Nancy created an absolute oasis for us in our front and back yards. Her ideas were very creative, focused on sustainability and took into account our personal preferences. The work was done quickly and professionally and now all our neighbors stop us to let us know how much they love our yard! read more

We have been doing our own landscaping and gardening since we moved here 45 years ago. When our massive and productive avocado tree died we searched for a professional to help us transform our backyard and our outdoor patio. We chose Nancy Knapp because we appreciate how well she listens and incorporates our wishes with her professional judgement in planning. She describes our plan as a drought tolerant "woodland garden." It is filled with grasses and flowering plants, as well as a California Sycamore tree, a couple of moderately sized pines, and a small Japanese Maple. It attracts lots of birds and insects, including butterflies, hummingbirds , and honey bees. The rain gutters feed into a dry river bed that she designed. We love Nancy's creative thinking. She is thoughtful and honest in suggesting suitable plants as well as incorporating some of our existing plants, to create this small sanctuary that is enjoyed by all. Communication is essential for us and Nancy always responded in a timely way to our phone calls, emails, or texts. She is very friendly, thoughtful, and understanding. She met the timelines that we set out for each stage of the construction. Nancy works well with her crew. They are respectful and careful working around non-garden areas. She leads a team of kind and pleasant workers. We highly recommend Nancy Knapp and Weeds for beautifully planned landscaping. read more

My project was the design and installation of drought tolerant plants and lawn covering which also included revamping drainage issues! Excellent follow up after the job was complete. Walked me through the application process with the City and received a cash rebate! Helpful respectful honest pleasant read more

If you enjoy hiring an attorney to ensure contracted work gets done, then Weeds is the company for you. If you enjoy hearing excuses, not updates, then Weeds is the company for you. If you enjoy catching a contractor in lie after lie and misrepresentation after misrepresentation, then Weeds is the company for you. If you are fond of being shown images of and paying for one type of material, only to find a completely different type of material being used (repeatedly), then Weeds is the company for you. If you find joy discovering images on their website implied as work done by Weeds were actually taken from another companies website located in San Luis Obispo, then Weeds is the company for you. If you enjoy only seeing Nancy when she wants to pick up a check, Then Weeds is the company for you. If you enjoy having to learn from expensive mistakes only after its too late, then Weeds is the company for you. If you enjoy being pulled into questionable personal drama to explain away no shows, delays, need for more money ahead of schedule, then Weeds is the company for you. If you enjoy being told the work is going great while you are out of town, only to check the security cameras to see no one is on site working, then Weeds is the company for you. It has taken me years to write this review because every time I sat down to warn others, I became far too upset to recount all the issues we had in this long, drawn out nightmare. As I sit here now, the best I can offer is a very brief cautionary tale but still cannot bring myself to relive all the problems we had with Nancy. As first time homeowners who had never gone through the experience of hiring a contractor for work like this before (i.e, we didn't know what we didn't know), we initially engaged with Weeds in 2016 for a patio renovation. Very quickly we discovered issues with cheap materials being used despite the images we showed them and they showed us were more premium. Nancy used our naiveté against us by swapped out language in the contract from the premium materials we were shown for the cheap stuff they used causing us to pay thousands more to get what we were under the impression we had already paid for. I did check up on her before hiring in so far that I made sure she was in fact licensed, but I was unaware of all the different types of licenses contractors had. She sold us on her capabilities in hardscape, landscape, retaining walls, electrical, etc but wound up working well beyond the scope of of her landscaping license - something I was unaware of until everything went wrong I and I dug deeper and learned the hard way. We'd spend thousands of dollars on french encaustic tiles - tiles Nancy suggested and swore her guy has installed a million times before - and when they arrived, there were installation instructions that came with them and were given to Nancy's guy. within weeks of completing the job, the tiles began to crack - first Nancy said it was "natural crazing" which was a premium look- then she suggested the tiles were faulty and tried to blame the company we bought them from. Then she ghosted us....until we got an attorney involved. Eventually she agreed to meet us, as well as the owner of the company who sold us the tiles and despite no other tile sold from the same batch receiving complaints, nancy insisted the problem was with the tiles, had us all sign one that she was going to get them checked out by a laboratory (never did get those results). Turns out she/her guy never followed the installation instructions, specifically they did not use a moisture barrier under the tiles which allow the tiles to have some flexibility when it got warm and cold. They saved a couple hundred dollars on that material and cost us thousands in tiles. Eventually, and I mean... eventually, Nancy replaced the tiles and the work was was finally complete. As I sit here 5 years from our first meeting, we are still discovering problems from the work done and paying for it to be undone. She gives good meeting. She comes across as knowledgeable and hands on. She seems like youre going to write a check and she will make your dreams come true. And at the time we hired her, she had good reviews on yelp... At the end the day, you'll hire who you hire, but I do wish that I had read a review like the one I just wrote prior to hiring Nancy. read more

