Maybe you could work in Rancho Santa Fe where the clients would be and live in Vista or Fallbrook where the nurseries are? You won't be near the ocean however. If you want to live walking distance to the ocean, it costs extra. Look at the real estate online. I have no idea if you could get the level of projects you are looking for.

Yes: You need to do a lot more research before you can identify the complete package you want. California is the largest state in the West with a full range of climates. There are plenty of large properties in southern California, including of course the estates of successful Hollywood entertainers and other well-off people. Lot sizes are not all dinky anymore than in any other region.

Perhaps you should choose a zone first, if gardening is your priority. I envy those closer to the coast, since there are few hard frosts or over 100 degree week- long heat waves.
My first choice would be somewhere near San Diego. My second choice would be near Santa Barbara, although some consider that Central California.

The bigger the number, the milder the climate. Note that in coastal California the basic pattern is a cool narrow strip near the ocean that rapidly turns very hot as you go inland.

Here is a link that might be useful: Climate Zone Map: California and Nevada

Thanks all!! I've been looking at Southern Orange county, maybe San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente or Mission Viejo. HOpefully there will be a few good nurseries in the area. I like the idea of a more coastal climate.

Also on the short list is Claremont. Does anyone know if the smog there is really as noticeable/visible/prevalent as some of the websites (airnow, for example)show.

Thanks!

Southern Orange county is the area I am most familiar with as well :-) In fact, I've seriously toyed with the idea of relocating to San Juan myself (family nearby). I love San Clemente also - still has very much a small town, 1950's California character to it - but fear the housing costs exceed my ability...... through my sister the real estate agent, I've come to realize any community that close to the ocean or that straddles the PCH is pricey, regardless of the size or quality of the property - you are paying for proximity. San Juan and Mission Viejo or anything a bit more inland may be more affordable. Being a plant geek myself as well as having done a number of landscape designs in that area, I've scoped out nurseries in the region also and there are a few pretty good ones in the immediate vicinity. Plant Depot in San Juan is one of my favorites. If you are willing to drive a bit further (and expect to do so to do pretty much anything in SoCal), the plant opportunities expand considerably.

You will also need to be prepared for virtually an entirely different plant palette than what you are used to in NY. Saddleback College in Mission Viejo has a landscape design program that may be worth looking into take some plant ID courses to bring you up to speed quicker.

Air quality in Claremont definitely sucks in the summer, as smog collects against the mountains and has no where to go unless strong offshore winds blow it back out to sea. The landscape possibilities in the San Marino/Pasadena area are also good, but it is not a coastal climate, and it gets much hotter/smoggier in summer, and has potential for freezing in winter, although parts of this area have exceptional microclimates that don't get nearly any frost. The Huntington Botanic Garden and Los Angeles County Arboretum are both in this area, and well worth checking out to see the diversity of what can be grown there. The Norton Simon Museum gardens in Pasadena are also worth checking out.

I think you have a huge learning curve ahead of you in getting familiar with the plant palette of southern California, although you will also notice that given what can be grown there, most landscapes are actually pretty pedestrian as to planting choices and design, not nearly as interesting in general as what is being done here in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is a lot more uniformity and reliance on the same basic 20 plants in Los Angeles.

Best wholesale nurseries in southern California for more variety tend to be in San Diego's north county area, or in the Santa Barbara/Carpenteria area, in my opinion. If you are located within the southern California area, close proximity is not as critical, as most of the larger nurseries will ship throughout the area.

If the intrinsic beauty of the region is the highest criteria for selecting where you will relocate, I would suggest that it is very hard to beat Santa Barbara/Montecito, but it certainly is not affordable by any consideration, and professional design competition is pretty tough, particularly for someone who may still have a lot to learn about the plants. It would also be hard to find something really nice for less than a million...

>given what can be grown there, most landscapes are actually pretty pedestrian as to planting choices and designSounds like a statement that could be made just about anywhere in the country, for the most part.

Ron,
That isn't my impression when visiting Seattle, even though there are certainly the same rhododendrons, conifers and hostas seen almost everywhere. You would have to be somewhat familiar with Los Angeles to really visualize how the same 20 plants are seen in almost every commercial landscape as well as in most front gardens. I think it has to do with fewer people being real gardeners, and the plant selection is being done at places like Home Depot rather than better retail or wholesale nurseries.

With 60% of residences rentals, Seattle etc. has hobby gardens here and there, with the rest of it often very weak. Old private and even public spaces often dominated by mindsets influenced by the westward migration, with trees and shrubs (and pastoral layouts) being mostly those of the midwest, northeast and even Europe (urban wild flora also dominated by European origin plants).

And the hobby gardens aren't necessarily well-designed. They just feature something besides mal-pruned hardy hybrid rhododendrons, conifers and bark mulch.

Of course, it is all a matter of opinion - I know of some absolutely stunningly designed private gardens in the Seattle area, created by both professionals and hobbiests. And they aren't necessarily relegated to specific neighborhoods but run the gamut all over the city and suburbs from very upscale neighborhoods to lower income ones. Sure, some gardens are "weak" but it would be difficult to find anywhere where well-designed gardens were a dime a dozen and that routine and commonplace. It's that potential untapped market out there that gives all us professional designers the determination to soldier on :-) On the whole, I find Seattle and the Puget Sound area to be of a relatively high level of plant sophistication and knowledge and extremely oriented towards garden design.

And I'd love to see the support for those rental statistics - for SFR's with sufficient property to call a garden, that seems unnaturally high. Typically, SFR's demand such high rental rates in most of this area that it is almost more cost effective to purchase.

Claremont has some serious air quality issues ...I went to college there and it wasn't until October that I realized we were surrounded by mountains.

500K for a landscaping budget! Wow! I had no idea ...what type of house would that be for?