Who We Are
We are an Oakland based
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We are a Bay Area landscape design and build company, dedicated to creating ecologically sound gardens that are beautiful and well-crafted. At Mariposa, we fuse art and ecology into the landscape, bringing beauty to the practice of sustainability. In every garden, we see a unique opportunity to reconnect a space with its natural systems. Exposing nature’s existing elegant patterns allows us to create artfully designed spaces that complement urban environments.
Mariposa is committed to restoring ecologically sound outdoor spaces in urban areas. We do this by sourcing local materials, combining low-water and native plants, building dry stacked stone structures, and understanding water in order to effectively conserve water in the garden. |
Our team is knowledgable and passionate.
Andrea Hurd |
In rural Oregon, Andrea’s family lived on an acre of land that supported fruit trees, berries, a large vegetable garden, and many flowers, especially roses. Growing up, Andrea would always spend her Saturday mornings in the garden with her mom, learning how to care for it all. In the early 90s, at Prescott College, Andrea earned her Permaculture Design Certification. Andrea has used Permaculture as the guiding design principle for all of the gardens that she works on and designs. As a member of The Stone Foundation, an international stonemason’s trade association, Andrea has gained training in the art of dry-stacked stone building in England, Scotland, Mallorca, and Cambodia. Andrea’s garden designs feature her love for nature, her artistic eye, as well as her love for well-built dry-stacked stonework.
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Gina Trautner |
Gina grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spent much of her youth outdoors; skiing, hiking, backpacking, and camping which gave her an early appreciation for the natural environment. While attending Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, she became interested in learning more about gardening and plants while tending to a plot at the campus community gardens. She enjoyed her time in the garden so much she decided to focus her studies on a related topic and graduated with an Environmental Science degree with a focus on ecological restoration. She went on to study landscape architecture and received a Masters of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. She has been working in the residential landscape design field since 2015 and has worked with Mariposa since 2018. She works primarily as a landscape designer for Mariposa while occasionally working in garden care and installation.
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Lauren grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been an outdoor enthusiast her whole life. From a young age, she enjoyed camping trips with her family, regular skiing trips to Lake Tahoe, tide pool adventures on the coast, and hiking all over the peninsula and Marin. With a passion for the natural world, she pursued a Bachelors of Science degree in Conservation and Resource Studies from UC Berkeley where she deepened her understanding of sustainability and the importance of conserving and restoring habitat for beneficial insects and birds. She worked at a CA Native Plant nursery for 3 years growing plants for restoration projects around the bay area. With a solid background in the cultural requirements of hundreds of CA Native plants she started her own landscaping company building and maintaining habitat gardens. She soon moved on to working with Mariposa as Crew Leader and project manager, seeing our beautiful designs to completion. She enjoys traveling, cooking, soaking in hot springs, hiking with her little dog Pip, and gardening in her urban homestead in Oakland.
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Lauren Bennett
Donka Hardy |
Donka grew up along the shores of the Monterey Bay and spent summers sleeping under the stars at an overnight camp deep in the hills above "America's Salad Bowl." Their love of water polo and the ocean guided them to pursue a degree at UC Santa Cruz and as the story goes an Oceanography major quickly transformed into a BA in Feminist Studies and a full time job with a nearby organic farm. Never one for working indoors and suddenly a foodie due to the incredible perks that come with farming, Donka spent the next decade exploring different farming practices in a variety of climates across the country, gathering irrigation and carpentry skills along the way. Most recently, after hiding out on a quiet organic peach farm in the wildfire-ridden Sierra foothills, the desire for community connection and social interaction inspired Donka and their pup Traeger to move to Berkeley...three days later, the pandemic shut everything down! Donka has been honored to join the Mariposa team as a crew lead and is thrilled to work alongside folks who share similar core values.
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Hi my name is Jakoby and I’m originally from Black Diamond, Washington but moved to Berkeley about a year ago for a fresh start on life. I have always wanted to work in gardens and around plants since I was a young lad. My hobbies are skateboarding, snowboarding, reading and hanging out with my cats, snake and girlfriend.
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Jakoby Fleming |
Kari Lodrup |
Kari is a city dweller with a nature lover's adventurous spirit. She was born and raised in the hot concrete desert of Los Angeles, California. Since she was born, she has visited her mother's family in Mexico. She would touch down in another megatropolis, usually Mexico City or Guadalajara. Visiting her family in these towns heavily influenced a passion and pride for her culture. She found her love for gardening during an internship with the San Francisco based nonprofit, Nature in the City. After spending the summer of 2021 exploring Alaska and working on a flower farm, Kari now calls Oakland home. Even though she loves spending time in the wild, away from humans, she loves people and hearing their stories. Community is important to her. She hopes that through creating balanced ecosystems by means of native city gardens she can help alleviate social injustices and environmental issues. Her dream is for all people, regardless of economic or racial background, whether raised in the country or the inner-city, to feel connected to nature.
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Hi, I’m Ricky Ray Carter Jr. I grew up in West Oakland and went to school in Berkeley my whole life. One of my first found hobbies, and something I really love to do, is cooking as well as growing vegetables in my backyard. (Farm/garden to table) My family history is of farmers and human rights advocates. I have an insatiable fascination with nature, recycling of energy, (or how I see it) maximizing and being efficient with your space and surroundings. I expanded on that knowledge as a student worker, in my first job working for my middle school doing garden to table, and assisting with cooking classes as well. We sold items and meals that were made straight out of our garden, including pizzas, pickled vegetables, etc., right to the public. This is where I gained a large part of my fascination and experience with reusing space and materials in the city. At the age of 14 I understood how largely important and how big a difference it makes. You could say I was born with a green thumb, but it’s a way of thinking too for me. I love and appreciate nature very much. I’ve been doing general contracting for my family’s business since I was 9 years old. I love working with my hands and full body. Separately from all of that, I worked on my family’s farm growing veggies and spices for a year after high school. It was amazing and helped me ground myself. I believe I found my niche at Mariposa Gardening and Design. Using organic materials and transforming things is the best. Everyone working here is fascinating and all great human beings.
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