Nancy and her team did a great job landscaping my backyard. She set up both in ground and potted plants, integrated a hot tub into the design, and installed vines above the back fence. It was easy to make decisions together as Nancy had helpful informed opinions from past experience. I'd definitely recommend reaching out for your landscaping project! read more

Nancy and her team recently completed a full landscape, irrigation and lighting redesign at our home. She was responsive, present and a pleasure to partner with. Nancy worked closely with us to come up with a design that included our requirements and preferred aesthetic while merging it with her own ideas, vision and knowledge of different types of plants. We are very happy with the result and have gotten many positive comments from neighbors on both the outcome of our project and Nancy's work ethic. It was also really nice that over the course of our project, Nancy became a friend of our family. Our 2 year-old would be excited to see Nancy when she came to visit, she would bring him little gifts and she even came to the first house party (a birthday party for our other little one) we had when the project was nearing completion. The most important question to ask someone about their contractor is: Would you hire them again? For us, when it comes to Weeds, the answer is Yes! read more

Working with Nancy has been a pleasure - she's smart, fast, easily accessible, and knows what she's doing. I needed a landscape plan for a retaining wall to submit for approval to LADBS and our contactor referred us to Nancy. She was super fast with turnaround time and the city quickly approved the plans. We now have a nice wall going up with creeping fig vines to cover part of it and nice drought resistant trees framing the top. I was especially impressed with her communication by phone and email, including while she was traveling out of the country! She made sure we had options and explained the type of trees and plants that best suited our situation and made a few last minute changes for us. read more

I had a fabulous experience with Weeds, and Nancy and her crew in particular. I first worked with her about a year ago on a small BACKYARD project. I had met with a handful of other landscape experts to fix a challenge brought about by the installation of new, larger sliding wooden doors facing the backyard. As I visualized other people's proposals, some of which were quite expensive and went far beyond what I explained about the scope, I just couldn't pull the trigger. Then I met with Nancy. She instantly "got" the challenge and came up with the perfect budget-friendly, elegant solution. Besides reassuring me that I needn't worry because she and her crew have a lot of experience, she also said that she didn't want to leave a project if the client wasn't completely satisfied. Well, I WAS, so I hired her to do the FRONT YARD AND PARKWAY, a much bigger job. Besides coming up with a great landscaping plan that worked with my budget, she offered to help me get a DWP rebate on the whole project, which she did, and which I got, and it was epic! Now my neighbors keep telling me how much they appreciate Nancy's landscaping when they walk around the neighborhood. I found Nancy a dream to work with. But, guys, beware: she IS a woman, and if you have a history of having problems working with talented, confident women, you should probably save yourself and Nancy a lot of grief--find someone else, and good luck with that. read more

Nancy and her crew at Weeds were absolutely top notch from start to finish! Nancy designed and created a backyard oasis out of a weedy pit and was able to fit a huge hot tub, fire pit with benches, a 9 foot kitchen island and gardening beds all in what formerly seemed like a really small yard. It saved us during Covid to have an outdoor living/dining room and kitchen that we could safely enjoy with the grandparents for holiday barbecues and get togethers. It also gave us an amazing garden that we have loved tending and using to grow our own food during this stressful time. Nancy also turned our dirt front yard (which had been a neighborhood eyesore for years) into a gorgeous landscape that everyone now comments on as they walk past our home. Nancy and her crew are extremely knowledgeable, communicative, and fantastic to work with. You will NOT regret your decision to hire Weeds to create your own outdoor oasis! read more

