Twin brothers Bryan and Kevin Ramsey raise the bar for their industry as their careers grow in new directions.

Bryan and Kevin Ramsey of Bryan Ramsey Design are well known on the east coast for their stunning landscape designs. The Virginia based firm’s work has been featured in several magazine publications including Southern Living and Dwell magazine.

The combination of Bryan’s design eye and horticulture expertise paired with the mechanical mind and manpower of his twin brother Kevin delivers beautiful results for their clients. The brother’s contrasting views but equal dedication to their craft takes their firm to another level in their industry.

Bryan earned separate degrees in horticulture, design, and architecture, and worked with mentors designing several high-profile private gardens for clients including Joan Rivers, Anne Rice, and the owners of Saks Fifth Avenue, before settling down to city life in Virginia.

Kevin is his twin’s polar opposite. Enjoying a more rural lifestyle, Kevin lives on a small farm with his wife and five children, tending to a giant garden, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits and even pygmy goats. Kevin stays busy chasing adrenaline in his hobbies and in his second profession as a career firefighter.  

Though the two have differed in interests and perspectives since they were young, they learned early on that they work best as a team. The brothers found their common ground as teenagers taking on their first landscape project in their own backyard. Kevin and Bryan installed a pond that still exists with a fish and fountain today.

“It was pretty neat,” Kevin recalls fondly. “Bryan had that design, but yet he didn’t know how to make it, so I was like the little creator. We both worked together and made the whole thing.”

After Bryan returned from college, he rekindled their former partnership, enlisting Kevin’s help to launch his design-build firm 23 years ago.

“Bryan is very artistic and I’m very mechanical minded,” explains Kevin. “The two really don’t cross paths, but in landscaping, the two work perfectly side by side.”

Though the brothers beam with pride about their end results, they don’t shy away from the fact that there’s a little drama along the way.

“Dealing with landscape you never know,” said Bryan. “You start digging in the ground and you open Pandora’s box. So, there’s a lot of troubleshooting throughout the day, and we’re always knocking our heads together trying to figure it out and persuade the other one to your side for how to resolve it.”

The brothers have experienced tremendous growth in the business without ever advertising, attributing their word-of-mouth success to their standard of work.

“We always, always, always, and still to this day want the absolute best of what we give to the client,” says Kevin. “We never cut corners. We go just above and beyond anyone else that we’ve seen or heard of in our field.”

Bryan shares that investing his knowledge back into his community is important to him, lecturing at a local community college and teaching at a local botanic garden.  

“Our field is still so brand new,” Bryan explains. “It was only introduced back in the ‘70s. To have a designer that actually is a plantsman, a horticulturist, is rare. I use what I’ve learned and what I love to kind of up the game for everyone else where possible. To improve our industry overall.”

The brothers are excited to be a part of the new series Backyard Staycation for the opportunity to share their craft with a broader audience.  

Kevin, a true family man, explains that he’s excited to share the work he loves with his kids at home.

“My kids, when we’re done with the episodes and they can watch them, it’s like oh wow dad did that,” Kevin beams.  “When I see them happy or excited about something it makes me feel just that much better as a parent. Like you can go out and do anything.” 

Backyard Staycation is centered on making clients outdoor living dreams come true. To Bryan, this is the most rewarding part of the job.

“Extracting their vague notions and ideas of how they want that space that they live with, and how I can manipulate that into paper and then again manipulate that into a 4D version. Instant gratification,” says Bryan. 

The brothers share that their dedication to their work has brought them to an exciting place in their careers, and they’re looking forward to the road ahead.

“We definitely have the clients that we’ve always wanted,” Bryan reflects as he considers their plans for the future. “As doors open along the way, you know if entertainment industry calls, we’ll just wait and see what happens.”

Want more of the Ramsey Twins? Check out: 

Backyard Staycation: On vacation, we escape to hotels and spas that surround us with luxury and pampering for ultimate relaxation. — We dream of bringing the experience home. In each episode of Backyard Staycation, landscape design duo Bryan and Kevin Ramsey make dreams come true, transforming boring backyards into vacation-worthy destinations. Watch as the Ramsey twins (identical in appearance but differing in perspective) come together to uncover their clients’ aspirational destinations from Miami to Morocco, creating their ideal oasis… in their own backyards.