We are incredibly thankful for Shelkie Tao. This project became much more beautiful, thoughtful, and cohesive than we ever imagined. What impressed us most is that this was not just “pick plants and install.” Shelkie carefully studied our yard through sun studies, soil testing, drainage observations, mature plant sizing, circulation planning, and long-term growth planning. She even made us do detailed sun experiments before finalizing the raised bed locations, and that decision alone turned out

My wife and I worked with Shelkie Tao at Water Efficient Gardens to replace our worn out front lawn with drought tolerant landscaping. Shelkie provided design and consulting services for the project. All of our interactions with Shelkie were very professional and timely. She listened to our feedback on the design proposal and made adjustments where needed. She recommended an excellent landscape contractor and provided guidance to him throughout the implementation. She assisted us with submitting

Shelkie has excellent knowledge of plants, laws and regulations (like AB 1572), and the Valley Water rebate ($8,340 for our HOA). Her communication and responsiveness made it easy to schedule meetings and on-site installation support. She designed the layout of the (170) plants, documented them all for the rebate, ordered them from various nurseries, re-ordered a few as the design evolved, placed them all during installation, and took photos for the rebate submission. If you like everything l