An outdoor spatial design company
Winter
Our projects are architecturally designed and built to house thriving ecosystems, while providing space for the rhythms of daily life.
The firms design process results in deeply personal spaces tuned into the activities of your lifestyle and reflecting each persons unique tastes.
Spanning beyond the ecological realm, our designs systems integrate furniture, lighting, and buildings for holistic site-plans.
Spatial Planning
Schematic Design
Hardscaping
Construction
Planting Palettes
Outdoor Lighting
Furniture Selection
Exterior Finishings
Material Specifications
Water Conservation
Sourcing
Procurement
Project Management
Irrigation Plans
Styling and Curation
Art Direction
Exhibitions
Special Projects
Wayfinding
Rendering Visualization
Permitting
- 1-3 year engagements
- Renovations and new builds
- Residential and commercial
- Start to finish with project management
- 2-12 month construction phase
- 500 square feet up to 5 acres
- Deep client collaboration
- Starting construction budgets around $75k
- 1-month long design sprint
- Ideal for first time homeowners
- Flexible commitments
- Option to morph into full-service project
- Low risk, high value
- Concept development, spatial plan options, investment outline, and visual directions
- Flat design fee at $10k
- Site discovery, project scope, opportunities/risks analysis, and phasing plan deliverables
- Budget check
- Pre-purchase property due diligence
- Guidance for DIY-ers
- Landscape perspectives for other trades
- Video call or site-visit depending on geography
- Offered at $2k
A newsletter about designing outdoor spaces for living. Spanning beyond the botanical side, it serves as a resource center that gathers the functional objects, outdoor furniture, and architectural features that give form to gardens. Published alongside personal reflections on running a landscape design studio in California and digging into the various fields of research, tools, and systems.
Subscribe on Substack
Programming
Learn from the space that surrounds you in your existing site conditions to gain a deep understanding of the unique vision and desired outcomes.
Schematic
Explore multiple conceptual directions to establish guiding themes for the landscape that inform and set the tone for the story moving forward.
Development
Layer planting and material palettes together with selections that align with the project goals and meets the needs of the local ecosystem.
Documentation
Communicate the design intent thoughtfully through a set of organized plans to guide the installation of the future outdoor space.
Seamless project delivery with our network of suppliers for plant material, lighting fixtures, and outdoor furniture. Ensuring the original design intent is brought to life.
We're a team with a sharp construction skillset that's embedded throughout the entire roadmap providing an integrated project delivery, consisting of multiple site visits and agile project management.
You can never really finish a garden. On-going maintenance services through our community of gardeners. For those who would like to care for their garden themselves, we are happy to provide guidance and resources.
Cooking Housing
Fitness Dining
Edibles Warmth
Playing Pets
Climate Swim
Natural Playscapes, Home Electrification, Moments of Stillness, Birds, Carbon Capture, ADU Integrations, Multi-Family Developments, Portals and Gateways, Garden Sculptures, Minimalism, Ecological Restoration, Hiking Trips, Wind Chimes, and Intentional Spaces
As a small business operating with detailed precision and care, we're able to take on only a handful of projects each year.
Start Project
Low-Voltage lighting designed in the Netherlands
Outdoor furniture from select brands
EV charging stations
No BPA recycled plastic garden hoses
California native trees for present and future
Irrigation systems for smart homes with weather intelligence
Leak and corrosion resistant, plug and play hose spigots
Accessories for home exteriors
Buildings
Plantkind specializes in integrating structures with our trusted
trade partners into your outdoor space to expand livable areas.
Growing series of starting point for landscape design projects. Including a catalog of all potential elements and features you might include in a residential landscape, plus collection of brands and specific products that work well in harmony.
With always more room to grow, we're working to deploy and care for a network of low-maintenance resilient landscapes throughout our neighborhoods, as equitable natural resources for all life.
- Lawn Replacement
- Composting Setups
- Hand Watering
- Permeable Surfaces
- Recycled Products
- Rainwater Capture
- Natural Materials
- Habitat Development
- Energy Saving Shading
- Greywater Systems
- Without Artificial Turf
- Carbon Capture Concrete
- Insect Friendly Lighting
Partnering with like-minded firms to explore outdoor spaces that bring their vision to life.
Focused on restaurant groups, multifamily residential, property developers, and mid-stage startups.
Our studio collaborates with architects, interior designers, fabricators, builders, arborists, and engineers to bring expressive and functional landscapes to life.
From holistic large scale projects and smaller scopes where landscape perspectives are needed.
Always keeping our eyes open for lovely people to work with.
Not actively hiring but feel free to reach out and share work samples and your interests.
Ideal team members bring design talent plus project management experience.
Are you available to start now or soon?
Yes. We can move quick. The trees grow bit slower.
How much do projects cost?
Our projects range from $75k to $5m+. We believe in financial transparency and open conversations.
Where do you work geographically?
Anywhere. We’re based in the San Francisco Bay Area but can tackle projects across the country and planet.
How about commercial projects?
Yep. Anything spatial and outside we work with, beyond residential.
What’s the catch with all of this?
Nothing. We’ll design a garden together and you’ll spend the rest of your life enjoying the natural world.
Is climate change real?
Yes.
Founder, Principal Designer
Plantkind is being grown by Lily Bodnar, a queer gardener and artist, with previous experience at design-build firms, native plant nurseries, national design organizations, branding studios, and venture-backed education technology startups.
Plantkind is pushing fresh perspectives as a design practice that is developing our own software, open sourcing deep industry knowledge, and digging into financial transparency.
Platforms
Instagram, Substack, LinkedIn, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky, TikTok, YouTube
Member of AIA SF (American Institute of Architects)
California Native Plant Society.
Background
The design practice began in Oakland, California almost ten years ago in the spring season.
Land Acknowledgement
Acknowledging our work is happening on traditional, occupied, and unceded territory of Indigenous peoples, including the Ohlone, Yokuts, Miwok and many others.