Magic Gardens Landscaping’s owner, Aerin Moore, has been designing a wide range of gardens for over 35 years.  His mother and grandfather passed along the love of gardening to Aerin.  A passionate gardener and floral arranger her entire life, Aerin’s mother taught him from a young age how to maintain the family garden.  During this time he learned how to grow many plants from seeds and cuttings.  The childhood home was graced with beautiful flower color year round which became an essential piece of his gardens designs, past and present.  Aerin’s grandfather, a farmer from Washington State, moved to the East Bay Area city of Richmond where Aerin was born and raised.  Aerin learned about building healthy soil, fertilizing, pruning and mulching from working closely with his grandfather in the garden.  As Aerin grew older, he maintained his grandparents garden under the close supervision and tutorage of his grandfather.

In his mid-twenties, Aerin inherited a landscaping business from a friend of a friend.  One of his first clients decided he wanted to get out of the real estate business and needed over 20 properties landscaped.  This was a quick study into developing many ideas and an incredible amount of hard work.  A busy real estate lawyer called Aerin into his office to tell him that each time he landscaped a garden at a house for sale it sold like magic!  He suggested Aerin call his company Magic Gardens- a name that stuck.

Aerin always had an appreciation for good quality stonework.  Largely self-taught, Aerin also had the benefit of working with and being mentored by great stone masons.  Magic Gardens Landscaping uses a lot of stone in their designs – hundreds of tons per year.  Aerin’s own garden has over 300 tons of stone on ¾ of an acre.  Aerin’s property also houses much of the parent stock of plants used in gardens built by Magic Gardens – continuing to grow hard-to-find plants on-site increases the plant possibilities used in client gardens.
Also a well-established teacher and lecturer, Aerin especially likes giving his lecture “Creating Your Garden Paradise,” discussing the element of the pathway and how it literally becomes the flow of the design and, once built, the garden itself.  With each turn, you see the garden from a different angle.  The experience of walking through the garden is amazingly transformed when we replace a flat walkway with a mounded or curved pathway to the front door.

Aerin is known for his collaborative approach to design.  He spends dedicated time talking to his clients rather than taking over the design with only his ideas.  Sharing information about plants, seeds, growing, maintenance and style is something Aerin enjoys doing.   Aerin is always expanding the styles of gardens, types of plants, and additional aspects he uses in gardens.  The more input the owner has in their garden design, the more they will enjoy the garden.  By listening closely to what the clients want from their garden, Magic Gardens often hear their clients tell them that now they have their dream garden.

Because Aerin matches his great knowledge of plants and growing with a strong ability to listen to the client’s hopes for their garden, he often receives the compliment that “this is my dream garden”.  Aerin understands that really experiencing the garden is the most important part: not just a garden to look at, but a garden to be with.  Amid their busy lives, clients recount how much peace their new gardens bring them- some find that they don’t travel as much because they love being home with their garden!  Gardens reconnect us with beauty, the natural world and all the healing that can come from it.