Working with Nancy was an absolute nightmare. We hired Nancy for a job that was close to six figures. When I asked for a breakdown of the costs for part of the job, I found out she was dramatically overcharging on certain parts of the project. We hired Weeds to complete the rest of our job and sure wish we hand't. Our first issue: Neither Nancy or Isabelle were rarely present to monitor the job to make sure it was going correctly. There was a major design issue that we wanted corrected and Nancy resisted us every step of the way. The contractor actually threatened to quit on Nancy over her lack of involvement. Second issue: Nancy has a very low level of understanding regarding fruit trees. I had to insist on a specific type of avocado tree that would fertilize my existing tree. This tree was planned for in our original bid. At the end of the project, Nancy told me she couldn't find this tree and tried to substitute an alternative tree that would not fertilize my existing tree. Within 2 hours, I had five nurseries in southern California tell me they had the tree available. Nancy was just lazy. Third issue: Nancy's designs had some flaws that didn't make practical sense. Anytime we wanted anything changed (despite her faulty design), we got stuck with another bill. Fourth issue: Nancy's original plant designs looked great, but 4 months later our yard looks really bad. None of the plants filled in as she told us they would and we have sparse areas throughout our yard. Her designs were also flawed as they look good initially, but aren't set up for ongoing care based on the trees and leaves in our yard. We spent way too much money to have a yard look this sloppy. Unfortunately we now have to hire someone to fix our yard. If you want overpriced and poor designs, Weeds is for you. Otherwise, keep looking. read more

I just bought my first house - a definite fixer-upper - and quickly learned how important it is to find someone you can really trust with working on an intimate, personal space like your home. Nancy is that someone. I actually found her on Yelp and thought, "Well, she has five stars... let's see why." She deserves every single one of them. She was fantastic at working with me on the budget, she finished everything exactly when she said she would, and responded to any questions I emailed within hours of me sending them - and I sent A LOT of emails. (Yep, I can be high-maintenance.) She knows plants and taught me a heck of a lot of stuff I didn't know, and she also did a really good job of listening to my own needs - something almost no other contractors have done. The couple times things haven't been quite right - for example when a bougainvillea died after a week - she came back and fixed it immediately. Most important, though, the work she does is spectacular. My front and back yards were a mess of concrete and dead, old plants. That crap is all gone, and in its place is a gorgeous colorful garden with a quaint stone path that runs from one end to another. It's like something out of a fairytale, and I enjoy walking through it every single night when I get home from the office. At first I was thinking of trying to landscape this project myself - after all, just a few plants, right? But it's so, so much more complicated than that. Now that it's done, there's not a day goes by that I'm not thrilled I hired Nancy to make my gardening dreams come true. read more

I've worked with Nancy Knapp twice now. The first time was to completely re-do my yard to make it easier care and more water efficient - it included removing all the grass and replacing it with native bushes and succulents; removing tired brick planters around the front of the building; removing cemented areas in the back, replacing it with an attractive walkway and plants, and re-using the cement that was removed to add some interesting pathways in the front of the building; and adapting the above-ground sprinklers to a drip irrigation system. Nancy worked with me to come up with a design that was practical and attractive, she got and complied with all the permits from the city to work in the parkway area, her team worked efficiently and cleanly, and the job was finished on time. I worked with her again three years later to make a few updates, replace an old lemon tree with a new bushier plant, and do some maintenance work on the drip irrigation system. Again, her people did the work quickly and cleanly, Nancy was on hand to make sure everything was done as we'd discussed, and the work was completed on time. I like working with Nancy. She's easy to talk with and to understand what she has in mind to do. She listened to what I wanted and gave me different options. She was cognizant of cost limitations and stayed within our agreed budget. When I need work done again - and in every garden, there is work over-and-above the weekly gardeners upkeep that needs to be done occasionally - I will definitely call her. Lastly, it's been very nice to receive compliments from tenants and neighbors on how nice everything looks. read more

