At Foliava LLC, we create unique, sustainable outdoor spaces tailored to your vision. Based in Mill Valley, California, we’re a small team of two designers—Vanessa Lemaire-Workman and Daisy Wise—focused on crafting gardens that truly reflect their owners. We take a collaborative approach, working closely with you to capture your unique style in your plans and guide you through budgeting, scheduling, and finding the perfect contractors for installation. Our goal is to make the process enjoyable, ensuring your new garden feels like an extension of you.

OUR MISSION:

We create outdoor spaces that harmoniously blend beauty, functionality, and environmental stewardship. We believe the land is sacred and our designs honor and enhance its inherent wisdom and cycles.

We embrace sustainable principles like permaculture, xeriscaping, and native plantings.

We nurture biodiversity, conserve precious resources, and tread lightly on the earth.

At our core, we are connectors – joining beauty and respect for our one precious planet in cultivated landscapes that elevate the human spirit through their ecological integrity.

FOUNDER

Vanessa Workman’s journey to landscape design is as richly layered as the gardens she creates.

Daughter of a French painter, she grew up in New Zealand’s lush fern forests and later twenty years in the Loire Valley’s chenin blanc vineyards, environments that cultivated her artistic sensibility and deep connection to land and water. Vanessa’s first career was in international water policy, where she worked on transboundary water and wildlife issues, fueling her commitment to sustainable land management. Later, she became an award-winning filmmaker, producing environmental documentaries for global conservation organizations. Her films, celebrated at film festivals, earned her awards and roles on juries, including the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, deepening her passion for environmentalism through visual arts.

This unique background drives Vanessa’s approach to landscape design, where she combines her artistic eye, scientific knowledge, and commitment to sustainability. She sculpts each landscape with careful grading and drainage, weaving in low-water, low-maintenance plants. Her designs reflect the architectural style of each home and the personality of her clients, creating outdoor spaces that feel like a natural extension of the owner and the land. 

In her free moments, Vanessa can be found scouting local nurseries, gardening, or hiking the Marin hills with her daughters—usually to the next plant sale. In her "garden laboratory," she runs top-secret tests on plants tough enough to survive both climate change and the ever-hungry Marin deer. With a dash of stubbornness, she’s on a mission to design landscapes that can withstand the future (and local wildlife) with grace. Her passion for resilient plants makes every project a testament to beauty and durability.

Vanessa holds a Master’s in Environmental Science and an Associate of Arts in Landscape Architecture. She is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). 

LEAD DESIGNER

Daisy Wise was born and raised in San Francisco and graduated with top honors from San Francisco State University. She joined Foliava in summer of 2024 as a Lead Designer.

Daisy’s love of art and drawing led her to complete a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design, including a year-long study abroad program in Milan, Italy. Upon returning home, Daisy moved to a house with a garden, and discovered the joy and magic of plants. Her growing passion for gardening and planting design inspired her to go back to school at Merritt College in Oakland. While completing degrees in both Landscape Architecture and Landscape Design and Construction, Daisy worked as a maintenance gardener, a teaching assistant for Merritt’s California Native Plant class, and as a retail clerk at a local plant nursery. All of these experiences helped develop Daisy’s extensive plant knowledge and provided her with valuable, hands-on experience in ecology, sustainable horticulture, and regenerative landscaping. Daisy is inspired by the beauty of California’s unique landscape, and loves designing gardens that connect people to the world just outside their door. She’s passionate about education and eager to help her clients understand how to be stewards of their land and provide for all the living things around them.

Outside of work, Daisy enjoys playing bass guitar and drums, painting watercolors, and baking sourdough bread. She speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and Italian, and is working on her Spanish.