A Few Words
About Us
Welcome
Our Story
Robert started at the Kmart garden shop when he was fifteen years old and after realizing his passion for plants secured a job at a wholesale and retail nursery. He continued his nursery career for over a decade. During this time he completed a horticulture degree at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. He continued education at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California where he secured an Associates degree in landscape architecture and another degree math and science for transfer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert attempted to secure a job in the landscape field and after many attempts with no results he decided to start Bennett’s Landscape Design & Maintenance. He was accepted to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for a bachelor’s in landscape architecture in 2021. He and his future wife relocated to the Central Coast of California and moved the business with them. When not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and their two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, family, friends and working in their yard propagating plants.
Expertise
Robert’s background in horticulture has made him an expert on plant compatibility, and his ability to select plants based on sun exposure, soil composition, and pest and disease resistance is like no other. Friends and family often refer to him as the “plant man” and he often is able to reverse the health of plants that are on the decline and may have otherwise been given up on to die.
Plant diagnosis is often overlooked in the landscape industry, and many will just remove the plant and select another, but reasons for the decline of the plant are often never identified and can be related to soil health, pests, disease presence, or a host of other issues.
The best line of defense in this area is to bring in someone with the knowledge to make the proper plant selections with you during the design process, or hire us for weekly and bi-weekly landscape maintenance. Robert has also received training in rose pruning by certified rosarians and is educated in the proper pruning of all fruit trees and fruiting vines, including grapes. He was taught by a horticulture professor that when proper pruning of common landscape plants takes place, visitors of the site should not be able to tell that you were there.
Through Robert’s schooling, he has become well-versed in industry programs such as AutoCAD and can draft scaled landscape plans that are often the required document for most homeowners associations for the approval of landscape projects. Through the design process, we work with our clients on plant selection to make the client’s yard tailored to their preferences, which gives each yard a unique sense of place that you and your visitors are familar with.