Fiddlehead Gardens

Racheal and her team at Fiddlehead have been taking care of our garden for five years, and we couldn’t be happier with them. After originally contracting them to relandscape our front yard, we were so happy with our experience that we hired them to maintain both our front and back yards on a monthly basis. Over time Racheal has helped us to completely transform our back yard as well, and the results have been stunning.
Racheal possesses a rare combination of design savvy and perfect customer service. She keeps in touch regularly by e-​mail about maintenance, and is very accessible and easy to communicate with. Her estimates for projects are reasonable, detailed, and accurate. Best of all, she and her team are completely reliable. Work happens on time and on budget, every time. Long-​time homeowners will appreciate how rare this is!
Our outside spaces have been an ongoing source of joy every since Fiddlehead came into our lives, and we look forward to working with them for years to come.

We’re on a corner lot that requires a ton of maintenance and want something that was easier, looked better and needed a lot less water. Rachael Perry of Fiddlehead Gardens listened to what we wanted, made a plan, and adjusted the plan do accommodate a new dog and our need to spread out the work over several years. Overhauling the backyard was the first phase of the plan. Her crew removed the lawn, installed a new flagstone patio, put in irrigation and a place to plant veggies and herbs, and planted low-​water bee– and butterfly-​friendly plants and some fruit trees. The patio opens up a whole new part of our backyard for us to use; we love it all.
Racheal is great to work with. The plan and work were professionally done, the estimate was spot on, everyone’s impressed with the change and we are enjoying our outdoor living space way more than we were able to before. We’ll definitely be going back to Racheal and Fiddlehead Gardens for the next phases of this landscape job.

I had a consultation with Rachael and 2 weeks later still no word on the estimate for the scope of work we talked about. No email or phone call for any updates. Very disappointed with their service.

We hired Rachael to replace our front lawn with drought tolerant plants. She and her crew did a fantastic job. Three months later the plants are all thriving and have probably tripled in size. The front yard looks great, with a mix of colors and types. And the proof that these were the right plants came in our first full water bill, which was down 60% from the same period last year.
One of Rachael’s great strengths is that she listens to what her customers are trying to accomplish. I am not knowledgeable at all on plants, neither on choosing them nor on caring for them. But as I described to Rachael what our goals were (low water use, low maintenance, attractive appearance with lots of color and variety) she knew exactly what I was talking about. She gave us an illustrated inventory of plants we could choose from to meet our needs, from which we selected a number of types. She and her crew prepared the site, laid down a simple but effective drip irrigation system and put the plants in. We’ve been taking care of the yard since at very minimal effort but have received a lot of compliments from neighbors and visitors who knew what the yard looked like when it was grass.
I cannot say enough about how good a job Rachael did and I will happily recommend her to anyone who asks me about a landscaper.

Ive worked on a couple of Rachael’s projects and I have to say she’s one of the easiest people to work with. She’s has a lot of qualities that homeowners really appreciate. For me she has always be great to work with and her communication is superb. Last time we worked with her she was able to schedule her work around our project and they were on time and were very considerate. Fiddlehead Gardens is a top notch company!

I have a small, urban garden near Lake Merritt in Oakland that I wanted to turn into a lilttle oasis. Racheal came recommended to me, and I couldn’t be happier. She listened to me (pollinator plants, natives, drought tolerant) and proposed a design, in a ddition to a list of plants – with photos. Her excellent team helped her remove a lawn, install boulders, a flagstone path, and troughs for plants. A new irrigation system was created. Racheal even came by to check on the plants after our recent week of subzero temperatures at night, She was always reliable and approachable – and a delight to work with. Obviously, i recommend her highly.

Fiddlehead Gardens transformed our overgrown 50’s landscaped front yard into a beautiful, modern uncluttered space. They installed irrigation and plants and designed a step stone path to connect to our drive way. Racheal has terrific sensibilities and has maintained it for us beautifully.

