Maryon Kinsella

Maryon Kinsella has many years experience designing large and small gardens and her gardens can be seen all over San Diego County from the coast to the mountains. She designs according to her client’s needs, budget, sense of style, water use concerns and level of interest in and time for maintenance. Her clients range from those who desire to be actively involved in the design process and plant selection in a collaborative effort to those who want only to enjoy the end result. She pays particular attention to how the client wants to feel when they experience the garden and to the practicalities of how they need the garden to function. To Maryon, the most important part of the design process is listening to the client’s needs and wishes, helping them flesh out their ideas and give them form. She helps them envision what the landscape could be by offering ideas and suggestions and expanding its possibilities. For instance, do they entertain a lot and need a large patio with a shade cover, is an outdoor kitchen or fire pit desired, or do they need personal spaces in the form of garden rooms where they can retreat?

Although, Maryon is experienced in creating landscapes in many different styles, her favorite plant palettes are Tropical and Mediterranean. She is especially fond of the clean, sophisticated simplicity of contemporary designs with their use of mass plantings, ornamental grasses and succulents. In her designs, she juxtaposes plants by their color relationships and textural variety to make the landscape pop. Other favorite uses involve choosing plants with colored foliage in lieu of flowers to bring year round interest and lighten up shady areas. She uses color combinations and repetitions of plants in a design to lead the viewer around the garden, and focal points and garden rooms to draw them in.

Maryon has a degree in Landscape Design and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She has studied fine art and horticulture, and has been an avid gardener all of her adult life. Her watercolor paintings have been publicly shown and her illustrations have been published. She received certification by the National Wildlife Federation for her design that attracted and incorporated wildlife in the residential landscape. She served on the board of People for Trees, a non-profit tree planting organization set up to beautify San Diego streets.