Simple Elegance
About us
At Simple Elegance, we believe that the landscape is an extension of the character of a house. There is no template for a successful landscape design; rather it requires a trained eye to assess the traits of each unique property and a keen ear to understand the wishes of a client. Together these allow us to discover the 'Genius Loci,' or sense of place inherent in every property, and translate this into a compelling and coherent design. Simple Elegance understands that implementing a design successfully requires careful supervision of details and an understanding of the overall goal. We strive to provide outstanding customer service, with an emphasis on continuous communication and updates with our clients. To be truly successful, every relationship requires an ongoing dialogue from start to end. We look forward to working with each and every client to create a practical and harmonious connection between his or her home and garden. Two fully staffed offices servicing Northern and Southern California.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Landscape design & consulting.
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings | 
|---|---|---|
| 65% | ||
| 17% | ||
| 10% | ||
| 7% | ||
| 1% | 
"It was a pleasure designing your yard. I look forward to pictures. Ben"
We were really disappointed with Ben.  We specifically asked for an Hawaiian topical landscape, with 
 
fern Gully" greenery.  He took five weeks to deliver the pans and his plant selection were a mix of drought tolerant Asian style mostly, red, orange and purple black plants.  It was so horrible that I went around taking pictures of landscapes in the neighborhood with Ferns and greenery.  He just said those plants would use a lot of water and recommended added two ferns in planters.  To make matters worst the plans did not include the lighting and electrical components we had discussed.  He claimed that the lighting and electrical was not included in the Angie's List Big Deal "Complete" landscape design coupon.  However, he offered the same $299 deal in the "Home Improvement" magazine and it specifically started includes "lighting design."  He wanted an extra $399 to add the lighting design component. Once we had the landscape company he recommended come by for an estimate, the owner explained that Ben used the same plant selection for all of the clients he had seen.  So, it did not matter what we wanted, he saved time by just giving us his drought tolerant cookie cutter plan.  The contractor we hired had to completely redo the plant selection and modify the hardscape patio design to fit our yard.  The only thing that worked was the walkway design. Simple Elegance ripped us off.
"Member, Thank you for the awesome review! I look forward to seeing the finished yard."
Our yard is oddly shaped, although it has a fairly standard "L" shaped house (with a tired flagstone patio) but then goes back about 100 feet tapering into a point at the far end of the years. A good part of the area is grass that has seen better days and takes a lot of water. We have a big ugly hedge on one side that does block the view of the neighbors pool equipment and a couple of big, mature, pine trees on the other side. We really like the pine trees and didn't want to lose them. The yard is deep enough that we wanted a retreat/sanctuary way in the back but wanted a patio or low deck for entertaining too. We also thought of the traditional patio cover over a built in BBQ should fit somewhere in the mix and wanted to redo the yard with more plants and plant diversity (and with more drought tolerant plants).
Ben measured the yard, took all of our ideas into account, and promised a design in a couple of weeks. Well, I thought that we would get the design and that would be the end of it. Nope, not how Ben works. To our pleasant surprise (and apparently the way he always does business), Ben came back up to the house a week or so later for a second session with the initial set of plans. Very cool. He captured the idea for entertaining just right with a great patio, built in BBQ with attached seating, and a great patio cover design. Around the corner from the patio he designed us a second entertainment area as a low deck that we can eventually put the jacuzzi next to (one of my late ideas). His design removed the hedge and replaced it with a layering of plants that will look a lot better but still block the view of the neighbors yard. Perhaps best of all, the design included a winding pathway to a third small patio that will be our private sanctuary area. He also put a small water fall and fountain back there that we really like. Oh, and the pine trees are still in the design and he picked both ground cover and plants that will do well in their shadow.
So, overall, I am really pleased. The design he did for us really captured what we wanted. Ben has really great ideas and he was able to show us many of them in pictures because they are in real yards. He also has tremendous knowledge of the plants that make sense for our area (our plans identified all of the plant types). He is punctual, meticulous, and very easy to work with. I highly recommend Ben Dickerson and Simple Elegance Landscape Design.
Licensing
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