Meadow at St Francis Woods Garden

Looking back at old posts of this garden, I realize I have been working here since 2016, about nine years.  But lots of work needed to prepare the site before any plants were added just two years ago.  This is the first autumn the plants have reach a good mature size.

Planting a Small Garden Tightly

This garden has three different faces or attitudes and all packed into a small 10 x 20 foot space.   The five round Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' really hold the mess together and help differentiate the three views.

Arts and Crafts Garden

I planted this garden in 2013.  I was going for a cottage garden that would be equitable to the architecture.   I've been back regularly 2 or 3 times a year.  Today I sheared the pittosporums globes, weeded and added a few new recruits.  We'll see who survives.

Eureka Valley Roof Deck

Refreshing a pot on a roof deck I installed a few years ago.

Kitchen Deck Revival

A rainy day is a great time to write a new post.  Over the last three months I have been working on three new projects.  The first is a revival of a container deck planting I installed over 10 years ago. Here I replaced the aging containers and tired plants surrounding this kitchen garden.   The small 24" fiberclay containers were crumbling.  I designed a 30" box made of galvanized steel and locally fabricated by NuStar on Otis.

Retarding a Vigorous Street Tree

Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) grows to 10–18 m tall and 15–20 m wide in ideal conditions. It's tough being a street tree but U. parvifolia is vigorous and resilient in San Francisco. This one in Noe Valley must have a low water table. It is never irrigated but is lush. I prune this tree ever 6-9 months. Essentially this is a extremely large bonsia. The soil in the tree basins act more like large containers then expanses of live soil.

Ready for a trim. After 5 hours of pruning and two dump runs:

Vicksburg Terraced Dry Garden

Gertrude Jekyll and her garden at Hestercombe was my inspiration for this garden design. I picked mostly Mediterranean plants and laid them out in drifts. Silver plants, seed heads, yellow & purple, I wanted lots of hot colors along with the cool lavenders and blues. 

Eureka Valley Deck Planting

Blending this planting into the San Francisco skyline.

Richmond Kitchen Deck Garden

MUG Design: Ginkgos, Cedars, Podocarpus, Maples and Jasmine all in large containers; A mix of large asian ceramics and square slate fiberglass containers.