Billy Goodnick - Santa Barbara Landscape Architect

Lawn... gone. Instead, garden rooms for relaxation and entertaining surrounded by low-water plants and a dry rock creek to carry rainwater to the orchard below.

Dead lawn or richly colorful low water oasis?

You can do it! You can live without a lawn as this low-water, low-maintenance garden shows.

Wanna join me for my next Designing with Water Wise Native Plants at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden on Saturday, October 26? Well, why wouldn't you!?

Here's the scoop. Sign up now!

Designing with Water Wise Native Plants - Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Details: California’s native plants offer nearly limitless uses in your residential garden, from creating wildlife-attracting, naturalistic landscapes to cottage, contemporary or traditional style spaces. Learn…

Callistemon ‘Cane’s Hybrid’ brings a soft, almost cuddly tint of pink as a small tree or large screening shrub. And tough as nails.

Working on a sweet little garden space with the awesome stonework skills of landscape contractor Joe Coffey (my brother from another mother) and his stone mason, Jacinto.

My favorite two-plant killer combo of all time at my client's front door:
Alstroemeria 'Inca Ice' and Chinese Fountain Grass (Pennisetum orientale). Who could ask for more?

I found a new color combo to illustrate small trees in my sketches. This one POPS!

I have no idea who the Quality Business Awards folks are, nor have I been contacted by them, but I guess it's a good thing that they singled me out for my design services. No idea who's the reigning champ for the central or western areas of our small community, but it's still groovy. Thanks, whomever you are!

Billy Goodnick – Santa Barbara landscape architecture & design – Quality Business Awards The Quality Business Awards recognizes businesses that achieve an average quality score of 95% or greater over the previous 12 months. To learn more about our selection criteria, please click here.

My not-so-humble brag. I just received the 28th!!! 5-star client review for my design business at the Google search page. I think I'm getting the hang of the landscape design stuff.

This gravel garden by Chianti, Italy designer Stefano Assogno is a great expression of naturalistic style, water conservation and subtle complexity. When i pitch the idea to my clients I describe them as archipelagos - islands of plants in a sea of gravel.

Fresh from the editing booth, my Garden Wise segment with Alejandro Lemus (Santa Barbara Botanic Garden educator) discussing our top picks for CA native plants on a sunny slope.

Garden Wise - Native Plants: Sunny Slopes Sunny Slopes is the first in a series of Garden Wise videos on Native Plants. In this installment Host Billy Goodnick heads to Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens ...

Garden Wise - Native Plants: Sunny Slopes Sunny Slopes is the first in a series of Garden Wise videos on Native Plants. In this installment Host Billy Goodnick heads to Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens ...

Fresh from the editing booth at CityTV18 Santa Barbara - I team up with Alejandro Lemus at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden to highlight some great CA native plants for sunny slopes. Click through!

Garden Wise - Native Plants: Sunny Slopes Sunny Slopes is the first in a series of Garden Wise videos on Native Plants. In this installment Host Billy Goodnick heads to Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens ...

Fresh from the editing room - I team up with Alejandro Lemus at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden to riff on our favorite CA native plants for sunny slopes. I hope you find it useful; more to come.

Garden Wise - Native Plants: Sunny Slopes Sunny Slopes is the first in a series of Garden Wise videos on Native Plants. In this installment Host Billy Goodnick heads to Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens ...

"BABY PICTURES" - Little Billy's first landscape drawing. LA Pierce College, 1975, signed Wm. Goodnick. Not the most practical layout but there's still a strong connection to my current approach. Good luck figuring out the sprinkler layout for that goofy lawn configuration!

Humble brag. Looks like I'm doing something right for my design clients!

Are you ready to update your garden or start over?

Plant selection is where most DIYers get hung up. My upcoming class will get your creative juices flowing and introduce you to hundreds of plants that thrive in Santa Barbara area gardens. The class is “Tour a Nursery with a Landscape Designer” and will be held Saturday morning, April 13 at Seaside Gardens, near Santa Claus Lane. For more info and to sign up, follow the link. Tuition is $25 and worth every penny.
Take-Aways
• Learn to select the best plants for your garden
• See hundreds of water-thrifty plants up close and “personal”
• Discover the tricks the pros use to create great plant combos
• Understand how to head off future maintenance hassles
• Enjoy a hands-on plant selection exercise

Learn more and sign up at https://rb.gy/myfjts

Time to ignore “the siren song of the thirsty lawn?”
My upcoming class, “Gone With the Wind: How to Design Without a Lawn” is being offered at the Wake Center Campus Saturday morning, March 16 from 9 am til noon. Get inspired and see how a professional landscape architect creates a landscape filled with beautiful, low-water, low-maintenance plants and functional, comfortable outdoor living spaces. It’s like getting a sq**rt of WD-40 in your creative brain.
More info at the SBCC School of Extended Learning in the DIY section. Class ID 25412. [ https://sbcc.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassListing.ClassListingDisplay&int_category_id=20&int_sub_category_id=267&int_catalog_id= ]
And there’s a companion class on April 13, held at the beautiful Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria where we walk through a dozen full scale garden settings, learn about how they work a rescale them to your own landscape.

Time to ignore “the siren song of the thirsty lawn?”

Although we’re all thankful for the generous rains in the past couple of winters, the trend around our community is to replace expensive, thirsty lawns will sustainable, useful, beautiful gardens. My upcoming class, “Gone With the Wind: How to Design Without a Lawn” is being offered at the Wake Center Campus Saturday morning, March 16 from 9 am til noon.

Get inspired and see how a professional landscape architect creates a landscape filled with beautiful, low-water, low-maintenance plants and functional, comfortable outdoor living spaces. It’s like getting a sq**rt of WD-40 in your creative brain. More info at the SBCC School of Extended Learning in the DIY section. Class ID 25412. [ https://sbcc.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassListing.ClassListingDisplay&int_category_id=20&int_sub_category_id=267&int_catalog_id= ]

And there’s a companion class on April 13, held at the beautiful Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria where we walk through a dozen full scale garden settings, learn about how they work a rescale them to your own landscape.