Nancy has a amazing team and does amazing work. Even for a relatively small project, I sensed that she was completely invested in it and cared about the outcome. Her pricing is fair, her materials/plants are quality and the installation is flawless. Even though she's running a business and several jobs at once, I never felt rushed and always received the face time and attention to detail that put my mind at ease...a great experience from start to finish. Thank you! read more

This is a long overdue review for Nancy. She landscaped our backyard earlier this year and did an amazing job! She is really an artist and very easy and pleasurable to work with. Even my toddler loved her friendly visits. In terms of design, we wanted a drought tolerant, pretty, meadowy look in the backyard with different areas for relaxing and meandering around the yard. She added areas to sit, a water feature with fruit trees, kurapia, decomposed granite walking paths, and beautiful garden beds. Her company also constructed a cable and wood fence which we love. Nancy put a lot of effort and care into the design, the hard scape, the plants and the installation. She is a contractor and designer so she handles both. She is both practical and detail oriented. We are very happy with how everything turned out and it really transformed our home. The landscape guys who work for her are also very respectful and Eric who handles irrigation and lighting did a beautiful job too! read more

it is just a Perfect team, Nancy, the Owner, is very professional and very artistic. She and her Italian assistant are a great team and I suggest this company to all who wants to have a much nicer yards with reasonable price. Great! read more

I was looking for a landscaper who not only knew about plants, but who also had the right aesthetic to modernize my townhouse patio and upper deck. Nancy Knapp, the owner, turned out to be the perfect hire for my job. She and Isabelle, a designer who worked on our project, provided a well thought out proposal and schematic. They really listened to me and addressed any concerns I had, ensuring that I was satisfied every step of the way. Once the 4-day project was underway, they both came to the site to trouble shoot and make sure everything ran smoothly, which of course, it did. Nancy's entire team (designer, installers, and irrigation specialist) was terrific. My experience of working with Weeds was exceptional right from the start and straight through to the follow-up. I would definitely use Nancy again and would highly recommend Weeds for any size project you have. read more

With Nancy's help and her very capable team,my garden has been transformed into a beautiful extension of my home. The patio is now a delightful " living room" It has been a pleasure dealing with Nancy, a true professional with a unique eye and superb ideas, read more

Couldn't be more pleased with the work Weeds did in our yard. It was a mess, old cement and brick, with virtually nothing growing. We wanted reclaimed materials, drought tolerant (if possible native) plants, and a useable space. Weeds far exceeded our expectations. The new garden with patio uses the old materials, interspersed with reclaimed materials from other job sites. The design of the patio is beautiful, and the plantings are perfect. The best things about working with Nancy is she listens and follows through on what she says. The work was done on time, as promised, and the crew was great to have around. Excellent business--we highly recommend!! read more

We contracted with Weeds to remove our grass, design a drought friendly garden, and install it. We did this in August & September 2014. Nancy worked with us throughout the design to accommodate our tastes and wishes, while also offering suggestions and recommendations. It was a fun experience. The installation went very smoothly and Nancy popped in often to monitor the process in the early stages. Her workers were extremely professional and capable. One of them, along with Nancy, came up with a clever design for a walking path using brick pieces and our existing flagstone. Everything was done thoughtfully with respect to our house and our tastes. Her "irrigation and lighting guy" is also very professional, careful, and patient. Nancy even helped us to secure our rebate from the city. ($5k+!). read more

Nancy came out and was able to accommodate fixing my garden with a quick turn around time. Within a week a couple of the plants died and a stone project needed a bit of repair. I was thinking that maybe the sprinklers needed adjusting. I just needed her to do the final visit and make sure I was happy with job. She did not come out, return my calls, send a representative. Nothing. It's my fault for paying her before we were able to review but I just think that this is part of standing by your work. Her men were quick and did a nice job. She just seemed a little off in the end. I do like my garden, just hoping for a little better customer service. read more

