Jolee Horne Landscape Design

Working with Jolee was a pleasure! She worked with us for 18 months before we were ready to start digging. We undertook a large scale project including both front and back yards from scratch. She is so thorough and was very patient with us every step of the way. Her level of knowledge is outstanding and her level of detail is fantastic. We love every bit of the outcome! Our yards are more beautiful than we could have imagined. Jolee had a vision that put all of our random ideas into beautiful, warm, and inviting picture. Neighbors often stop by to complement our home and many people have asked for the name of our designer. I wholeheartedly recommend her every time without reservation. You will love the transformation.

Jolee designed and then oversaw the installation of our backyard landscape. She was a delight to work with and was responsive to input and questions. She kept the project moving along and alerted us to reasons for any delays (pandemics make for difficulty getting plants). She is just a lovely human being. As for the landscape, we wanted something natural and informal and she created a yard that was so incredibly perfect, a true oasis. She has lots of horticultural and design experience as well as great connections with vendors and contractors in the community. We can recommend Jolee wholeheartedly for any landscape project; we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her.

Jolee did an outstanding end to end job for us. We enjoy the product of her design each day. She is very detailed and follows through on every aspect of a project. Her knowledge of plants is remarkable. She was extremely easy to work with. She is an excellent listener and was willing to go with the flow and make changes as necessary. Our experience with Jolee was extremely positive and her patience was much appreciated.

We found Jolee through friends, and were delighted working with her. While very busy, she is responsive, reasonable, and great at balancing the sometimes conflicting objectives our project presented; drought tolerance vs. lush and welcoming, harsh sun and limited shade, budget and ease of maintenance. She really listens and really cares about her clients’ best interests. We couldn’t be happier with the design and now spend just about every evening outside.

We have a beautiful garden surrounding our craftsman style downtown Palo Alto home, an urban oasis, created some 25 years ago by Jolee Horne. Our garden has brought us continuous and increasing joy over these many years. Admiring passers-by will stop and comment about its lush beauty and how it enhances the beauty of our neighborhood. The garden has a harmonious woodland atmosphere incorporating an array of skillfully selected trees and shrubs enhanced by gravel paths and aesthetically clustered boulders and stone formed raised contours, as well as a Japanese inspired fountain. In fact, the garden was so beautiful. that it inspired us to remodel the back part of our house so we could enjoy the garden even fully. Jolee has been dedicated to us and our garden as designer and friend as the garden has matured and changed over the years requiring adjustments in the plants as areas became shady, and the challenge of oat root fungus (armillaria) became manifest. And through this, Jolee has been our faithful and reliable friend and advisor over these many years recommending changes as necessary. She keeps her skillful eye on our garden when she's in the neighborhood without being asked. This dedication has created a long term friendship and a garden that we continue to greatly treasure and enjoy. If you thinking about creating a garden paradise, you should think of Jolee.

Meeting Jolee was a serendipity! She recently transformed our front yard from a dead lawn and Box hedges to a lovely park like place. She had to deal with the existing hardscape and architectural style as well as difficult light. She also had the challenge of integrating our design requests (which were quite specific) and our desire to be water wise. Jolee could not have been better; she gave us everything we wanted and more . She did it in a timely manner and within the budget.Not only is she a terrific designer, she has a great sense of humor. She made a process that I was dreading pleasant and rewarding. Thank you Jolee!

How fortunate I was to have found a true landscape artist in Jolee Horne. After the removal of my old backyard swimming pool, this gifted landscape designer turned an unappealing space into an artist’s palette and gave life to my vague vision for a new garden. Aside from a brilliant sense of color and design, Jolee is able to collaborate and direct hardscape contractors, irrigation contractors, electricians, and maintenance personnel. Her knowledge of horticulture is impressive along with her other skills which run the gamut from the perfect plant for a given location to the ability to showcase her work through a beautiful lighting design. I relied upon her to determine the ideal plant choices for a specific soil type, climate, and exposure. She is meticulous in the myriad of aspects that are encompassed by a project such as mine. Jolee is a pleasure to work with. She cares about her client's desires and works patiently and tirelessly to see that those desires are manifested in the ultimate design. Now that I know Jolee and her work, I will always depend upon her expertise before making any decision in my lovely garden. I trust and rely on her knowledge and her work ethic. Jolee Horne has created a beautifully integrated design using elements of stone, rock, wood, metal and other architectural features. She has interwoven them into a unified pastel painting that gives me great pleasure. My garden and its twisting pathways and arches enchanted my four-year-old neighbor. She called it a magic garden and gave its special spaces imaginative names. I share my young friend’s view of this creation by Jolee Horne, and if I could I would give Jolee Horne ten stars.

My wife and I have lived in our craftsman home for 11 years. Our front yard landscaping was utterly boring. In came Jolee Horne: a quiet, perceptive, and bright landscape designer with vision, heart, patience, and (amazing to find this too) persistent followthrough in seeing her vision come into reality. She uses boulders (carefully selected and placed), subtle shaping of the ground surface (resulting in natural walking paths), and drought-resistant plants (with a wide variety of leaf shapes, patterns, colors, and flowers)--in a combination that makes one's inside and outside living space more enjoyable. Jolee also designed lighting to add visual distance from inside our home at nighttime, plus safe comings and goings of our family and friends. The lighting as viewed from the street is discreet and unpretentious, just the way we like it. Now we feel at home, more so than ever before! The experience of living in our home is one of feeling hugged by what is in the yard. It's awesome! Home sweet home--made even better with Jolee Horne's design. Highest recommendation!

