Casa Felicita

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

After 13 years of designing and building gardens for clients all over Southern California, Ryan and his family relocated to rural South Escondido. The moved seemed counterintuitive. An Encinitas native moving away from the beach? Why? The reason was simple. More space and a blank palette to practice on. And so emerged Casa Felicita (so named due to the proximity to the famous Felicita Park) a labor of love that was developed in stages over 4 years.

“The very first thing I did when we purchased the property was order 15 fruit trees. It takes a 15 gallon Avocado about 4-5 years to start producing and this Fall we had our first crop of Avocados.

“The property has evolved over the years to include many of the elements that we design for our clients. In many ways I’ve used the landscape to practice… to experiment… to share progress of what works and what doesn’t work (and many things haven’t worked).

“Even though the spaces are mostly finished, there will always be parts of the garden and outdoor kitchen that I want to tweak or change. That is the fun and frustration of landscape design.” - Ryan

Project highlights:

Over 1 acre of carefully curated and designed spaces. Three 5x10 raised Garden beds fed by the 5000gal rain tank. A Septic field that is covered with native grasses and wildflowers. Dozens of varieties of fruit trees and berries. Fenced in paspalum grass area with a 16x40 pool/spa with auto cover.

The outdoor kitchen is anchored by a large stone wall that hides the pool equipment and other unsightly items in an outdoor storage area. The kitchen includes a large Argentine style grill from Guacho Grills, custom wood door fronts to reduce the amount of stainless steel visible, a built in sink, bench and teak furniture. The overhead shade structure is custom steel, bamboo, cedar and a clear corrugated plastic lid to help keep water and debris off the furniture.

Rope swings, a tree house (lovingly donated from a client), and a chicken coop with no chickens