My wife and I live in Santa Monica and own a condo where we had this unfinished outdoor patio that had amazing possibilities to be transformed into something special. After meeting other landscape designers that friends and neighbors had recommended, we found ourselves dissatisfied with the lack of attention, design and creativity that was needed to meet our vision. After researching about sustainable landscaping in Santa Monica and drip irrigation systems for our garden, I came across Nancy's name and her company - Weeds Landscape Design. In our first appointment, Nancy was attentive to our ideas and thoughtful in her approach on how to present an idea for our garden. We requested that she create a modern, clean, beautiful living space that is sustainable, functional, and in keeping with the needs and aesthetic of our building and surroundings. In this space, we wanted her to extend our Ipe wooden deck and create an outdoor kitchen as well as create a garden area that used climate appropriate plants, low-water irrigation, low-voltage lighting, a fire pit and a eco-friendly water fountain. Additionally, we requested that she use environmentally friendly materials where possible and appropriate. Nancy took our ideas and generated a really thoughtful and thorough proposal that incorporated each of our requests. Unlike previous designers who we had spoken with, she presented different ideas in a thoughtful way which we were very receptive to. She took our requests for the types of plants and lighting ambiance we were looking for and brought this to life with her sense of modern taste and unique style. When it came time to begin the project, Nancy had all "A" working professionals. Everyone was communicative, punctual, friendly and very helpful. Nancy partnered with Kobi from California Deck Builders to construct our deck and outdoor kitchen and they did a terrific job. Kobi even went above and beyond to customize certain areas of the space including a custom built wall-mounted fire pit. He even re-painted the entire area of our outdoor kitchen. This space is now the favorite room of our home. When it came to our garden, Eric and Gerardo were a delight to work with. Both were incredibly friendly, detail-oriented and ensured that we were totally satisfied with each component of the garden from the paver walkway to the lighting to the plants to our water fountain to the drip irrigation system. Everyday when we come home, we smile as we pass-by our garden and feel incredibly lucky to have found Nancy and her team of amazing professionals who brought to life our space to something that exceeds our expectations. Thank you Nancy and team! read more

Nancy and her team redid the back yard of a friend of ours and we loved the result so we contacted her to redo our backyard. Our backyard is on a hillside and it was a bit of a wild mess. Nancy, with the help of Kobe (who does the hardscape) transformed our yard from an ugly, unusable mess to something that we enjoy every day. She pulled almost everything out, planted a bunch of native plants and fruit trees, and created a flat area for our son to play soccer on. What I like about Nancy is that she doesn't just install and then walk away. We had some plants that didn't survive a heatwave shortly after she planted them. She came back and replaced all the ones that didn't make it. And she came back a couple of times after that to tweak some of the lighting issues we were encountering. The yard has grown in nicely over the past 2 years and we're still enjoying it and very happy that we chose her to do the work. She's also a very nice person and easy to work with. I'd definitely recommend her. read more

Nancy- I think if you check your records you will see several emails from me. Isabelle came and did a site review, I had plans for what I wanted and then it took 4 emails to get a bid, sent every week, with no response. Then, almost 2.5 months later, I got a bid that included prices for things I didn't need and plans that were already done. That's bad business. I called several times. No follow up, you were not interested in being present and communicative. When I DID finally get a bid it was 2x higher than two other bids. I'm sorry, I know it's difficult to get a bad review, but I am being honest about my experience. I have learned when things go south in the beginning, it rarely adjusts. I'm a business owner myself, so know how important good, respectful communication and support is and how devastating a bad review is... however, try and take it as a way to improve on your business. Your pictures of what you do look great... you and Isabelle are very talented I am sure, but your business practices left a lot to be desired. I am not a competitor. Just an 'almost' customer who realized that your lack of follow up was not for me. read more

We bought a new home in Santa Monica, but the developer didn't put much effort into the landscaping. We hired Nancy and crew (after two tries with other companies) to revamp the landscaping in front and back. She was awesome. -She has a great sense of design. -She knows plants. -She hires great workers. -She is fun to work with. -She is reliable. -She goes the extra mile to get the end result we want, even when it meant tweaking the original plan a bit. -She is professional. While her subcontractor build a fence around our pool equipment they inadvertently (and unknowingly) cracked one of the plastic pipes going to the pool. Once that became apparent, she got someone to spend the day it took to find and fix the problem. -She clearly is in this for the long run, so her goal was always to make the house look great and make us happy. -She is willing to speak up when she disagrees with us, to help us make decisions that make sense. -Her crews always cleaned up after themselves. We are 100+% satisfied and recommend her without reservation. read more

