About Kathleen

Kathleen Zeren is the owner and team leader of Kathleen Zeren Landscape Design, or KZLD. She is nuts about plants. Gardening is her life's passion, as well as the focus of her occupation, and it shows in the quality of her work and her enthusiasm for doing it. Her combination of an academic background in horticulture and invaluable experience doing ordinance enforcement and related work for the City of Virginia Beach has culminated in 15 years of success for KZLD.

Michigan was Kathleen's first home. She attended Michigan State University to study Landscape Design, a program which combined the two great passions of her life, Horticulture and Art. Her enthusiasm for her studies showed in her academic success—she graduated at the top of her class. While in college, Kathleen started getting practical experience in the field by operating her own landscape maintenance business.

The first year after graduation, Kathleen worked at the prestigious Goldner-Walsh nursery in Pontiac, Michigan. Her design work there included extensive residential properties, country clubs, commercial buildings, and Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island (the world's largest summer hotel).

Kathleen moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where she stayed for the next 20 years. While employed at McDonald Garden Center and All Thumbs Garden Design, she worked primarily on residential landscape design.

In 1989 Kathleen began her five-year employment as a Landscape Inspector of The City of Virginia Beach. In that position she created beautiful landscape plans for a wide variety of municipal projects and received the Laszlo Aranyi Memorial Design Award for her landscape design at the Kempsville Area Library. Preparation of installation and bidding documents and supervision of the installation and maintenance of those projects were among her responsibilities.

As a Landscape Inspector, Kathleen was responsible for plan review and enforcement of the landscape site plan, subdivision plan, and zoning ordinances. She was the Landscape Services representative serving on the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Ordinance Review Committee. She assisted with Ordinance Revisions, wrote the Buffer Mitigation Guidelines and prepared a booklet entitled "Seaside Flowers for Virginia Beach".

In 1993, Kathleen started KZLD. As proprietor and primary designer, she has been performing  high quality landscape design, contract administration, and site evaluations in this capacity for over sixteen years. Specializing in landscape plan preparation for municipal ordinance approval, her many years of experience pay off as she negotiates approval for even the most difficult sites. She understands the policies and specialized requirements of each municipality, and can get planting plans approved quickly.

Kathleen is an expert at tree identification and evaluation and has a keen interest in extraordinary plants. Her customers are impressed by her knowledge and skills, and enjoy prompt, friendly service. She is also well known for her ability to meet tight deadlines.

The landscape plans prepared by Kathleen have distinct qualities. They integrate the practical and the artistic. The well-adapted plantings and landscape elements are designed for the long run, and withstand the test of time. Kathleen is a master of the curve, and her well-scaled, sweeping bedlines, multi-layered plantings of beautifully varied textures and colors, and the use of distinctive unusual plantings have earned her respect and awards throughout her career.

Kathleen moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 2007. She and her team of experts continue to serve the Hampton Roads community with excellent design work. Now that she has spent some time learning about the Asheville area, she is beginning to expand  her design practice there.