Satori Garden Design

Because sometimes you just need a little advice, Satori Garden Design offers coaching to those homeowners interested in understanding their landscape better.

Horticultural Therapy...

As a registered Horticultural Therapist, Arleen Ferrara can help design a horticultural therapy program and the therapeutic garden spaces for a wide variety of needs.

Arleen Ferrara (APLD, Registered Horticultural Therapist, Certified in Permaculture and the Watershed Approach to Landscape Design) grew up in the San Joaquin valley surrounded by orchards and endless fields of vegetables. Her family had walnut trees and a huge garden which she helped tend. Her love of all things plant related was really sparked when she studied sustainable landscaping and California’s Floristic Province through the Master Gardener Program at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and then later at Pierce College and UCLA.

Ultimately, she came to landscape design as a second career when her kids were little. Satori Garden Design was born in 2008, at the same time as the city of Santa Monica was offering generous rebates for homeowners who were transitioning away from lawns to sustainable landscapes. Designing many of the city’s rebated gardens helped inform my practice of using low water plants, native flora, re-purposed materials, efficient drip irrigation and water harvesting techniques.

She loves working collaboratively with clients helping to artfully shape a shared vision of how they want to live outside. She considers herself a teacher as much as a designer so her goal is to not only design a beautiful outdoor space but empower each garden owner with some knowledge and perspective on how they can take care of their garden.

The healing power of working with plants and in the soil has always been evident to her and so she eventually became registered in Horticultural Therapy. Since 2013, she successfully nurtured a therapeutic gardening program at Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services. At Vista, she’s designed, and now maintain, two large school gardens totaling over 13,000 sq. ft. She runs multiple sessions weekly with children ages 5 to 22 who have developmental and intellectual disabilities. Daily she is reminded that nature can heal.