For months I was looking through my patio door at a large and long white boring wall. Although the outside space is only a long thin walkway that leads to the beach the white wall made it feel even smaller and confined. Wanted something very special, warm, colorful, and inviting to look at when I was in my home; as well as could be seen by neighbors walking by. Also wanted it to be an intimate sanctuary to relax in. Invited a number of landscapers to look at the space and come up with something unique. Of all the folks that came in, the most involved and creative was Nancy Knapp of Weeds Garden & Interior. Nancy took the time to hear what I was looking for and personally did detailed measurement and took photos of the space. To complicate matters there were some specific pieces I purchased that I wanted to be the focal points of the wall. Nancy embraced the challenge and creatively, esthetically and functionally drew up her vision for how the wall would look while integrating my pieces in the work. She was open and supportive to my input and we adjusted some of the elements to my eye and lifestyle. She made sure to select a visually complementary range of plants that were not only colorful but provided perfect texture; as well as were strong enough for the challenges of the beach climate and elements. Also let her know I travel often and would not be able to care for the plants. Nancy then set up an entire no-maintenance irrigation systems that will care for the plants no matter how long I am away as well as made available a monthly maintenance visit to ensure all systems and plants were alive and well. She then had her crew custom build the structure along with adjoining shelves exactly as she presented them to me. All of this was done on time and on budget. It turned out exactly as I hoped and offered all the beauty, functionality and ease I hoped for. In addition, have a bedroom window that overlooks the beach and an old metal room landing attached to my house. Asked Nancy how we could create something organic and colorful to hide the roof landing and also be maintenance-free for me. Her and her crew came up with a great solution that accomplished everything I wanted. Her work made such a difference. You'd never know is the same space! Highly recommend Nancy Knapp and Weeds if you are looking for customization, creativity, good service, timely work, affordable cost and lots of TLC! read more

We called Nancy at Weeds Landscape Design when we lost all confidence and patience with the landscape designer we had been working with, and we were now in a hurry to have our yard completed.  I initially left her a message explaining the situation, and she returned my call about 10 minutes later.  She was cheerful and enthusiastic and reassuring. She was not put off by the fact that we already had a design in hand, despite the fact that she usually does both the design and installation.  She completely understood that we were in a hurry, and made an appointment to meet with us just a couple of days later.  When she got here she studied the design we had, said there were a lot of things she liked about it and some things she would recommend changing, and we liked all of her suggested changes.  We had told her from the outset that we were interviewing another landscape designer and would choose between them, and she was completely fine with that. She got her estimate to us in two days. It was very professionally done, with the charges for installation of irrigation, lighting, and plants itemized separately and in detail. Her estimate came in at about half of what our original designer came in with. We were already having our own contractor do the hardscaping, and when we had questions about how to leave access for lighting and irrigation we felt comfortable calling her for advice even though we hadn't hired her yet. She was completely accessible and very helpful, and really knew her stuff. In the end we went with a different landscaper because his schedule allowed to get the job done even faster, but we have recommended Nancy to other friends already. Based on our experience with her, we highly recommend her. read more

We found Nancy Knapp through great reviews she received on our Westside Nextdoor social media site. We wanted someone who specialized in sustainable landscape design. Nancy was so knowledgeable, personable, and quick to grasp what we wanted that we knew right away we could trust her. She created a wonderful design for our front yard with all native/Australian plants, a drip system with a "smart" sprinkler controller that only releases water as needed based on a moisture sensor, a dry river bed and stone pathway, and low voltage lighting. She also designed a drainage system with multiple porous catch basins that will cause most of the rain from our downspouts to seep into the groundwater and avoid street runoff. Her team, who have been with her for many years, was great in executing the design and it was so easy to deal with Nancy as we tweaked the plan along the way. We are very happy with the result and totally ready for El Nino! read more