Horizon Landscaping Company of Pasadena

Tom Poplin, President of Horizon Landscaping

Tom Poplin

The company was started by Tom Poplin back in 1985. Tom has over 25 years of hands on experience ranging from home building, all facets of landscape construction, to extensive plant knowledge.

His initial early years working in the home building trades such as framing, roofing, drywall and finish carpentry while simultaneously also starting a gardening and landscape service has led him to evolve on focusing his business on Landscape Construction projects. A Blend of Building Construction and Gardening. This involves outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, wood work, ponds & waterfalls, barbecue centers, pool decks and all facets of masonry, rain harvesting , along with all the typical landscape gardening features such as planting, irrigation and lighting.

Just out of High School, Tom also spent time studying art through the Pasadena Community College Art Program which is where he began honing his drawing skills and even today all his Landscape Design Plans are still ‘Old School’ – “Hand Drawn” including all his “Elevation View” renderings.

Japanese Bonsai

Japanese Bonsai

He completed “Basic Irrigation” Design courses back in 1988 and draws detail Irrigation Plans showing sprinkler valve & pipe sizing, water demand specifications in gallons per minute (GPM’s) on spray head systems or gallons per hour (GPH) on drip systems. Detailed down to specifying each and every sprinkler head or drip emitter.

One of Tom’s specialties is restoration concrete work at “Turn of the Century” homes which displays our custom concrete “Washed” finish which ‘Antiques” new concrete to blend seamlessly with the 80 – 100 year old concrete. He learned the concrete trade from third generation masons that past their skills on to him.

Horizon participated in the 1997 Los Angeles Garden Show where Tom and a local architect, Rick Fisher ( Past President of our local chapter of The California Native Plant Society ) of Toyon Design, received a “Best of Show” award for their style garden (Rick for his design and Tom for execution of installation). Tom went on to design and display many gardens at the L.A. County Arboretum’s “Baldwin Bonanza” annual garden show & plant sale.

Tom’s years of installing drought tolerant gardens at many Pasadena Bungalows and Craftsman Homes with the expert , Rick Fisher, gave him invaluable horticultural knowledge designing and installing drought tolerant, sustainable, native plants for the past 18 years.

Tom was one of the featured designers of the 2002 “Pasadena Showcase House of Design” with his “Boulder Woodland” Landscape Design which resulted with him designing and installing the lighting for the entire estate. He came back the next year to do the 2003 “Pasadena Showcase House of Design”, where he designed and restored an area under an old grape arbor at a large estate in Pasadena using large colored concrete pavers, mint ground cover, and antique wood members for the old grape arbor. Tom’s last Pasadena Showcase was in 2005 where he designed and installed a magnificent Zen Meditation Garden and also was an Interior Designer that same year with a Yoga Room that was set in the middle of his Meditation Garden.

A water feature constructed by Horizon was in the “Sunset Magazine” (September 2002 issue), which gained interest of many to contact Tom regarding other ponds Horizon has built. His work has been in many printed publications over the years. From The Los Angeles Times – Garden Section, The Pasadena Star News, Sunset Magazine, Garden Design Magazine and others.

Japanese Landscaping

Japanese Style Landscaping

Tom’s interest in Bonsai, Japanese architecture, Craftsmen style homes, and Japanese landscape has led him to specialize in Japanese landscape designs and he has taught an “Asian Influenced Design” class at the Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge which also included a tour of some of his past Japanese Landscape design & installation jobs.

To find out more contact Tom at (626) 285-8000 or E-mail tomofhorizon@earthlink.net

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