Robert Cornell & Associates is a landscape design firm located in Pasadena, CA. For over 25 years we have been installing water conserving gardens & creative hardscape projects in the greater Los Angeles area.
California Meets Africa & Mediterranean
Xeriscaping
In our designs we have always tried to be environmentally responsible and therefore our strengths lie in areas that more traditional contractors may have little experience with. We have been creating waterwise gardens for over 30 years and therefore possess considerable knowledge of the particular needs of native plants, Mediterranean and other drought tolerant species. Another specialty is hillside plantings for erosion control & fire safety. To maximize irrigation systems, in our design work we group plantings into clusters that have the same water needs. Then we design an irrigation system that waters these different areas individually. This is called hydrozoning. Finally we use the latest irrigation technology: ET based & multiple program controllers, low flow, drip irrigation & efficient heads to minimize water usage in the landscape.
In this particular project in Palos Verde, we had the challenge of directing water away from the fragile cliffside. We made a decorative swale to intercept the rainfall runoff that also served the purpose of separating the high water use grass area from the drought tolerant plantings on the cliff edge.
Recycled Materials
We like to recycle and reuse onsite building materials such as broken concrete because this lowers costs & keeps resources out of dumps. We also use a variety of landscape products made out of recycled materials such as bender board & plastic lumber.
For this site, we recycled several large coral trees which had been placed all together in a very boring linear pattern as well as native stone found on site.
Creating Habitat
We use a wide variety of flowering plant species that are California natives or come from other Mediterranean climates such as Spain, Australia and South Africa. This makes for a garden that is not only rich in color but also provides food and attracts birds & butterflies. In this garden we used California native manzanita and ceanothus besides African natives such as bullbine, agapanthus and Coral Trees. From Australia we used Kangaroo Paws.
Communities served: Pasadena, Los Angeles, Altadena, South Pasadena, Sierra Madre, San Marino, Monrovia, Arcadia, Studio City, Glendale & Burbank.
