Hello! I am Lisa Charpontier, owner of the Landscape Design firm, Botany of Design. I am trained as a Landscape Architect, having completed my studies at UC Berkeley, and passed all of my licensure exams save for the California supplement. One of these days, I'll get around to taking that exam...
I love Landscape Architecture. When I am asked what I do for a career, many people respond to my answer of Landscape Architect with "Oh, you're a gardener!" "No," I would urge, "I am not a gardener!" I, in fact, consider myself a bit of a renaissance
woman. As a landscape designer, life circumstances highly encouraged
me to consider my clients' urgings to offer a maintenance service to
accompany my installed landscape designs. And when I found that it is
oh so difficult to hire a prince gardener on a budget, I was thrown into
the additional professional role as Botany of Design's head gardener. So, I suppose, now I am a gardener. Or as I would prefer to say, I am the Alchemist of Beauty.
And, really, I love it. Or, should I say, I hate it... Ok, so maybe it appeals to my love for nature, and my desire to make and maintain beauty, and I for a time, I am willing to get dirty as much as any male "gardener." I talk to the plants and animals that greet me in my gardens. I have so much time to think and invent and imagine and create while working in my gardens. And there are so many stories...
But even though my alchemy is mostly quiet and pesticide-free, I do still lug around a lawn mower and blower. And I certainly end my gardening days tired and dirty and a bit smelly. Time to fly home and shower and put on a pretty flowy dress. Whew!
Please join me as I share my adventures.
