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Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com
February 22, 2013
Marriage makes their garden business a Utopia PAMELA WIESENDANGER Clayton Pioneer
The two met as neighbors in a duplex. She owned a landscaping business, he attended horticulture classes and worked at a nursery. They toiled in the soil when at home – she in the front yard and he in the back. He asked her to help move a bench and did his best to keep her busy so she would not leave. Little did she want to leave. Now, married and in business together for 10 years, Angela and Ash Hakimi, Clayton residents and owners of Utopic Gardens, are gardeners at heart and by trade. “We want people to get excited about going into their
yard,” Angela says. They have grown Utopic Gardens from garden maintenance to design, installation and maintenance of those gardens. Angela comes from a family of gardeners in Iowa. She spent her babysitting money on plants when other kids spent their allowance on candy. As a young mother, she carried her son Dustin in a pack while she dug in the dirt. Ash describes his best days growing up in Iran as those when the gardener came. Ash would work with the gardener and eat his lunch in the garden. “I found peace in nature,” he says. The couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Auva Delilah, has been bitten by
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the garden bug, too. The Hakimis came to the Pioneer office on a rainy day as the wet weather is about the only reason they take a day off. There was a strong sense of tranquility surrounding them. The conversation moved easily between Angela and Ash. Ash explains, “Yoga is central in our life. It keeps us anchored in what we do.” Angela says, “There’s a flow, a balance. It is earthy.” The same flow characterizes their interaction with clients. Angela typically meets with the client first to discuss their budget, ideas and issues in the garden and do an initial sketch of the project. Then Ash visits the space and adds
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specifics to the client’s vision. “When a client is inspired and excited, it feeds us so much,” Ash says. And Angela and Ash motivate each other. “I’m not really satisfied until she (Angela) gets excited (and vice versa),” whether it is about the overall design or a special water feature or plant selection, for example. The process creates a synergy evident in a finished landscape that draws people into their yards and exceeds their expectations. Marcie and Ryan Covalt of Clayton hired Utopic Gardens to do a major overhaul of their backyard, including pavers, plants, lawn, lighting and irrigation. “We really loved the end result,” Marcie says. “We were so impressed,” she says about the project staying on time, on budget and especially that the crew “cleaned up every single afternoon.” After Terri and Vince Muscat of Concord saw Utopic Garden’s ad in the Clayton Pioneer, Terri recalls she said, “I want a utopic garden.” They met with Angela and Ash. Then Terri says the
ANGELA AND ASH FINE TUNE PLANT PLACEMENT as part of a front yard makeover that turned this house from plain white with grey trim and white railing to an exterior with rich color, a striking metal and wood railing, attractive stone and plants for year-round appeal.
couple spent time in the backyard. “He puts himself in the space and lets it talk to him,” Terri says of Ash. The Muscat’s landscape was restructured. “Now the backyard is a finished piece of artwork,” Terri says. “Utopic” is not defined in Webster’s dictionary, but was chosen as the business name to
Tea, from page 1 The event has been a traditional annual gathering – almost a family reunion – for dozens of descendents of the town’s early settlers since 1977. Joel Clayton and his wife Margaret settled here in 1847 and had nine children, only four of whom survived childhood. Joel died of pneumonia in 1872 and Margaret moved to San Francisco to live with her daughter. Joel and Margaret and two of their daughters are
buried in Live Oak Cemetery near Clayton. The museum is supported by the Clayton Historical Society (CHS) on an annual budget of about $25,000. The CHS sponsors several fundraisers each year including the Christmas Home Tour and the spring Home and Garden Tour, which is set this year for May 18 and 19. This spring the museum gardens will see a complete renova-
represent a place that is utopialike, timeless and nurturing. “What makes us stand out,” Angela says, “is the compilation of our core, background and creative abilities and is summed up as our passion and intention.” To contact Utopic Gardens or for more information, call 925-524-0055 or visit utopicgardens.com.
tion, says JoAnn Casper, president of the CHS. The drawings and plans are complete and waiting for approval from the city. The CHS has managed to save over half of the $25,000 cost and will sell bricks for the new wall and sponsor more fundraisers to complete the project. The Clayton Museum, 6101 Main Street in downtown Clayton, is open Wednesdays and Sundays from 2-4 p.m. and by appointment. For more information on the Clayton Historical Society go to claytonhistory.org or call (925) 672-0240.
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