Allow me to introduce myself.

Really, I can sum it up in two words: irrigation geek (AKA Water Wonk). But before we start talking about me, let's talk about you. After all, I built this website for you.

If you want to cut to the chase, check out my online irrigation school with on-demand courses. It's called Irrigation Mastery with Lori Palmquist, and is the achievement I'm most proud of in my landscaping career. My courses change lives and empower landscape professionals to send their irrigation expertise soaring. If you really want to get a handle on irrigation design (especially drip), check our courses out at https://courses.loripalmquist.com

If you’re like most landscape professionals and water-use influencers I’ve met, you’re already accomplished and effective, and have achieved big results in your work. You already design, install, maintain, or manage beautiful, thriving landscapes that make all of our hearts sing. But there is something missing. That enigmatic (mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand) part known as irrigation.

The you I built this website for is seeking:

The you I built this website for is after long-lasting, satisfying success. You want to be the ground-breaker and the role model who inspires others for years to come. You want to instill in yourself and others a sense of pride and ownership of the great and impressive strides we can make together toward preserving our most precious resources (water and electricity).

This website is for you!

Now, back to me.

When there’s enough room on the page, here’s how I present myself with my certifications and qualifications:
Lori D. Palmquist, CID, CIC, CLWM, CLIA, QWEL

I started my landscaping career in 1989, when I moved back to my hometown of San Francisco, after living in other parts of the Bay Area since I was five years old. I got a job in the interior plant maintenance field, and worked with interior and exterior plantings, until I started my own landscape maintenance business in 1997. While running my company with six employees, I obtained my Arborist certification and my C-27 Landscape Contractor’s license. I also took every landscape horticulture class I could manage at San Francisco City College and Merritt College, between 1997 and 2002.

In 2003, I moved to the East Bay and worked mostly with irrigation - designing, installing, repairing, assessing, auditing, and upgrading irrigation - with a crew of two fulltime field assistants, until 2011. It was during this period that I obtained my first three Irrigation Association certifications (Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor, Certified Irrigation Contractor, and Certified Landscape Water Manager).

Teaching, Designing, and Managing Irrigation

In 2008, partly because I was getting tired of digging trenches, and partly because it was time to move on from being an employer and managing a crew, I decided to go solo to do more water management and irrigation design. I also started getting asked by garden clubs and sustainability groups to give classes and talks on irrigation. I guess this really caught on, as now in 2024 it’s 16 years later, and I’ve taught 605 workshops, trainings, classes, talks, and seminars. I regularly teach QWEL (Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper) trainings. I formerly taught scores of Bay-Friendly (now called ReScape) trainings and Green Gardener classes. I’m a regular presenter for Master Gardener trainings and talks, full-day drip seminars, and I give talks to college horticulture classes, garden clubs, and more. I also co-taught the irrigation class at Monterey Peninsula College in the fall of 2023, and will teach the irrigation class in spring 2024 at Merritt College in Oakland.

Lori presenting at Ready, Set, Go!
Lori at Ready, Set, Go! in Pomona, CA, June 2017

I’ve added three more certifications to my original three. I obtained the QWEL certification in 2009, my CID (Certified Irrigation Designer) certification from the Irrigation Association in 2010, and received my WWLP certification in 2016 from the G3 Green Gardens Group (Watershed Wise Landscape Professional). I also became a UC Master Gardener in Contra Costa County, graduating in March of 2017.

Lora and Chelsea
Lora and Chelsea

These days, I mostly design irrigation for WELO projects, and give talks and teach classes and trainings in irrigation and landscape water efficiency. I was joined in 2006 by my partner in business and in life, Lora Medina. Lora manages all of the administrative aspects of the business. She does the accounting, data entry, editing, client communications, logistical planning for talks/classes, and much more. She has made it possible for me to take my irrigation geekery (is that a word?) to an unbelievable level.

Online School: Irrigation Mastery with Lori Palmquist

In June of 2020 we launched our online irrigation school. Even though it may have seemed like a response to COVID, we had started setting up the school the previous year. It was wonderful timing that we launched it at a time when we were all sequestered in our homes, uncertain as to when we would be allowed to re-emerge safely into the outside world.

The school has been super successful, with over 430 enrolled students to date. We moved from one learning platform to a more robust one in January of 2024. Check it out at the following link if you’re curious: https://courses.loripalmquist.com/

WaterWonk Apps

I haven’t even started talking about WaterWonk.us and all the apps and websites I have developed with Linda Brandon, my sister and award-winning graphic designer.

In late 2009, as an updated version of the 1993 landscape ordinance (MWELO) was about to go into enforcement in California, I decided, along with Linda, that this would be a good time to start creating apps that would assist landscape professionals in incorporating water efficiency into their practices, and complying with the ordinance. I had been using a spreadsheet for calculating water budgets at that time that I had programmed myself. We decided to port this spreadsheet into a web application, and started WaterWonk at that time, a branch of our business. We paid a programmer to create the first WUCOLS/WELO calculations tool for us. After that, I decided to learn web programming and do it myself.

In 2010, I started teaching myself the programming languages of the web. My first two apps (WELO Calc tool and the Drip Calculator) were programmed in a now-defunct server-side language called Web-DNA. Having had a taste of creating my own apps, I was hooked. I decided to really dive in. I enrolled in an online academy called O’Reilly School of Technology. Through their excellent project-based program, I learned to code using HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL (SQL language). I have since added JavaScript to my repertoire of programming languages.

We launched the first public version of the WUCOLS III database search tool in late 2010 on a domain we called Hydrozone-Pro.com. At that time, the official WUCOLS list was only offered in PDF form. The official online version of WUCOLS IV was launched by University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources (UC ANR) in early 2014. This tool used ours as a model, and is similar in its functionality. See this page for information and links to our WaterWonk web offerings and other websites we have created.

Summary of Qualifications

Present certifications, affiliations, and other qualifications

Past certifications, licenses and other qualifications

Web Applications and Websites