Jolee re-designed our back yard to accommodate our need for raised boxes for our vegetable gardens, and she made a BEAUTIFUL design that included 7 gorgeous and very friendly garden beds that fit into a beautiful re-design of the whole back yard. She was able to do this in a very timely manner, and stayed within our budget. We were so impressed with her creativity that we asked her to re-design our front yard a few years later, and she was even more impressive with her infusion of 'yummy boulders', delicate wooden fence with artistic ironwork, all the flowering/water-wise plants and fruit trees we had requested, and more that we hadn't even known existed. And again, she was prompt and able to stay within our budget. She is a true artist and a delight to work with, who cares deeply about her projects and even comes by to check on things periodically. She deserves every 5-star rating she gets, and if there were a 6-star rating, she'd get it from us!

Jolee does amazing design work and is truly committed to her work. Many times, people walking by have stopped and rang our doorbell to ask who designed our front yard. She now has designed the yards for many in our neighborhood. She is very detailed oriented, and feels very committed to her work. Even years later, she stops by to check on how the yard looks--and it is still beautiful. Today, she stopped by and I was out pruning the grape vines that are covering an arbor that she designed. She stayed to help me prune the vines so they looked good. I also found her easy to work with. She has opinions about what will look good, but if we needed to alter the design (either due to cost or personal preference) she was always willing to compromise. I wish this website would allow me to give her 6 stars!

We tore up our backyard pool and surrounding concrete, so that we were starting with a "blank canvas". I had ideas about where I wanted to place our gazebo/dining set ,firepit and hot tub as well as dreams of apple and pear trees and natives. Jolee listened carefully and designed a beautiful plan that incorporated all my requests in a harmonious and artful way. She was very patient ( I took a long time to make up my mind about hardscape) She was very astute at noticing how the sun/shadows shifted over the day and used her impressive knowledge of plants to suggest different ones for the different areas. As well, she grouped plants according to water needs so they would be on appropriate irrigation stations together. She also made sure that the plants were high quality when it came time to plant, sending some back which didn't measure up. Jolee is good natured, cares deeply about her work and is a pleasure to work with - I feel like I've made a new friend :)

Jolee is terrific - we thoroughly enjoyed working with her and will continue to do so. She is extremely knowledgeable, a good listener, caring, sensitive to the needs of her client, talented and creative. She redesigned our front and back yard to be more drought tolerant - it is beautiful. She is a landscaping maestro, orchestrating all elements - bringing it all together to create a living masterpiece.

We did a major backyard renovation with Jolee. Our back and side yard have a lot of space but in a very odd configuration (cul-de-sac lot) which has always been difficult to utilize effectively. Jolee came up with a creative and quite beautiful design to incorporate my wish list of outdoor kitchen and spacious entertainment area, large raised bed garden area, and a low water natives garden. She's knowledgeable about garden materials (I love my corten steel garden beds) and passionate about choosing the best plants. We really enjoyed working with her and I've referred her to my friends.

The new front landscape Jolee created for us is everything we asked for and more. She applies a beautiful artistry to all the elements of outstanding design - layout, form, color and texture -- as they extend to soil topology, stone, boulders, walls, lighting, the pots, and, of course, the placement of plants, shrubs and trees. Equally important, she has vast botanical experience and knowledge when choosing the right plant for the right place. We can't be happier with the result! The stream of positive comments from neighbors and others walking by has been non-stop.

Jolee was extremely knowledgeable, very easy to work with, an excellent listener, and she stayed within our budget. We are extremely satisfied with the outcome of the project, and highly recommend her. I was looking to redo the landscaping of my home, front, side, backyard with pool, of 16,000sq ft lot. We wanted to modernize the look of our property which had last been landscaped 25 years ago. I interviewed many landscape architects before hiring Jolee. Her skill set was exactly what I was looking for: many years of experience, a very open attitude towards whatever my ideas were, a willingness to work with our budget, great references, plus we "clicked". We spent hours walking the property. I described to her that I wanted ; a more drought tolerant landscape with no succulents, reduction of the amount of grass, a welcoming and lovely front yard, and a beautiful, park-like backyard. She asked me specific questions about colors, types of plants I liked and disliked. I wanted a couple of areas that had a more Eastern, meditative feel. In order to accomplish our goals, she began by creating a site plan, researched our property lines, drew up a site plan, and came back with some proposals. After we agreed on our ideas, she created an intricate planting plan which included 100s of plants, hardscape such as boulders, and Kentucky Blue Stones. She offered me many planting suggestions from which I chose what I wanted. She was very patient and took the time she needed to ensure we had exactly what we wanted. From start to finish, the project took roughly 10 months which was what she had predicted. Jolee also referred me to other sub contractors needed for carpentry and masonry in the back yard. These people were also awesome!

We have worked with Jolee Horne since the summer of 1996, when we remodeled our house and garden. The garden was a from-the-ground-up project, necessitating design, irrigation, and planting. Jolee is totally knowledgeable people in all areas; she has an artist's eye and an inventor's creativity. She listened attentively and was diplomatic in steering us toward things that would both work well and satisfy our own vision. We have continued to work with her to the present day; she is the first person I call for updates on planting ideas. We see her at least twice a year for consults and work on our garden. She came highly recommended when we were looking for help. We, in turn, highly recommend her eye and talent.