Kingsbury Garden Designs -

Sabrina Braham

I came across Dorrit's work 8 years ago and finally had the opportunity to work with her. We hired her for a complete landscape redesign (front and back) in Palo Alto, with some hardscape, lighting elements. Dorrit listened and delivered on all of our priorities, a quality we found rare among the various subcontractors we've worked with. When we asked for something she thought wouldn't work, she collaborated with us to find a better solution. As clients with a strong aesthetic but no knowledge of plant material or landscape design, Dorrit really added value as both a great collaborator and a source of terrific ideas. Ultimately, she required little to no micromanaging and we found her standards to be high. It is worth noting that she is cost conscious as well, always offering several price points and not assuming anything about the budget. It was a pleasure to work with Dorrit and we would do it over and over again. The landscape she designed was also selected for the local garden tour, so that tells you the finished product really shines, in addition to being a perfectly designed space for our family.

Nikhil Behl

We had an extremely disappointing experience working with Dorrit Kingsbury on our landscaping project as she was unable to create or commit to any timeline and as a result, she failed to manage our project proactively, and also failed to complete the project in a timely manner, as further described below.

We hired Dorrit in March 2016 to design and install our entire home landscaping.

Six months later, she had only completed a small portion of the hardscape, and we still had no plans for completion of decking, irrigation, planting, or lighting and we were still waiting for certain aspects of the design to be completed. Dorrit never provided a timeline for the implementation of the overall project, nor did she provide us with any indication of when subcontractors would be engaged to complete the various pieces of the project. We did ask Dorrit to provide us with an overall project plan, including timeline, but she informed us that planning in that manner was not industry standard, and that it was the nature of this business to just allow the project to unfold without an active project management or implementation plan. Dorrit assured us that her other clients were in a similar situation, and that our experience was standard. Although we did not have visibility into the plan or timing for implementation of the project, and we were experiencing longer-than-expected delays, we were consistently billed on a monthly basis. Dorrit’s billings did not much detail as to what we were being billed for.

After another month went past, and still with no timeline to which Dorrit would agree, we made a decision to fire Dorrit. In our view, she did not manage the project proactively, and we believed we were being billed and were paying for an incomplete landscape design, which (if the then current spend rate would continue until completion) would result in an amount that would be double the budget we had asked her to honor.

After we parted ways, we were able to complete the remaining aspects of our project (decking, irrigation, planting, lighting, furniture and accents) in six weeks, acting as the project managers ourselves and working directly with subcontractors. In our mind, our ability to manage and complete the project so quickly illustrated to us that Dorrit was in fact handling the project in an inefficient manner.

Amy Thornborrow

Dorrit is a treasure! She designed and installed a brand-new front garden, including standard hardscaping (walkway /driveway) and unusual, architectural hardscaping (lit concrete benches), plus plants and trees and she did an exceptional job! On top of this, we gave Dorrit a real challenge by asking that she redesign our pre-existing back garden to compliment our home and new front garden. She was able to truly transform both spaces and to do so on time, on budget and according to a shared vision.

Thomas Tayeri

Dorrit is awesome! I hired her to design new front and back yards for my house in Palo Alto two years ago. She took note of my preferences (which were vague and poorly thought out) and came up with a detailed plan of action that took into consideration the soil and sun conditions of my property. She ordered the plants and supervised their installation. The end result was a showcase front yard and a peaceful back yard that have added to the value of my house and become my sanctuaries. I'm most impressed by the fact that Dorrit still periodically checks in to see how my plants are doing and offers maintenance suggestions. I highly recommend her services!

Bibi Millet

We have worked with Dorrit over a number of years to design and install a complete renovation of our landscape. We couldn’t think of a better a better person to work with. Hire her if you can, you’d be fortunate to have her!