Landscaping reviews in Seattle, Washington

We hired Solstice Landscape Design to design and install a pave walkway around the side of our house with landscaping. Tristan carefully listened to us and came back with a design that far exceeded all our expectations. The paver walkway was simple but thoughtfully designed to beautifully curve around our home and tie seamlessly into our already exciting paver porch. The landscaping was simple, colorful, and all native to the PNW. Tristan is an artist and a pleasure to work with.

I chose Tristan and Solstice based on his design methodology described on his site. We discussed a design that is respectful of the house's history as an older Seattle home, but forward-thinking in a more spiritual, modern design. I'm pleased to say that he took my ideas and incorporated his own, and I'm very happy with the result.

I came to Tristan with a big empty space and a pretty uncommon set of requirements. I am most thankful that he was able to combine all of those in to a stunning and expressive design that absolutely got me what I was looking for. I had a smallish budget but I was willing to do the grunt work, Tristan made an easy to follow guide for me. What resulted was almost 2000 square feet of a Hardy and drought tolerant garden that has the whole neighborhood talking. Thanks Tristan!

So Pleased! Beyond Expectations! Tristan is the professional landscape designer you are searching for! He took time, understood us and delivered a design that fully met our needs. He also made sure that what was built was what he had envisioned. We would work with him again without hesitation.

Tristan was the perfect person to help us design and transform our front yard. He is very intuitive and was able to take our input and create a space that surpassed our vision and expectations. Whenever we come home now there is a sense of welcome, open energy but he also incorporated the perfect balance of privacy. The space now is so visually inviting and the design has a mystical quality to it. Every time we leave the house, we notice something new. It is a very peaceful way of coming and goingI We really appreciated Tristan's attention to detail. He is very thoughtful about his choice of plantings which were in line with our spiritual values in regards to the earth, the birdlife and the environment. The fence is amazing, enfolding the wonder of the garden. We also love how much diversity is in the design and even though it is a small space he somehow gave it a feeling of spaciousness.
In terms of the practical aspects of the job we also greatly appreciated the quality of work and the consciousness and consideration of his co-workers, Jeff and Jordan.
Overall it was a very pleasant and really non-obtrusive process. We would highly recommend Tristan and look forward to working with him on another project soon.

Once upon a time, in a little Snohomish suburb not so far away, a husband and wife despised their front and back yards…with a passion. I can’t even begin to count how many times they would pull into their driveway and think, “Oh my gosh…this is just so NOT us! Ugh. We need some major help with this landscaping. Where do we even start?? Should we do this ourselves? Should we hire someone??” Just thinking about the whole thing made their heads hurt, their wallets cringe and their hearts sink. That is…until they met Tristan...the owner of Solstice Landscaping!

We were very much in search of a landscape designer who not only could capture the look of what we wanted for our front and back yards, but also the spirit, energy and flow as well. We wanted to make sure that from start to finish, the project would be as seamless as possible and capture all of what we wanted. Tristan of Solstice Landscape Design delivered…and delivered beyond our expectations. We couldn’t be happier with how both our yards turned out…everything we had hoped for and more.

Tristan is in demand…and for good reason. He is an expert...a creative, unique, knowledgeable & artistic landscape designer. You will probably have to wait for his services (as we did) …but, let me tell you….it is definitely WORTH THE WAIT! He will listen, discuss, and produce a design for you that is exactly what you envision and more.
To start, we completed a detailed questionnaire for him to ascertain exactly what we wanted and he got back to us within a reasonable time-frame. He spent hours with us going over plants, grasses, flowers, trees, hardscapes, landscapes and water features! Tristan and his amazing, artistic team (Marisa & Seth) installed the most beautiful landscaping and backyard water feature we could have ever hoped for. They transformed both our front and back yards into a beautiful, peaceful, relaxing oasis flowing with life, spirit & positive energy…and both look absolutely fabulous. We get constant compliments!

We could tell instantaneously Tristan is a knowledgeable professional who puts his heart and soul into his work…and it shows. He is thorough, detail-orientated, creative and bent over backwards to give us what we envisioned for our yards. He is easily accessible and returned our calls/texts super quickly…most often the same day! Even with how busy he is, Tristan always seemed to have time to talk, answer questions and most importantly, listen.

We can’t recommend Tristan with Solstice Landscape Design enough. There are not enough stars to give him and his creative, artistic work. He is truly an artist and created a masterpiece in both our yards. We couldn’t be happier with his work. Thank you so much, Tristan! Now, when we pull into our driveway, we ask ourselves why we didn’t hire Solstice Landscape Design earlier!

