- License
- CA C-27 1028841
- Insured
- Yes
- Est.
- 9 seasons · Oakland, Berkeley & Alameda
Plate I — Front garden
Yards in Oakland that look looked-after.
Elena Peña builds outdoor work you can live in — 9 years of soil, stone, and follow-through.
The studio
Elena Peña
Elena built a Thumbtack book while still on a production landscaping crew, then left to run her own studio. The old Wix page never matched the work. Solobilt replaced it with a site she can update between jobs — photos, service area, and a quote form that goes to her phone.
Soil, stone, and follow-through — 9 seasons of it.
What the studio takes on
5 chapters
- I
Garden design
- II
Hardscape & patios
- III
Irrigation
- IV
Seasonal cleanup
- V
Drought-smart planting
The garden year
A yard is planted once and kept four times a year.
- Dec – Feb
Drawings & stone
Rain keeps us off the beds, so we draw. Patios and walls go in on dry weeks.
- Mar – May
Planting window
Natives go in while the soil still holds rain. Irrigation is tested before a single plant.
- Jun – Aug
Water & watch
Drip schedules get tuned twice. We visit every new bed once in July.
- Sep – Nov
Cut back & mulch
Grasses are cut, beds are mulched, and next year’s list starts on paper.
Portfolio
Before the beds, and after.
Drought-smart, built to be lived in.
Reviews
What neighbors say
Example reviews
4.8
6 reviews
“The planting plan was a sketch of our yard, not a template. The irrigation was in before the plants.”
“The patio pitch drains away from the house. She checked it with a level while we watched.”
“The lawn went in on the week she named. She came back once to show us the watering schedule.”
“The olive and the grasses were the ones on the drawing. Nothing extra appeared in the bed.”
“She labeled the valves and left a photo of the controller. We can change a zone without calling.”
“The front yard is the photo on the page, taken after the mulch, not a stock garden.”