About us
15 years of North County yards
Coastal Sage Landscape is a family-owned landscape contractor in Vista, California. We design, build and look after roughly 180 properties across North County San Diego, and we are still small enough that the owner walks every design job.
- Licensed C-27
- California landscaping contractor
- Fully insured
- Liability & workers' comp
- QWEL certified
- Water-efficient irrigation
- ICPI certified
- Segmental paver installation
It started because somebody kept saying yes to the wrong jobs
Marcus Ellison spent eight years on installation crews across North County before starting Coastal Sage in 2011. He had watched a lot of good money go into the ground badly: patios on four inches of uncompacted base, irrigation nobody checked, plant palettes chosen from a catalogue in an office fifty miles inland.
The company began as a maintenance route of nine houses off Foothill Drive, run out of one truck with a rented trailer. What grew it was not marketing. It was the slightly awkward habit of telling people they did not need what they had asked for.
Fourteen years later there are four crews and fourteen employees. The habit has not changed. Roughly a third of the time our recommendation is smaller than the enquiry: renovate rather than replace, fix the irrigation before you blame the plants, keep the shrubs and stop letting anyone shear them.
What we are not
We are not the cheapest bid and we do not try to be. We are also not a design firm that hands your project to whoever is available. Everything from grading to the final plant is done by people on our payroll.
And we are not a franchise. There is no regional call centre and no sales team on commission. When you call (760) 539-8590, you are talking to someone who has been on your street.
How we work
Four things we will not compromise on
These are not values on a wall. They are the four arguments we have with customers most often, and the reasons we keep having them.
Say the number early
We give a real budget range at the first walkthrough, before anyone has invested a week in a plan they cannot afford. It costs us some jobs. It saves everyone time.
Put the money underground
Base depth, drainage, soil prep and irrigation are where a landscape succeeds or fails, and none of it is visible. We would rather spend there and use a simpler paver.
Design for year five
Plants are specified at mature size and spaced accordingly. Year one looks sparse. Year five looks like it grew there. The alternative is tearing half of it out.
Employ people properly
Everyone on your property is a W-2 employee with workers' compensation, paid above the local average, and has usually been here for years. That is why the same crew keeps showing up.
The people
Who you will actually deal with
Fourteen employees across four crews. These four are the ones you will meet on a design-build project.
Marcus Ellison
Founder & Owner
CSLB C-27 licence holder · Certified Landscape Technician
Marcus started Coastal Sage in 2011 with one truck, a rented trailer and a maintenance route of nine houses off Foothill Drive. He had spent the eight years before that on install crews across North County and had strong opinions about base depth. He still walks every design job himself and still answers the phone more often than anyone thinks an owner should.
Hannah Reeves
Landscape Designer
APLD member · Cal Poly Pomona, Landscape Architecture
Hannah draws every plan that leaves the office. She spent four years designing for a firm in Los Angeles before deciding she would rather work somewhere she could specify manzanita and mean it. She is the reason our plant lists are sized at maturity and the reason we will argue with you about instant gratification.
Diego Marín
Installation Foreman
ICPI Certified Paver Installer · 12 years on install crews
Diego runs the build crews and is the person who will be on your property every day of the install. He is ICPI-certified on segmental paving, which is why our patios are still flat a decade later, and he has an unshakeable habit of photographing base lifts before they get covered.
Kevin Trinh
Irrigation & Water Manager
QWEL-certified · EPA WaterSense partner training
Kevin handles every diagnostic, every controller programme and every drainage design. He is QWEL-certified through the county water conservation programme and he can find a buried valve faster than anyone we have met. If your water bill is the reason you called, you will be talking to Kevin.
Company history
One truck to four crews
Slower growth than we could have had, on purpose. Every year we grew faster than we could hire well, the work got worse.
- 2011
Marcus starts the company with one truck and a maintenance route of nine houses off Foothill Drive in Vista.
- 2014
First full design-build crew hired. The company takes on its first hillside retaining and drainage project in Bonsall.
- 2017
Kevin joins and builds out the irrigation and water management side. Drip conversions become a third of the work.
- 2019
Hannah joins from a Los Angeles design firm. Every project from here forward starts with a measured plan.
- 2021
The drought and the turf rebate programmes push conversions to over half of new installations.
- 2024
Fourteen employees, four crews, and roughly 180 properties on regular maintenance across North County.
Licences and insurance
Verify all of it before you hire anyone
Including us. California makes contractor licences publicly searchable, and any contractor who hesitates to give you their number is telling you something.
- Contractor licence
- C-27 Landscaping Contractor, issued by the California State License Board. We give you the licence number before any work starts, and every California licence is searchable at cslb.ca.gov.
- General liability
- $2,000,000 aggregate. Certificate provided before work begins, and your property can be named as additional insured on request.
- Workers' compensation
- Full coverage for every employee. If a contractor cannot produce this, an injury on your property becomes your liability.
- Bonded
- $25,000 contractor bond on file with the CSLB, as California requires for an active licence.
- QWEL certification
- Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper certification through the regional water conservation programme.
- ICPI certification
- Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute certified installer on staff for all segmental paving and wall work.
Where we work
Vista, and everywhere within about forty minutes of it
We are a North County company. Keeping the service radius tight is what lets us send the same crew to your property every week and get to an irrigation emergency the same day.
- Vista
- Oceanside
- Carlsbad
- San Marcos
- Escondido
- Encinitas
- Bonsall
- Fallbrook
- Rancho Santa Fe
- Solana Beach
- Del Mar
- Valley Center
Not on the list? Call us on (760) 539-8590. If we cannot get to you, we will point you at someone reputable who can.
Free on-site estimate
Let's talk about your property
Tell us what is not working out there. We will walk the site, give you a real number and tell you honestly if you do not need everything you asked for.