Last updated: September 2026
About Ecosystem
A small Coronado company
that means it.
The Founder
Samuel Fortes.
Samuel grew up on a farm in Brazil. The instinct for what plants want — when to water, when to leave them alone, what direction the slope drains — got built in early.
Samuel grew up on a farm in Brazil and spent his first decade of US work on landscape jobs in Coronado and Point Loma. Ecosystem Landscaping & Design has been open since January 2017 and holds CSLB License #1152146, bonded and insured. Manuela Rabelo runs operations and scheduling. Sam runs every job site himself. Our verified portfolio covers 11 properties, from the bayfront beds at 667 Ocean Blvd to the tight side yards off B Ave and C Ave where a wheelbarrow is the only way material reaches the back. We work Coronado, Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs, Mission Hills, Hillcrest, Kensington, and Downtown San Diego, Monday through Thursday 7am to 6pm, Friday to 7pm, and Saturday mornings.
His first decade of landscape work in the United States happened mostly on Coronado and Point Loma blocks: salt-air front yards, drought conversions, mature gardens that needed someone willing to prune them by hand instead of with a hedge trimmer. Point Loma taught him a different lesson than the island did. Slopes below Sunset Cliffs move water fast, and a planting plan that ignores drainage and retaining wall placement gets rebuilt within a season. Sam plans the grade before he plans the plant list on every Point Loma job.
Where you can see the work
Eleven properties on this site are ours to point at, including 545 Ocean Blvd, 667 Ocean Blvd, 609 1st St, 641 Balboa Ave, 653 B Ave, 753 C Ave, 745 J Ave, and the commercial frontage at Banc of California. Sam walked every one of them before he drew anything.
Ecosystem Landscaping & Design works Coronado, Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs, Mission Hills, Hillcrest, Kensington, and Downtown San Diego. Most of the calls come from neighbors who watched Sam tend somebody else's yard for a few seasons.
If we planted your beds, name the street and the work in your Google review. Finished beds are on the Coronado portfolio.
Samuel started Ecosystem Landscaping & Design to keep doing the work the way it should be done: hands on every job, a small list of clients, no shortcuts that show up six months later.
Local Knowledge
What works in this salt-air pocket of San Diego.
Ten years of Coronado and Point Loma installs have taught us the things you can't learn from a plant tag: which pittosporums hold up to a January storm on the bayside, which agaves rot on the ocean side, which irrigation valves on which streets are still the originals from the 90s.
What makes a good landscaper in Coronado?
A good Coronado landscaper holds a current CSLB license, specifies salt-rated irrigation hardware, and draws to the island's hedge-height and plant-palette expectations. Ecosystem Landscaping & Design is CSLB License #1152146, bonded and insured, and Samuel Fortes runs every job site himself.
Ecosystem Landscaping & Design has worked Coronado and Point Loma since 2017, holds CSLB License #1152146, and has drawn and planted beds across 11 verified properties, including 3 bayfront addresses on Ocean Blvd and 1st St. Search Ecosystem Landscaping and you will find Sam's name on every one of those jobs, because he walks each lot himself before anything gets drawn. See the finished work on our portfolio page.
Founded in 2017, Ecosystem Landscaping & Design has drawn and planted beds across 11 verified Coronado and Point Loma properties, including the bayfront blocks at 667 Ocean Blvd and 545 Ocean Blvd. CSLB License #1152146, bonded and insured. Manuela Rabelo runs the office side so Sam can stay on the job site, which is where he has spent every workday since 2017.
Ask for the license number before the walkthrough. Not after the bid. That is the one habit that separates a Coronado landscaper worth hiring from a truck with a magnetic sign. Ecosystem Landscaping & Design holds CSLB License #1152146, bonded and insured, and Samuel Fortes will give you that number before he ever measures a bed.
The second question worth asking out here is what hardware goes in the ground. We set brass and stainless heads on pressure-rated PVC, because plated valves and risers pit out within a season in salt air, and the fix means trenching through a patio that was finished six months ago. A bid that lands well under the others usually made that substitution somewhere you cannot see it.
Last updated: August 2026
What you're hiring when you hire Ecosystem is that institutional memory — what works on this side of the bay, what to plant near a salt wind, and which yards in your block have lasted twenty years and why.
How We Work
A handful of beliefs that decide everything else.
Owner-tended.
Samuel is on every property, every install, every estimate. We turn down work we can't keep up with personally.
Local first.
Local nurseries, locally-sourced sod, plants that already grow within a mile of your block. We don't import what doesn't belong here.
Less, but right.
A simpler design installed correctly will outlast a fancy one done in a hurry. We'd rather plant nine things than thirty.
Drought-honest.
San Diego is not a wet climate. Plants that look tropical now will look stressed in August. We design for what's actually here.
Maintain by hand.
Most yards don't need more plants. They need someone willing to put hands on what's already there, every visit. That's most of our maintenance work.
Show up.
Most of the bad reviews in this trade are about disappearing. The bar is low. We just keep showing up.
Free, no-pressure consultation
Tell us about your yard.
Samuel will walk the property, listen to what you want, and tell you honestly what we'd do — and what we wouldn't.
Samuel Fortes spent his first decade of landscape work on Coronado and Point Loma yards, and has run Ecosystem Landscaping under CSLB License #1152146 since 2017. We are bonded and insured. Our finished beds sit on Ocean Blvd, 1st St, B Ave, C Ave, and J Ave, plus commercial work for Banc of California. Samuel walks every property himself, draws the plan, plants it, and comes back to prune. Hours run Monday through Saturday out of Coronado.
Sam has spent over a decade hand-tending Coronado and Point Loma yards. Ecosystem Landscaping has held its CSLB license (1152146), California bond, and insurance since the company opened in 2017. Our verified portfolio runs across eleven addresses from Ocean Boulevard to J Avenue. Crown jewel beds on Ocean Boulevard and 1st Street take the most plan time because the bay sun cooks anything wrong by August. Older Coronado lots on B Avenue and C Avenue need period-correct hedging the design review boards expect.