My husband and I worked with Racheal on a total yard re-​do. We met with several landscape architects whose work we liked and Fiddlehead Gardens was the only one able to give up an accurate quote on the entire project from start to finish. The others just wanted to give a quote on the designs. We aren’t really plant savvy, just have a general idea of what we like and don’t like. Racheal was great to work with, didn’t just throw out plant names but gave us pictures of plants to look at helped us make decisions. Racheal was really flexible and always had an alternate solution as we sometimes changed our minds. Her crew is very thorough and we couldn’t be happier with the result. We are on a visible corner lot and people I’ve never met before stop by and compliment our new yard.

Fiddlehead Gardens does exceptional work on every one of their yards. I have been installing their irrigation for some of their projects for a few years now, and each garden creation of theirs that I have seen has been inspirational, functional, and beautiful. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a new garden!

Wow! Rachel and her team did an AMAZING job on our backyard. We just moved from Chicago and had no idea who to go to– Rachel was so wonderful when she came over for a consultation. Her passion and knowledge were evident. Such a delight to get to know and work with!!!

I can’t say enough good things about Racheal and Fiddlehead Gardens. She took our modest-​sized front planter beds (and our modest budget) and crafted a plan that turned them from an eyesore into a tidy and easily maintained space. She was also the only one (!) of the landscape architects or gardeners I called who assured me that she herself planned to work onsite throughout the entire job, supervising her staff and attending the fine pruning of our unruly apple tree personally.
Her attention to detail also deserves a mention: the irrigation system she designed is a marvel, with miniature sprayers positioned perfectly for the various plantings. She even took it upon herself to tidy up our overgrown agapanthus, despite it technically not being part of the work order.
A five-​star experience from beginning to end.

This is the 1 year later Update — with fantastic After photos to boot! The garden that Mya from Fiddlehead designed just last year couldn’t be easier or lovelier. What started in July 2009 as a dirt hole has within 12 months become a lush urban oasis for our neighbors & tenants. All of their advice made a difference — not just the great design — but also which plants to spend the money on — as in what would grow slowly (splurge on already matured plants) and what you could get away with tiny young plants since they would catch up quickly. Looking at the photos in our recent rental posting (sorry — it already rented!) — you would never know that the garden had only been there a year! So thanks again to Mya for our garden — 5 stars indeed!
Garden Photos
Rental Website

We inherited these nice gardeners from the former owners of our home. They also started the garden at my public school in SF! They have done a lovely job incorporating our tropical paradise theme into the already existing garden. The plants really help keep busy Claremont Ave. a world away. I would recommend Fiddlehead for their friendly manner, cool artistic vision and the expert upkeep of your garden. They give very good advice and make sure to communicate what they plan for your garden. You can see old pictures here:

Fiddlehead is fair, honest, reliable, pleasant to deal with AND they do excellent work.
Racheal was willing to do the work in affordable «phases». Over the past few months she and her crew of skilled gardeners and stoneworkers have transformed my yard into something beautiful and manageable for me.
Now I can enjoy working out there. It looks great and I am doing the part that I enjoy … veggie gardening, instead of hours and hours of weeding and pruning. (I have a big yard)

Fiddlehead Gardens did excellent work. I needed a gardener and met Racheal Perry while she was working in the garden at a friend’s house in SF. She was doing a great job there so I asked her to come and give me an estimate at my house close by. She got in touch with me a few days later to set up an appointment.
I hate to do gardening work and had gotten very lazy and needed a lot of help. I have a backyard deck with two very large planter boxes full of dying and out-​of-​control plant growth. I also have two planter boxes lining my driveway that needed a new irrigation system and a lot of clearing out done as well.
Racheal arrived at the initial appointment on time. She is very pleasant and has a lot of experience and knowledge. She obviously loves what she does. I received a fairly priced written estimate by mail within a week. And Racheal came up with a smart way to do the irrigation system in the front of my house that solved a big watering headache. I was very pleased.
A couple of weeks later Racheal and Cate came to my house and did a fantastic job. They were on time, hard working, polite and fun to talk to and did all the work as expected (which took a full 8 hours). There was a lot to do and afterwords my deck/​yard and front planter boxes looked great. They hauled away a big truck full of plant debris — good riddance!
I am very much looking forward to entertaining and hanging out on the deck during the summer. And knowing that Fiddlehead will be doing monthly maintenance, I know my deck will be in good shape. I am also looking forward to seeing the new plants grow. Thanks Racheal and Cate!