawn Replacement Rebate Assistance program made interfacing with Valley Water so easy and we were delighted to have each step of our project quickly approved. It's been three months since installation, and already -- in the middle of winter! -- our garden is growing and blooming and the lovely rain garden feature handled our recent storms beautifully. We've already had monarch caterpillars munching on our milkweeds! We have gotten so many compliments on our front yard's transformation and we've learned so much from Shelkie. She has a passion for California's wonderful native plant heritage that is absolutely infectious! We recommend her with greatest enthusiasm and can't wait to work with her again!