Landscaping Kensington

Last updated: 2026-08-25

Landscaping Kensington, San Diego

Kensington sits along Adams Avenue and Marlborough Drive, and most of the housing stock went up between 1910 and 1935. Spanish colonial and Craftsman homes here came with narrow side yards and mature canopy trees, jacaranda and coast live oak mostly, that block half the yard from direct sun by early afternoon.

Working around root systems that are 80 years old

We hit old sewer laterals and surface roots on almost every Kensington job. On a project near Kensington Community Park we rerouted a drip line around a coast live oak's root flare instead of cutting through it. That added about a day to the install but kept the tree healthy. Root barriers go in at 24 inches minimum whenever we plant near a foundation or a lateral line.

Shade changes the plant list

A yard split between full sun in front and deep shade in back needs two separate irrigation zones and two different plant palettes. We steer away from turf in the shaded sections entirely. Ferns, heuchera, and dry-shade natives hold up better than fescue that thins out under a full oak canopy by August.

What older Kensington lots cost to redo

Because of the narrow lots and mature trees, access is tighter than in newer North County developments. A full backyard renovation with new irrigation and planting runs $22,000 to $50,000 in Kensington, depending on how much hand digging the root systems require versus machine work.

We treat every Kensington yard as two microclimates in one lot, not one. That's the difference between a design that holds up in year three and one that doesn't. See our landscape renovation and landscape design pages for how we approach older San Diego properties generally.