About

Viola Gardens

Dream. Design. Create. Artscape.

Jessica Viola is the founder and principal designer of Viola Gardens Design and Viola Gardens Landscape, an award-winning landscape design and construction firm serving Southern California, as well as founder of Viola Living Jewels and author of A Hundred Bells: Understanding Patterns in Nature on the Path to Empowerment.

For nearly two decades, Jessica has been creating award-winning landscapes and outdoor environments guided by a philosophy that blends regenerative design, ecological stewardship, artistic vision, and whole-systems thinking. Her work seeks to cultivate beautiful, resilient places that support biodiversity, human well-being, and a deeper connection to the natural world.

As both a landscape designer and licensed contractor, Jessica offers a rare design-build perspective, overseeing projects from initial concept through construction and long-term stewardship. She is among a small number of fully licensed, bonded, and insured female landscape contractors in California, uniquely bridging the worlds of design, ecology, and construction.

Through Viola Gardens Design and Viola Gardens Landscape, Jessica leads a multidisciplinary team of designers, builders, artisans, and ecological practitioners dedicated to creating climate-smart landscapes, habitat restoration projects, fire-resilient gardens, drought-tolerant plantings, custom hardscapes, and meaningful outdoor living environments.

Her women-led design studio is certified in Permaculture Design and committed to creating regenerative landscapes that are as functional, enduring, and ecologically rich as they are beautiful.

Jessica approaches each project as a unique reflection of her client’s dreams and desires in relationship with the needs of the garden, the architecture, and the land.

Her career started in 1999, doing landscape construction and habitat restoration with the native plants of the San Francisco Bay Area. Jessica went on to receive her certification in Earth Architecture from the world-renowned Cal-Earth Institute, and her teacher-training certificate in Permaculture and Environmental Design from Earthflow and the Permaculture Institute in New Mexico. Jessica has taught permaculture at Santa Monica College and Pepperdine University, and hosted workshops throughout Southern California.

Throughout the years she has cultivated a diverse portfolio of regenerative hardscape solutions; creative drought-tolerant and native plant palettes; hillside erosion control techniques; artistic botanic creations; edible garden designs; and a deep knowledge base in organic garden care and maintenance- all within her unique modern aesthetic.

Viola Gardens employs a full range of hardscaping and softscaping techniques that range from poured in place pavers, patios, uniquely designed built-in structures such as fire-pits, water features and retaining walls, pergolas, decks and irrigation systems. With expert knowledge of plant systems and species, we employ a keen focus on the artistic placement and ecological use of wide array of site-appropriate plants in the landscape garden. We also employ natural building and hardscape techniques, using recycled and renewable resources as much as possible to minimize the carbon footprint of our projects. We encourage the use of grey water and drip irrigation systems, as well as solar lighting whenever possible.

Most importantly, we believe that each garden is a unique expression of our clients and the land, and we strive to integrate and reflect the unique personalities of our clients, their dreams and desires, as well as the seamless flow between the needs of the garden and its relationship with both the architecture and the people.

Rather than imposing design solutions, we believe in arriving at solutions that are integrative and holistic. We strive to find a balance between people and the landscapes in which they live, fostering deeper relationships and connections between both mother nature and human nature.

From Vision to Living Landscape

Viola Gardens is both a landscape design studio and licensed landscape contractor, guiding gardens from early vision through construction, planting, and long-term care. Our work brings together ecological design, skilled craft, and a deep respect for the relationship between people, architecture, and the land.

Environmental Stewardship

“Viola Gardens was born out of a passionate and life-long love for nature, beauty and art. Inspired by the possibilities inherent when these elements come together in the garden, there is nothing more sublime, calming and heartening than watching and nurturing life as it grows. Employing the principles of environmental design, I approach each project with the intent of creating a space that uniquely suits the personality and lifestyles of my clients, exists in harmony with the architecture of the space, is ecologically responsible, restorative and functional, and ultimately creates the conditions for unfolding beauty, over and over, in time. In nature, the remedy always grows right next to the poison. By building functional connections in a diverse landscape, I can arrive at design solutions with clients that culminate in abundance and beauty.” – Jessica Viola

As permaculture designers, there are three commitments we make:

To care for the planet
To care for people
To extend all resources and energy towards those first two ends

To create a garden is to create a sanctuary, a place of rest and contemplation, a place of discovery and wild imagining, a place to cultivate relationships, a place to sing, a place to laugh, a place to cry, a place to feel the vesistitude of experience inherent in being alive. In short, a garden is a place to BE.

The wisdom of the garden is in that nothing exists inside a freeze frame - it is a constant and shifting, LIVING, piece of art - a place in space and a single moment in time. Each moment, each thought, each seed, each song creates the conditions for what will grow next. Dream. Dream Big.

All dreams are possible.