You have to love a landscape contractor who took the trouble to earn a general engineering A-license in order to cover clients needs for site and grading plans and designs, saving them literally thousands of dollars.

When you meet one who can also boast a 100 percent approval rating from 23 years worth of clients -- and honestly attest to have both completely remodeled her own home and handled a 40-foot dive with a killer whale (while vacationing in Hawaii) with her "own two hands," you know you are dealing with an exceptional person, indeed.

Two Hands Unlimited’s owner-manager Lisa Costello, a 24-year resident of Watsonville, CA, who originally hails from the Florida Keys, has never met a challenge she hasn’t tackled head on.

"It took me a year to study (for my general engineering license). I only use a tenth of what you have to learn, you know, but I was doing so many retaining walls I thought I’d get a license for it."

A licensed full-service landscape contractor, Costello’s A-license also allows her to personally incorporate a professional engineering perspective into her clients’ plans ahead of the blueprints, ensuring maximum positive results for site-specific issues such as slope-stabilization and drainage, as well as impressive looking "hard" scape elements such as ponds, pool decks, patios, custom masonry, outdoor kitchens, and decorative water elements such as ponds and waterfalls.

As she explains, "I was working in accounting and didn’t like ‘the office thing,’ so I started doing handy work and landscape maintenance and none of it was challenging. So, I gravitated into the design and installation of landscaping and found a niche focusing on the high-end residential customer doing custom work for people who appreciate and are looking for quality.

"My client base likes having a design-build team, which actually works out better for them because the architect is working simultaneously working with the contractor, but that’s not to say that I won’t work with another architect, because I will and I do. But working with my in-house team is more cost-efficient, because we’re so in synch with each other, there’s no need for several series of detailed drawings and revisions."

Costello’s in-house landscape architect is Drucilla Hoe, a UC-Berkeley graduate. (CA Landscape Architect Lic. #3301), and she says the two have worked on "everything from soup to nuts," including custom residential high quality custom masonry, pool decking and coping.

She notes current trends: "A lot of people want outdoor kitchens, high quality irrigation and lighting," and adds, "They’re quarrying a lot of new flagstone in the Southwest, so there’s a lot of new stone coming out, some beautiful stuff, a lot of new material coming from Europe and Asia, tile and limestone that’s really fun to work with.

"I would love to see a lot more European style…Mediterranean is my favorite, because people are starting to import some wonderful materials. Stained concrete is really evolving – people are loving it, and it’s really cost effective, so my clients can spend more on their plants.

"We have so many micro climes here to consider. It’s completely different in Santa Cruz than over the hill. We really need to start thinking about planning to conserve water. I try to promote the use of drought ponds and recharging with rainwater instead of sending it down the storm drains and haven’t had a big response yet, but when water becomes a scarce commodity, more people will think differently about creating ways to conserve it."

With prices generally ranging from $10,000 to $1,000,000 for the various projects she undertakes, Costello gets a chance to work with a broad spectrum of clients, and says it is her passion and joy to literally bring their plans to life.

"One of my favorite projects was an outdoor kitchen and a pool in Los Gatos. The client really gave me a lot of artistic license to do what I wanted. There’s another job I just finished in Palo Alto that required several rock walls due to the challenge of slopes and deer, so we did a lot of terracing. In Woodside, one of my clients wanted to make all the landscaping and steps look like they’ve been there forever, and we added a custom arbor and other artisan touches, which I love."

In Carmel, Two Hands was chosen to create flagstone patios and steps for the historic James House by the sea, built by the renowned brothers "Greene & Greene."

Costello’s company continues to receive glowing reviews for its projects; among them, two mayors who chose Two Hands Unlimited for landscape contracting at their own homes. San Jose’s mayor, Susan Hammer, and her husband Philip, a prominent attorney, comments "We’ve been very pleased with the design, execution, and the subsequent maintenance of our landscaping and would be pleased to recommend Two Hands Unlimited for similar work."

Mayor Lowell Hurst of Watsonville, himself a teacher of landscaping, notes that Two Hands "heard our concerns and desires... used quality materials... knew how to do the work correctly... [and was] both flexible and creative."

President/CEO of Micrel Semiconductor, Inc., Ray Zinn recalls that the subsequent results of work done by Two Hands Unlimited at his Atherton, California home caused quite a stir in the neighborhood.

According to Zinn, "Almost daily we receive compliments from our neighbors exclaiming how beautiful our landscaping is. The outdoor lighting, as well as the architectural design of the landscaping, is outstanding. I think Two Hands Unlimited has outdone Sunset Magazine. One of the other things I appreciate about Two Hands Unlimited is how they have stood behind their warranty."

After Two Hands Unlimited designed and built an $85,000 project at the historical Manfre building for the Watsonville YMCA, executive director, Lorraine Phillips stated the organization was very satisfied with the quality of work it received, adding "[The project] meets our needs perfectly... the grounds are really appreciated by everyone who sees them. The quality of materials used is evident... we have not lost a single plant in two years and have not had any problems."
Kudos continue to come from within the industry as well. Owner of Aptos Landscape Supply, Vern Packer, says he finds "[Costello] very thorough and conscientious as well as meticulous."

He adds, "We continue to hear, and see, excellent things... We never hesitate recommending [Two Hands Unlimited] to people who want a quality landscape project."

When consulting potential clients, Costello is quick to point out that trust is everything. As she explains, "If you don’t build a relationship on trust you don’t have anything, so both sides have to establish a relationship that affirms that the contractor is going to do a good job, be creative and work within the client’s budget."

To date, all of Costello’s work has been through client referrals, and she is always ready to give a free consultation and proposal.
She explains her collaborative process. "I encourage potential clients to ask me for references, see some of my work.

"A lot of people are so busy, they just go to my web site, but I encourage them to go out and see my work, and even drive them around, if they want. Subsequently, I find myself working with nice people who range the gambit from being ‘don’t talk to me and just do it’ kinds of people to the ‘researcher’ types and I get totally engrossed and invested in all their projects. Everyone’s so different -- contemporary, country...the key is to get everyone’s tastes to work with their yards."

Costello maintains a hectic pace, but somehow manages to be readily available to her clients and her granddaughters, another passion and an evident source of pride.

After 23 years in the business and in the prime of her career Costello says she gets "constructive feedback" from marketing types all the time to change her company name because it sounds "too small" for the scope and quantity of work she delivers.

"I kind of see their point on one hand," she says. "But everything I’ve built and everything I’ve come to stand for comes from my two hands here, and the personal attention and the artisan quality of our work just seems to mirror a certain kind of care and craft you’d expect two hands – and, I hope, ‘Two Hands Unlimited’ to deliver."

Located at 132 College Drive, Watsonville, CA, Two Hands Unlimited can be reached at (831) 728-4002, or by emailing more-info@two-hands.com. For more details about the company, see www.two-hands.com.