Tristan did a phenomenal job designing our landscape! His process is really focused on your needs and wants. For our initial consult, he sent us a thorough questionnaire that really got us thinking about what we wanted from our landscape. A few days later, he showed up and spent a solid amount of time walking through our yard with us. What impressed me was he had printed, highlighted, and made references to the questionnaire we had filled out. The final design was impressive and exactly what we were looking for. As DIYers, we're excited to have a framework and overall concept to follow as we gradually install the landscape over the next few years. Thanks again, Tristan!

I couldn't be more pleased with Tristan's knowledge and responsiveness. The city asked us to have all of our trees documented on the site plan for our coming renovation -- a strange request as we're not doing any work outside of the existing footprint. Tristan was kind enough to read the city's request and set up time to swing by the house to put the required documentation together. He was also kind enough to charge us a VERY reasonable amount for the work. I'd recommend him in a heartbeat for similar work.

We turned to Tristan to develop 2 design drawings for a proposed sidewalk along our property, finding ways to preserve old trees from the City's initial design. He provided us with clear designs that were effective in working with the City to alter their designs to get both the sidewalk they want and keep the trees and berries along our property. We highly recommend Tristan for landscape design that is professional and sensitive to the site.

I looked at a lot of landscape designers work before finding Tristan at Solstice Landscape. He has a great eye and really tries to understand the aesthetic you are after to create a design you will love. His design transformed my very un-thought-through front yard into something that is beautifully integrated with the architecture of my house. Highly recommend!

In November, Tristan and his crew put in path lights for me. He was able to squeeze it in between larger landscaping projects. I have a stone path that wraps around the house and need it well-lit for guests. Tristan also suggested lighting a few trees, which I had not planned on doing, but I am so glad he made the suggestion. They also provide indirect light that also helps light the path and the yard. It is so beautiful! My neighbors love it. My worries about a poorly lit path are gone. The lighting glows, creates a warm welcome space, and is not overdone. I didn’t realize how lovely it would be.

Tristan and his crew are lovely people, he is an artist, very intuitive, listens, and is simply great.

I highly recommend them and plan to use them in the future for additional lighting and landscape projects.

Tristan is fantastic to work with - I give him the highest possible recommendation. He redesigned a small-Seattle backyard that looked like a cement parking lot. He delivered a gorgeous backyard redesign including trex decking, an imperial slate patio, all new landscaping, fence, water feature, pathways, lighting, irrigation, etc. He also recommended the contractor, followed-up to make sure the project was executed as intended to our satisfaction. He's extremely talented and a wonderful human to work with. You are lucky to work with him - if you can get him!

Tristan was awesome to work with and is a true pro. After seeing everything that went into our project, we are SO glad we hired a pro! Our backyard and front yard project just completed, and we couldn't be happier. We loved the plan for the project that Tristan drew up. He was very proactive and communicative throughout the entire project. He worked around our schedule, was very respectful with our space, flagged any issues that came up. When we discovered an issue with some posts in the backyard, he walked us through his concerns and our options and then gave a recommendation. And now that the project is complete, everything looks amazing! It was exactly what we were looking for and have already recommended Tristan to others.

My wife and I recently had Tristan plan the landscaping for our first house, and it has been an incredible experience. Tristan has an amazing breadth of knowledge about all things landscaping, and a great eye for design. On top of that, he is extremely professional and a great communicator. He has the ability to perfectly blend your landscaping needs with his incredible vision. We just finished our first round of landscaping, and will be enjoying our brand new deck this weekend with friends. Thanks Tristan!

TLDR: Tristan provides an excellent design process, wonderful use of native plants and helped us create a space that we love. Our project would not have been as successful without his help. He has a true passion for the work that he does. We highly recommend his services for your landscape architecture needs.
Detail:
My wife and I used Tristan's services to plan the landscape design and purchase and placement of plants for our backyard. Our backyard was in need of some updates as the patio had a large setting crack, the flower beds had become overgrown and we had some areas of the yard that seemed to have some drainage problems.
We wanted to replace the patio and fix some plant issues. After contacting multiple contractors, we found that the project was going to be a more significant cost than we had expected for what we thought was going to be a simple patio pour. We had used interior designers before and found them to be very helpful for planning our interior space and given the expense we didn't want to have a big mistake carved in concrete.
We looked for a Landscape Architect and found Tristan. He sent us a questionnaire that my wife and I took less than two hours to work through. It really helped us to know what we wanted and what we didn't want. Then we had Tristan over for a meeting. Sometime in the following week Tristan came over and spent much of a day in our backyard creating a landscape architecture drawing.
We then met with him after he had completed the drawing and he discussed his thoughts, the drawing, plant selection and lighting. We really loved his use of native plants and he even put in a water feature that we would not have thought about on our own. He kept the drawing since he was going to stay involved in the project, but sent us a scan of the drawing.
I use the drawings and did much of the work myself with some help from friends and a contractor to pour the patio. We had Tristan back to select purchase the plants and place them for us.
We are very happy with the results and will likely to try and get his help when we start working on the front yard. :)

Solstice Landscape Design developed a design and performed the installation for a complete makeover of the landscaping around the building. The work included an overall design, a screening fence, patio, paths, new soils, planters, and planted areas, and lawn. The outcome is great - lots of compliments!

We were very happy with the process, price and results. Tristan, the owner, is a very good communicator. The design process was iterative - with Tristan listening to what we wanted to accomplish; he asked many, many questions and spent time at the site inspecting the current soils conditions, views, and general layout . He developed different ideas to meet our goals. After settling on a design, Tristan developed a cost proposal and worked with us to fine tune the costs to meet our budget. Schedule - we were having other work done that the landscaping had to schedule around. Again, Tristan was very accommodating and made it all work. While installing the work, several unforeseen things occurred, Tristan communicated quickly and gave us choices.

There were several very small change orders that we asked him to do, these were very modestly priced. I recollect the job was completed almost on the exact day that had been scheduled several months prior! The end result is a fabulous, complete makeover of the property that really changes the character of the whole property.

We had a wonderful experience with Tristan of Solstice Landscape Design and highly recommend him. We found him to be creative and have a highly refined vision and we feel that he was able to deeply understand and channel us in the design he created. It doesn't feel like a generic design, but something that is very specific to our property, our family and our budget (we can't wait to get it all installed!).

We spoke with many landscape designers before deciding to go with Tristan, and the main reason we selected Tristan was his no-frills process. He knows the steps he needs to take to get the design done quickly. After a long interior remodel, we didn't have the stamina for a drawn-out process on the landscape design and Tristan got it done fast. We didn't need bells and whistles (e.g. full color renderings), we just needed a plan from which to work, and that's what Tristan delivered.

We found Tristan to be extremely knowledgeable about plants. We had our consult and design session in the winter, when essentially no plants had leaves, and he identified each existing plant correctly. That gave me a lot of confidence in his knowledge-base.

Also, he's just a really nice guy: very easy to work with and a very good listener. It was clear from the first interactions that he was keen on understanding us and truly wanted to respond to our desires, and what he delivered is beautiful and pushes the landscape design in directions we hadn't even considered and totally love.

Finally, I love supporting a small business. None of his fees go to agency costs such as maintaining a fancy office or throwing big parties, and personally I love supporting people with the guts to work independently.

Solstice Landscape Design just finished up a complete backyard remodel for us and we couldn't be happier. This was our first major project with our new home and the owner, Tristan, made it so easy! He was thorough and detail oriented when walking us through the entire process, leaving no questions unanswered. Tristan not only is an amazing artist that will draw a beautiful design, but his attention to detail and open/honest communication during the installation is a breath of fresh air. The same can be said for his team of laborers, they were all diligent to ensure the yard looked exactly the way it was designed, without cutting any corners! We are so happy we selected Solstice Landscape Design for both the design and installation of our backyard remodel, we can't recommend them enough!

A friend of mine used Solstice to do a large landscape job and recommended that we contact Tristan for our smaller yard project. We have a small backyard and desperately needed some landscape design - Tristan spent a ton of time thinking about our yard and our needs, taking into account our super vague likes/dislikes, and came up with a wonderful design. When Tristan was finished our yard looked like a new place, so put together and beautiful. Tristan really loves what he does and it translates directly into his work. His knowledge of plants is unreal and I would highly recommend him to anyone. On top of it all, he's also extremely professional, always communicative and on time!

We couldn't be happier about our experience working with Tristan and highly recommend him for help with landscape design. Our project was a complete overhaul of the backyard space so that it would be more functional (area for kids to play, adults to entertain, etc.), incorporate edible plants/trees, native plants, and garden space - all while being relatively low maintenance for our busy household. Tristan's advice is deeply rooted in experience and design knowledge while his approach was balanced to incorporate our thoughts and vision. We greatly appreciated that he could both hear our requirements and also make his own recommendations that incorporated a deeper professional understanding - true partnership! We were then easily able to take his final design and plant list out for bids. I mostly appreciated that Tristan has stayed in touch to make sure that we're still happy with the design as we've moved into the build stage. Don't hesitate!! He is the one you've been waiting to work with for your PNW landscape design.

My husband and I chose Solstice Landscape Design to work with us on building the landscape design of our 1 acre property. It was a great decision. We highly recommend him. Working with Tristan has been a pleasure. He is professional, thorough and his attention to detail is obvious in all our interactions with him. When we received our finished landscape design plans from Tristan it was spectacular. He had clearly listened to our thoughts and needs. The final plan is beautiful, creative and will give us a landscape with all the aspects we were hoping for.

We are looking forward to working with Tristan as we begin implementing the design he created for us! Thank you Tristan!